The Pastry Queen

I've been meaning to pick up Rebecca Rather's book, The Pastry Queen for quite some time. When I originally tried to buy it, Amazon was sold out.  Somehow months went by before I got back to it. The book arrived the other day and I've been reading it like a novel. It's an amazing and delicious piece of work. The recipes (both sweet and savory) are fanciful and mouthwatering and the stories are personable and engaging. It's not fancy food, rather it's the kind food we cook at home, when we don't want to think, we just want to be taken care of. Truth be told I haven't baked a thing, although I can tell by reading the recipes that they will be pretty solid. The Muchas Leche Cake with Sugared Almonds is calling to me and I know it's only a matter of time before I have to taste it. It's a fabulous book and clearly meant to become well worn and often reached for on my baking shelf. There's even a Christmas Book too, which I'm sure can give Martha a run for her money. I'll have to put it on Santa's list and see what happens when the snow falls...