Vocal Voices

Delia has a new book out, Delia's Cakes. Sounded nice, and I have her original 'Book of cakes' which has been well-used, so I thought I might be tempted - especially since I happen to have some vouchers that can be used in Smiths or Waterstones.
Today I had a look on Amazon, and am very glad I did.

The new book is in fact an updated version of the original. But when you read the reviews on amazon, my goodness. The main criticisms - all pretty fair as far as I can see - are:

The measurements are only in metric. No good at all for those who have old-fashioned scales. Also, people who have bought numerous new books in the past 12 months say they all have dual measurements.

The ingredients are not listed one item per line, but in a sort of paragraph.
And they're in pale sage green type.
Delia has signed up with a cake-tin company to put her name on a range of tins. Nothing wrong with that except she is insisting in the book that 'recipes and tin sizes have changed so old tins don't work with new recipes'
There are apparently recipes from the original book, but quoted with a new tin size - which lo and behold is available in her range but not generally.

The photography is very arty which is fine, but it's cakes, and they have come out in very strange-looking colours and textures, a lot are blue or green-hued

One reviewer, not by any means totally slagging it off, said (more or less) for heavens' sake just buy Mary Berry, she's the baking queen, her recipes are simple and always work - and the pictures actually resemble what you turn out in your own kitchen
These were not by any means bitchy reviews, nor were they from people who were anti-Delia, far from it.

So, having decided that although I don't do a lot of baking, I'd quite like a cake or baking book, my money is now firmly going Mary's way. Either her Baking Bible or Ultimate Cake Book

Delia does, and always has, given recipes for basic food. She is deffo the Queen of doing things that work.

Mary specialises in cakes and baking. She is also a Queen, as far as they are concerned.

They both have their specialities, and I love each of them for that.

As for measurements: it drives me bonkers; Cups, ounces, grams..... Personally I prefer the metric measures. They are accurate. I like accurate.

I like to watch Ching-He Huang on Food Network, but her tablespoons look like dessert spoons to me, and her teaspoons look like dessert spoons.

I like metric too actually, despite being far more used to imperial I do tend to use grams on my digital scales.
But what I can't do is 'think' in metric, I have to mentally calculate, before I can imagine the finished size/quantity. I do think it's a silly omission from her book.
I've always tended to use my faithful Good Housekeeping book for things like cakes, you can rely on it for basic techniques etc, but have long used Delia's book of cakes and Mary's Fast desserts, both of which are brilliant.
For an actual baking book though, it sounds as though Mary has the edge

The thing with the tins is very naughty I think I'd go for Mary Berry too Di - I have memories of watching Mary Berry make cakes on TV in the afternoons, when I was a teenager, and they always looked amazing......

The new Delia book does sound rather a rip off and the tin thing is terrible.

I love Mary's book.

I have Mary's Baking Bible. Wonderful recipes that work. I have recently become more used to metric measurements and I agree that they are much more accurate. The thing with the tins is just annoying. I have cake tins that belonged to my mother! Who is going to go out and buy a whole new set of tins because Delia says so? Not me.

I think she's shot herself in the foot a bit with the tin thing, there's quite a bit of flak about it
Had a look at her book today, and have to say the criticisms are bang on, it's hard to read the pale green type, and the colours in the photos are just plain weird.
But they didn't have Mary's book in Smiths and I have these vouchers you see. There was too much of a queue to find out if I could order it. If you order online you can't use these vouchers I shall have another try in the week