Swedish phrase of the day: title of bakebook means "home-baked is best"
Admittedly, as mentioned here and there, now and then, I'm no fan of IKEA in general. For many reasons. But, when I began seeing photos on the Internets from this new bakebook, with IKEA as sender, months ago I was completely smitten my the layout and style. I had to have this bakebook!
Because I have to say, that, silly as it may be, I rarely buy cookbooks for the recipes alone, I buy them for the photography and inspiration. In fact I can be without the recipes, if I can only have great photography to look at I'm happy to eat porridge.
I only got the bakebook a while ago, for my name day, I was in heaven. It's truly wonderful. Apparently it's a freebie for kitchen customers (at least in my nearby IKEA store), there are a few pages of ads in it too. M got it for free without buying a kitchen, but for being a presumptive-future-kitchen-buyer. The book made my day. I would gladly have paid a reasonable sum for it.
Such creativity - and humour, given the IKEA-concept of build your own furniture - I adore it. Styling by Evelina Bratell, photos by Carl Kleiner. You can see all the photos in the bakebook on his website, if you scroll down a bit. But, the samples here, aren't they just wonderful?
The book has 30 recipes of mostly classic Swedish cakes, buns and cookies but some other well-known cakes with other origins too. Straightforward recipes, creative photos of ingredients and the finished baked goods. I'm not sure if it's available in English too, but of course it should, in the best of worlds.
The only big drawback with the book is that the recipe with Swedish Princess cake contains gelatin. I have never known such stupidity, the thing with completely ruining a perfectly good vegetarian cake/dessert/food in general with adding nasty stuff like that. When there's absolutely no need. Neither a cream cake, nor mousse, cheesecake or pannacotta (which are the desserts that spring to mind here) needs gelatin to be good. Rather the opposite. Quite annoying, to say the least, this is. Of course not every recipe calls for gelatin, but suddenly ordering a piece of Princess cake at a café isn't as simple as it used to be, when one was ignorant. Life before the eyeopening IKEA bakebook.
I wish I got this in Austria! Very nice post :)
ReplyDeleteWhy exactly do you dislike Ikea? Not to say I disagree with you because I don't know a lot about it but I have always been slightly suspicious of it, so I'd just be interested to know why you dislike it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think they have this one in norway? im going to IKEA next week
ReplyDelete(answer in my blog)
I like your blogdesign
Nice looking book Pia. It definitely has the Ikea style :)
ReplyDeleteAlright, calm down about the "evil" gelatin. There are vegetarian versions of gelatin that make fine substitutes and don't "ruin" the desert.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Ikea is awesome. I like building my own bookshelves/dressers/bed frames, etc.
thanks, kerstin!
ReplyDeleteprospectivelawyer, i've hinted about it in earlier posts, but i'm planning to put my list of why-i-don't-like-ikea together in a post one day.
thanks for stopping by, ane, i have no idea if the bakebook is available i norway. i have had trouble finding it in sweden and information online is scarce. my best bet is to ask in the ikea store.
sophia, i'm well aware of agar agar and other gelatine substitutes. but they are substitutes and not gelatine per se. to have real gelatine in otherwise vegetarian dishes is and will always be an abomination as far as i'm concerned.
to like ikea because it's cheap, accessible, convenient and whatever reason one might have to like it is very much not seeing the whole picture and the downside of massproduction, globalization, huge companies. there are more factors than the mere convenience for the customer at the end of the production chain.
great post! congrats on being named a Blog of Note! look forward to seeing more of your blog.
ReplyDeletethe book surely seems to be an eye candy
ReplyDeleteWow, that looks like a beautiful book, the layout is stunning. I wonder if it is available here? The gelatin thing is rather nasty. Some substitutes just to not work, so I suppose there go a number of recipes... Congratulation on you being a blog of note (about time!). I always look at the semla posts with envy, I have never had one.
ReplyDeleteIs Ikea pressed wood? I too get recipe books for the photography, simplicity seems to be the flavor of the day in photos.
ReplyDeleteWow this looks good! I love it!
ReplyDeleteVery cool.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE cookbooks too! And i actually do like Ikea. i understand it's not the BEST quality BUT i think it's really cool how they put rooms together. like who would have thought. LOVE that book. i want to purchase!!!
ReplyDeleteNicolelynn
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