It’s called Procrastibaking. It’s the baking you do to put off the other things you don’t want to do. Bake cookies instead of tackling the laundry. Make candy instead of doing your taxes. Make a cake so you don’t have to mow the yard. Honestly, it’s one of the best parts of baking. Plus, when you finally do have to do thing you were procrastinating, you can enjoy a tasty treat while you do it. Your reward for doing the chore has already been procrastibaked.
Former pastry chef and creative baker Erin Gardner is the ultimate procrastibaker. And since she bakes for a living, coming up with creative cake decorations for magazines and blogs, she procrastibakes to put off baking. But she also recommends baking as a way to help stir your creativity (get it?) and to get yourself to that last-possible-minute start on the project that compels you to do your best work quickly.
And wow! does she have great ideas for the procrastibaking! This whimsical cookbook is filled with 100 recipes, from easy to complicated, depending on your skill level and just how much time you need to spend in the kitchen to avoid everything else. She includes lots of fun and games, including an inordinate number of rabbit holes you can chase down (questions about things like who invented frozen whipped topping? or what is a buckle?) and a word search and maze to use for procrastinating even more.
Each chapter starts out with simpler, one-bowl recipes and gets more complicated as it goes on. For example, the Better-Late-Than-Never Brownies and Bars chapter starts out with a better-than-average Cereal Treats recipe, works up to Sticky Brownies and Mixed Berry Crumble Bars and ends with Peanut Butter S’more Bars. Buts that just one chapter. There are also chapters on Morning Treats, Confections, Cookies, Loaf Cakes, Snack Cakes, Pies and Tarts, Savory Bakes, and Masterpieces.
But this is a cookbook where you really want to browse that table of contents, because who wouldn’t be tempted by recipes like Giant Cinnamon Roll Scone, Neapolitan Marshmallows, No-Mixer Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Double-Chocolate Mint Cookies, Whoopie Pies, Olive Oil Apple Snack Cake, Tropical Carrot Cake, Peaches and Cream Pavlova, Billionaire Tart, Roasted-Tomato Scones, Mocha Brownie Cheesecake, and a Snowball Cake.
There are classics like a Gingerbread House, Lemon Tart, and School Party Cupcakes. And there are crazy creative ideas like Cheesecake-Stuffed Nutella Coffee Cake, Zucchini-Lime Bread, and Baked Alaska Ice Cream Cones. Basically, Procrastibaking has it all. No matter what you’re craving or what you’re avoiding, this cookbook has something that will make you happy. With fun and frivolity, Procrastibaking can get you putting off all your boring responsibilities in order to hunker down in the kitchen and create magical treats.
Galleys for Procrastibaking were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
