I decided to look at some cookery books from home in order to further my knowledge of these type of publications. I looked at both a baking book and one by Delia Smith.
Cupcakes and muffins
Delia Smith
At home, we have a lot of Delia Smith's cookbooks, and I have noticed that the books in her 'how to cook' range all have a white or cream cover. You can see from the below picture that this has caused some problems. Although the book has a dust jacket, protecting the actual thing itself, it now looks extremely dirty, and has started to yellow due to the light. White doesn't seem like an ideal choice for a cookbook, and this is something that I plan to avoid during my own work.
From the above picture of the cookbooks on the shelve, you can see from the spines the different binding methods used. Although many cookbooks are case bound, there are a few out there that are ring bound. Ring binding makes it much easier for the book to lay flat, and for pages to be turned, which is much more ideal for a cookbook. This is because the pages need to stay, and not flick over. The only problem with ring binding is that I feel it rather unsightly, taking something away from the overall aesthetics.
From the above images, you can see that this cookbook follows a rather simple layout. The use of a full page image is effective as it allows the reader a large scale view of the final outcome, tempting them into creating it, as well as giving them an idea of what it should look like. The only problem with Delia's books is that I feel they can be quite wordy. No one wants to have to read reams of difficult and technical information in order to get to their final outcome.
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