If you've got a passion for cooking, share your enthusiasm by creating a cook book to give to your family and friends. You could also sell them for profit or to raise funds for a worthy cause.
Start by gathering your recipes. Write out the recipes for all the dishes that you've ever received compliments for and ask your friends to contribute theirs. You should trial all the recipes that aren't your own to make sure that the ingredients and measurements are correct. Aim to collect at least twenty different recipes.
Next, start work on the layout of your cook book. Are you going to put all the recipes in together or will you separate them into segments? And if you separate them, what categories will you use? Courses, core ingredients, difficulty level? It's entirely up to you.
As well as the recipes, you should include a list of contents at the beginning and an index at the end. You might also like to write an introduction and credit your friends with their recipes.
Create an eye catching front cover to attract readers. You might also like to include photographs of the process or the finished product. For tips on how to create the best food photographs, check out
this article.
Once you've got all your bits and pieces together, you can get publishing. For something that you're going to give away to friends and family, you can take it to your local copy store and have it bound. If you are planning on selling your cook book, you might want to try something more professional. There are loads of
programs and
organisations online that can help you with this.
