Baked-in Goodness (by Patty Blount)

All this month, we're talking about hobbies.

I don't have a lot of hobbies. I love to read and I love to write. I do those two things almost exclusively when I'm not at work, which leaves very little time to pursue activities like yoga or gardening or rock climbing, and so on.

But there is one thing I like to do. Bake. I'm pretty good at it, too. I baked a 360-degree looping Hot Wheels track on a birthday cake for my son's 5th, and a religious cake for a friend who'd baptized their baby, even a replica of a New York State Learner's Permit when my son turned sixteen and passed his driver's written exam. I make amazing rainbow cookies and am now on a quest for a perfect macaron recipe.

Baking is fun because it results in something that almost always tastes as good as it looks. And that got me thinking about the old adage -- never judge a book by its cover.

Which we all do, right?

Covers are important -- good covers can sell books and bad covers can get them ignored. Just like baking, if the end result looks good, it'll probably taste good, too.