Cookbook Review: The Messy Baker: More Than 75 Delicious Recipes from a Real Kitchen by Charmian Christie

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Publisher: HarperCollins (Aug. 26 2014)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers CA
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00D5TR04W

Book Description

Since when did every cookie on the plate have to be just like the next? Or each layer of cake exactly the same height? Each piecrust an impeccable work of art and encircled by stunningly perfect pastry leaves? To the uninitiated, all that fastidious, spotless baking is intimidating, not to mention exhausting. The Messy Baker celebrates baking as it happens in the real world—sweet, messy, fun, not always gorgeous, but a way to show love. Which doesn’t make it any less delicious; to the contrary, Charmian Christie’s flavor combinations rise far above the ordinary. Why have a raspberry galette when you can enjoy a raspberry-rhubarb galette with drippy, unctuous walnut frangipane? Or how about a Brie and walnut whiskey tart? It’s all yours without the rigid perfectionism or complicated instructions of other gourmet cookbooks.
Christie’s warm, irreverent voice brings the fun back into baking at a time when home cooks—pulled from pillar to post by jobs and errands—need to have fun. The Messy Baker is a full-service book that not only guides the reader through simple, delicious recipes but is also there to help out when things go wrong. For anyone who gave in frustration when that cake collapsed or the frosting smeared, Christie’s practical advice is here to rescue even the worst disaster and inspire the baker to try the next recipe.



About the Author

 Charmian Christie is a food writer, recipe developer, and cookbook author. The voice behind the blog,
The Messy Baker, she shares recipes, reviews, tips and tales of culinary woe. Eager to include everyone and waste nothing, she creates delicious, approachable recipes requiring standard kitchen equipment.

Because mistakes happen to the best of us, she developed a smart phone app,
Kitchen Disasters & Fixes, to get homecooks out of any culinary corner. She lives in Ontario, Canada, in a drafty stone cottage with an unruly garden, her husband and two exceptionally sheddy cats.

My Review

 How can you not love a cookbook that's table of contents includes:

• Pastry
• Flaky
• Dippable
• Sloppy
• Smudgy
• Gritty
• Drippy

Great chapter titles...just awesome. Now to the cookbook itself. This cookbook is filled with lovely photos. Cookbooks need photos...I'm always amazed when authors leave them out. There is a great introduction to The Messy Baker which includes a multitude of great baking tips. And there is plenty of great baking advice throughout the book. There is some amazing muffin recipes:  Lemony Strawberry-Peach Muffins and Blueberry-Lime Cornmeal Muffins. There are some great desserts such as Raspberry Butter Tarts and Boozy Chocolate Torte.

Here is some great advice from the book:  before beginning to bake, the author's mother issues her commandments:

1. Assemble all ingredients.
2. Read the entire recipe—twice.
3. Always wear an apron.
4. Don’t eat the batter.
5. Share with the whole family.

Reading the recipe twice is good advice...some of us have learned that one the hard way!  It is being released as a paperback and as an ebook. It is available in late August.