By: Heidi Herald
Welcome back to What’s Cooking @ HEPL! I am Heidi Herald, a Public Services Librarian at Hamilton East Public Library. I review one of the library’s cookbooks each month. This month, I am reviewing Wintersweet: Seasonal Desserts to Warm the Home by Tammy Donroe Inman. I also was able to interview the author, Tammy Donroe Inman, so check that out below! In our interview, we talked about many things including Tammy’s new cookbook just published October 1, 2022—New England Desserts. This is also available at Hamilton East Public Library.
I love to bake, and really enjoyed the Wintersweet cookbook. I tried several recipes and everything turned out perfectly. This cookbook includes some gluten-free recipes—one of which I make in the video below—Spicy Mexican Chocolate Cake.
I made Chocolate Whoopie Pies. They were very chocolatey and delicious. They also were made with beets! You could not taste the beets at all. I was a little worried that this might be difficult to get the pies to match up and the filling exactly right, but they turned out perfectly. This might be a clever way to sneak some vegetables into your family’s diet.
The next recipe I tried was the Butternut Squash Cake. I found some cubed frozen butternut squash at the grocery store which made this recipe much easier. This was a spicy and delicious cake. It would be delicious served with whipped cream.
I also made the Pecan Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. This was a very flavorful, heavy cake. The rich frosting perfectly complimented the spicy carrot cake. I shared this dessert with friends and everyone enjoyed it. If you are looking for a carrot cake recipe, I highly recommend this one!
Finally, in the video below I make Spicy Mexican Chocolate Cake. This is a gluten-free cake that is delicious and easy to make! The author’s mother has celiac disease and the author includes several gluten–free recipes in the cookbook. She also discusses how to adapt recipes to make them gluten–free in the interview below.
Check out my interview with Tammy Donroe Inman here:
I hope you will borrow Wintersweet by Tammy Donroe Inman from our library collections! It is available in print and digitally in Libby/Overdrive. Also, don’t forget to check out her new cookbook New England Desserts. Happy Eating!
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Credit goes to Danielle Acton, HEPL’s Adult Engagement Coordinator, for producing the videos and for her help and advice.