This volume is not about being a goddess, but about feeling like one. Nigella shows that there can be more feelgood mileage from running up a tray of muffins or baking a sponge cake than in almost any other cooking - and that it's not actually hard. "How to be a Domestic Goddess" understands our anxieties, feeds our fantasies and puts cakes, pies, pastries, preserves, puddings, bread and biscuits back into today's kitchens and our lives. Everything from dairy cakes to chocolate cakes, from brownies to bagels, from gooseberry-cream crumble to double apple pie, from pizza to pistachio macaroons, scones and muffins to cheesecakes and steamed syrup sponge, from baklava to a Barbie cake, as well as children's cooking, Christmas baking and other family festive treats.

About the Author

Nigella's bestselling books, How to Eat, How To Be a Domestic Goddess, Nigella Bites (Winner of a WHSmith Award 2002) and Forever Summer, together with her TV programmes, have made her a household name, not only in the UK but all over the world. She now writes occasionally for various publications and newspapers and is a regular contributor to the New York Times. She has two children and lives in London.

Reviews

Called "England's it girl" by Gourmet magazine, Lawson (How to Eat) brings to America her second cookbook, highly popular in England. Lawson, the food editor for British Vogue, suggests ways to feel like a domestic goddess (rather than undergo the necessary lifestyle changes to become one), taking cooks back to an era of less stress and more simple pleasures. The recipes, written in Lawson's characteristic lively, witty manner, encourage this theme. The Store-Cupboard Chocolate-Orange Cake will please the nose with its rich, intense aroma and indulge the taste buds with its full chocolate and orange flavor. The Coconut Macaroons seem soft and chewy with a concentrated coconut essence (though they may need to bake for slightly longer than the suggested 20 minutes). The chapters cover categories from cakes to pies and from chocolate to Christmas. One chapter includes recipes for kid foods as well as recipes that children can follow. The book is designed to instill confidence and capability, positing that if Nigella can make these delights with ease and in a relaxed manner, so can anyone else, "trailing nutmeggy fumes." The beautiful color photos set the mouth to watering. (Nov.) Forecast: Timed to launch with her television series Nigella Bites on the E! channel and Style networks this fall, this book will bask in the warm, fuzzy and competent glow of Lawson's renown. She'll be a hit in the U.S.; her book will get ample promo and fly off the shelves. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.