This past weekend I catered a dinner party for some friends. They had a theme, and emailed me a list of ideas, but ultimately left the menu planning to me. Included in the email was a link to a cake that had caught their eye. I knew nothing about the website it came from or the person the recipe was attributed to, but I decided to try it.
The cake did not work out. I’m not sure what happened, but it was horrible. With five hours to go, I was scrambling to make another cake. I went to my office and grabbed Jenny McCoy’s Desserts for Any Season. She is a pastry chef I respect, and I love this book. I flipped through it and found her recipe for her Super-Dark Chocolate Cake. It was delicious.
So why hadn’t I done that in the first place? I could have saved time and money. I’m always telling my cooks to use trusted sources as opposed to just searching Google for recipes. Sure, you might hit an occasional home run that way, but is it worth the risk? Why hadn’t I just gone through one of my cookbooks in the first place? It was a reminder to use trusted sources and practice what you preach.
