‘Passionate About Baking – Chocolate’, my first cookbook #penguinindia

I wrote a cookbook, my first dessert cookbook with @penguinindia, and of course it’s CHOCOLATE! Thank you so much for all your support, for all the preorders, and for sharing posts and stories of my precious book as you receive the preorders. Publication Day was finally here and it was a moment of joy, relief, nervousness – pretty much all mixed up emotions! Here it is, my chocolate dessert cookbook!

Thank you Penguin India for reaching out to me to write the cookbook, something that I have procrastinated doing for long. I am also eternally grateful to the very sweet and extremely talented Marryam Reshii for having largeheartedly agreeing to do a foreword for my first baby book. I feel so fortunate…

Nothing ever prepares you for how difficult writing a cookbook can be, especially if you are doing everything from the recipes, to styling and shooting images, then edit, edit, edit. It’s a wholly consuming process, and yay, it’s finally here.

For those who know me, know that I absolutely love working with chocolate. With infinite possibilities and my love for baking sweet stuff, there was little doubt that my first cookbook would be a dessert cookbook! I also knew that I would style and shoot all the recipes. It’s just something I enjoy so much…

However the credit of the idea of a chocolate based cookbook goes to my dear friend Bina who blogs at A Bit Wholesomely. The idea was born on a car ride in Hyderabad a few of years ago when she was visiting India. We have a lot in common, other than food blogs of course. We both love collecting props, taking pictures, exploring old cities, Old Delhi in particular. The pictures above and below from Khari Baoli were from one such trip into Old Delhi with Bina.

Thank you for pushing me to do this Bina!

The cookbook, my little labour of love, has over 100 of my favourite recipes, 75% of which are eggless. Most of the recipes are simple, fun stuff that use pantry staples that have easy substitutes. As always, I like to work with seasons, use locally available ingredients and produce as much as possible, and I bake from scratch. The chapters are easy from tea breads, special occasion cakes, tarts, cookies & biscotti, panna cotta, puddings & trifles, basic to bottle amongst others. Call it a simple baking class!

Oh yes, every recipe has an image that I styled and shot, including the cover, something that I really enjoyed doing though it was back breaking at times, nerve wracking at others. The design and layout credit goes to my daughter who wanted the best for her mothers book. The images were each carefully picked by my son who has the finest eye for detail and knows instantly whether an image is ‘instagram worthy‘ or not.

I do hope you get a chance to order/buy my book and that you enjoy it. I’d love to hear from you.

The book is available in book stores and online

• Amazon India – https://amzn.to/3z5kYmo
• Flipkart – https://bit.ly/30avPio
• Listed on preorder on Amazon.com/Amazon.com.au/Amazon.ae/Amazon.co.uk/Amazon.ca

#dessertcookbook #pabcookbook #pabrecipes #chocolate #penguinindia