Shake ‘n bake isn’t just a brand name, it was the story of my life during the frenzied year I spent doing my cookbook SOMETHING WARM FROM THE OVEN. What was I thinking? I often wondered as I raced back and forth between my desk, where I was finishing a novel on deadline, and the kitchen where the oven timer was beeping. My kitchen smelled of cinnamon and spice and all things nice 24/7. (“Nice” when you’re not the one wearing the apron, covered in flour). I was a baker on steroids. I was a crazy woman. And I loved every minute of it.
It all started when I was approached by an editor at William Morrow who’d gotten hold of a copy of the little cookbook I did as a giveaway for the readers on my mailing list saw the makings of a “real,” as in full-length, cookbook. She offered me a contract and I said “sure” even as my head was spinning, imagining the work involved.
Because here’s the thing: I love to bake. I love to share recipes. I love the pleasure it brings to people when they bite into a cake or a pie or cookies that I made. My favorite memories from childhood are of hanging out with my mom in the kitchen while she was cooking or baking, and me and my sisters making recipes from the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Kids when we had to stand on stepstools to reach the counter.
I collect recipes clipped from magazines and that I’ve gotten online. I have more recipes in my file, on my Paprika app, than I could possibly test in the span of an average lifetime, much less my remaining years on this planet. It gives me joy to see family-favorite recipes scribbled on index cards and splotched with food stains. I was reminded of this when I visited my cousin in Oregon whose mom, my aunt, recently passed away. It was a trip down memory lane going through Aunt Dorothy’s recipe box filled with recipes from the sixties, like her zucchini casserole made with crushed Saltines.
So there I was baking up a storm while writing a novel. Everything I made that my husband didn’t eat went to work with him. Sandy worked in a radio station at the time. Often I would ask “Who wants to eat bread pudding at 6 A.M.?” The answer is, everyone at 10-WINS who wasn’t on a diet. After 6 months of pounding cheesecakes, bread puddings, cookies, cakes and brownies his male co-workers were letting out notches on their belts to make room for their ever-expanding waistlines. Meanwhile, I was losing weight from dashing up and down the three flights of stairs from my office on the top floor to my kitchen in the basement all day long.
When I finally finished the cookbook, I was the thinnest I’d ever been!
And I hadn’t even gotten to the hard part.
The hard part, as it turned out, was taking it on the road in promoting the cookbook once it was published. If there was a food show or a food segment on a TV morning show, food festival or book-signing that involved a cooking demonstration, I was booked for it. Everything from the “Food Network” to the Sarasota Food Festival, where I rubbed elbows with some of the country’s most notable chefs, and the “Tony Danza Show.”
I learned just how quickly 5 minutes of on-air time can go when you’re talking and whipping up cake batter at the same time.
I learned to grit my teeth and smile whenever a volunteer at one of the food festivals to which I’d traveled made one of my desserts for demonstration purposes and it didn’t turn out so well – like when a well-meaning but obviously inexperienced baker burnt my signature orange-glazed Bundt cake. (None of the audience members would have bought my cookbook based on the samples that were given out!)
I suffered the condescension of big-time chefs who saw me as just a housewife baker. (I had the last laugh when I scored an interview with “Food Arts,” the crème de la crème publication of the industry.)
In the end, I learned a lot. I expanded my skill level when it comes to baking. I now know where to source all the best ingredients. Never again will I be nervous doing public speaking without a whisk or a spoon in hand. TV appearances are a piece of cake when you’re not actually baking a cake! I also discovered I’m capable of far more than I ever imagined.
Best of all? I have all my recipes in one handy volume.
Hi Eileen! I recently discovered you (late to the party, I guess). Read Garden of Lies and Such Devoted Sisters and am looking forward to reading lots more of your books. I read about your baking cookbook and my gut instinct told me to buy it, so I did! I love to bake, too, tho I live alone now and end up giving a lot of stuff away. I especially like to bake bread, tho I use my bread machine for the dough mixing and then bake it off in pans. I am hoping I can use your recipes that way, too. My ex-partner is coming for a visit – a nice opportunity to bake — and I decided I would make a cheesecake. At first I was going to make your Italian version, but decided on my old standby, which is an Italian-American one (it is called Easter Pie) which combines both cream cheese and ricotta. It always comes out fine! The recipe is from Jim Quinn, former food editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I lived in Phl. for 22 years, now reside in Ocala, FL. Anyway, thanks for your wonderful novels which I intend to read more of, and a lovely cookbook.
Regards, Betsy
Hi Betsy! Thanks for checking in with me. I’m delighted you got a copy of my cookbook based on my earlier writings. Baking is my hobby, what keeps me sane after a day of writing. Cheesecake, mmmm. Love it, but it’s a rare indulgence these days (it goes straight to my hips). My favorite cheesecake is my mom’s recipe (in my cookbook), which she often made for special occasions. A little bit goes a long way!