These are a few of my favourite... cookbooks

Today I thought I'd show you some of my inspiration - just for fun. I'm feeling the sugar overload a bit (after a crazy weekend - and being away and then sick means I haven't hit the gym since last week!) so thought today might be a good day to look at pictures of delicious food rather than actually eating it. ;-)

 My favourite inspiration (other than blogs which I read daily on my feed) are magazines - I have subscriptions to both Taste (monthly) and Cuisine (six times a year), and since they land in my mailbox, awash with glorious photos and (something I don't get from most of the food blogs I follow) seasonal recipes I can't help but be inspired. I find I get more recipes to try from Taste, but more general foodie info from Cuisine.

Warning: The following process is excessively pedantic. If hyper-organisation annoys you you might want to scroll down for a while until you see photos of real recipe books!

Once I've flagged a recipe to try, I'll usually cut it out, and put it in the back of my recipe clearfile. I'm so ridiculously particular there's even a cover page for these recipes:

Then I periodically look for fun recipes (or sometimes I've flagged them for a particular purpose). Once I've made it once, I decide if it's a winner (i.e. worth making again). If it's not, in the bin it goes. If it is, it goes into a different pocket to await being typed up.

 Mmm, beetroot goats cheese tartlets

When that pocket gets full, I type up the recipes (I like things to look unified! Also, it's easier to follow a standard format), and update my table of contents to include them. Then I reprint the whole lot. Yeah, it's a bit wasteful. That's why I only do it every once in a while. Also, yes, they are in alphabetical order.

My mother is a librarian

Don't say I didn't warn you!

And sometimes, if I think it's warranted (i.e. slightly unusual recipe so the photo is useful, or just a particularly pretty photo) I will also cut out the photo and stick it to my typed recipe. This chicken b'stilla recipe is fantastic, by the way. Thanks Morocco - I never would have thought of topping my main with icing sugar and cinnamon but it's sooooooo good!

Okay, for those afraid of my OCD it's now safe to resume reading. I also have quite a few recipe books. I think Donna Hay wins for amazing food photography:

Seasons, on the left, is a beautiful book full of stunning photos and gorgeous sounding recipes, organised by season. The pictured recipe is a coconut and stone fruit rice pudding, with vanilla honey, and it is incredibly good (and simple) - I'll definitely share that with you sometime. The book on the right is her Simple Essentials Chocolate book - need I say more? ;-) My favourite recipe so far from this is the chocolate cheesecake (with the raspberries, on the right) though there are many other delicious recipes here - chocolate custard, molten chocolate puddings...

Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor definitely has the best ever name for a recipe book - and some pretty decadent desserts, too! Cheesecake pops are a stroke of genius - or what about pound cake grilled sandwiches? I like this book more for the inspiration than the recipes - I was unimpressed by the chocolate soup (though the pound cake croutons were to die for!) but love the idea and will do it again sometime with a chocolate custard (maybe the Donna Hay one). And the book on the right is David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop - my go-to ice-cream book. I reckon this book is pretty invaluable if making your own ice-cream is your thing - it has many, many flavours, of ice-cream, sorbet, granita, as well as recipes for mix-ins and accompaniments. Even 'my' brandy snap ice-cream recipe is an adapted recipe from this book.

I'm not called Mrs Cake for nothing. I have a few specialty cake books - all serving different purposes, of course. ;-) Rose Levy-Beranbaum's The Cake Bible is a highly scientific book - all measurements are given in precise weight measurements as well as cups/teaspoons. She expounds on the science of baking - she wrote a thesis on it! - and even gives tips for special circumstances, like how to adapt recipes to bake at altitude! Peggy Porschen's Pretty Party Cakes (try saying that 10 times quickly!) has lots of adorable and very achievable ideas for decorating. The Well Decorated Cake, by Toba Garrett, explains very comprehensively the basics of cake decorating (and has some tried-and-true recipes - I usually opt for her royal icing). And Collette Peters' Cakes to Dream On is mostly a bit out of my league (or at least her designs involve too much of a time commitment!) but is good inspiration if you tone down her extreme amazingness.

Last, but definitely not least, some basic cookbooks. The open book is Alison and Simon Holst's Very Easy Vegetarian Cookbook, currently showing one of our favourites - corn chip casserole. The styling (at least in our copy, which I think Mr Cake filched from his parents long ago) is pretty 80s but the food is all great. 100 Favourite Cakes & Biscuits, to the left of the veggie book, is another Alison Holst special, and you've seen her ginger kisses and lemon yoghurt cake here, among others. On the right is Jamie's Ministry of Food - I'm not a diehard Jamie Oliver fan, and I will advise you to cut the amount of olive oil in most of his recipes significantly, but I love the building blocks approach of this book, and it has many solid dinner recipes done well - we love the stews and his chilli con carne.

And finally, of course, the absolute necessity in all kiwi kitchens - the Edmonds Cookery Book. I use this less than I used to (I am drawn to pretty pictures; sorry Edmonds, your few coloured plates doesn't quite cut the mustard).

I hope this wasn't too boring -  I really like to know what people think of recipe books, since there are so many out there and it's hard to know if they're good without trying them out.

What are your favourite recipe books?