Recipe books - practical or pretty?

With all the clearing out we have done in the house of late to make room for a nursery, I have recently been looking at my ever expanding collection of recipe books (mostly cakes and baking) and wondering if they are really worth the space they are taking up.  They are very pretty to look through (or just look at sometimes) but there are quite a few that I have not baked a single thing from.

A selection of my baking books - some as yet unused

This is a huge step for me to even question, as 
a) I like to keep things 'just in case' and 
b) They are books! (I love books and getting rid of them does not compute)

I certainly haven't been at the point of ditching them, but I have been wondering do I really use them enough?  Do I need more than 20 books with cake recipes?


Then I saw this post - Books, recipes, cake and bakes for the year ahead from Angela over at Garden, Tea, Cakes and me and I thought what a brilliant idea!  I can keep all of the wonderful baking books without feeling guilty about it, providing I use them.

So following Angela's lead I sat down and went through my books and have made a list of the recipes I would like to try.  I'm not committing to a time-scale here, as soon I'm sure I will have other things on my mind!  However I thought it was useful to list them in this post to remind me what they are and then I can update my list when I have tried them out.

So here are my planned recipes (in no particular order other than the books came off the shelf) from my wealth of very pretty, and now destined to be practical, baking books.

1. Double Chocolate Pretzels (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 24)
2. Honey Chocolate Madeleines (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 54)
3. Devil's food cake (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 71)
4. Chocolate Amaretti Cake (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 85)
5. Churros with Chocolate (101 Best loved chocolate recipes - Hotel chocolate pg 22)
6. Chocolate and Cherry bread (101 Best loved chocolate recipes - Hotel chocolate pg 52)
7. Best ever chocolate cake (101 Best loved chocolate recipes - Hotel chocolate pg 106)
8. Tarte Belle Helene (101 Best loved chocolate recipes - Hotel chocolate pg 128)
9. Oatmeal and raisin whoopie pies (Whoopie pies, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 16)
10. Pumpkin whoopie pies (Whoopie pies, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 18)
11. Banana maple cream whoopie pies (Whoopie pies, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 28)
12. Coconut & raspberry mallow whoopie pies (Whoopie pies, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 32)
13. Lemon macaroons (Macaroons, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 24)
14. Saffron and cardamom macaroons (Macaroons, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 30)
15. Spiced apple macaroons (Macaroons, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 52)
16. Blueberry cheesecake macaroons (Macaroons, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 58)
17. Fluffy cherry rice (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 55)
18. Banana pasta dolce (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 58)
19. Little orange soufflés (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 63)
20. Apple amber (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 70)
21. Pear frangipane tart (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 76)
22. Eccles cakes (Baking perfect cakes and bakes - Rosie's pantry pg 84)
23. Black forest roulade (Baking perfect cakes and bakes - Rosie's pantry pg 141)
24. Crumpets (Baking perfect cakes and bakes - Rosie's pantry pg 159)
25. Ciabatta with tomato and basil (Baking perfect cakes and bakes - Rosie's pantry pg 223)
26. Passion fruit butterfly cakes (Cupcakes - Susannah Blake pg 11)
27. Blueberry and lemon cupcakes (Cupcakes - Susannah Blake pg 23)
28. Coffee an banana vacherin (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 58)
29. Key lime pie (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 67)
30. Gooseberry and elderflower cheesecake (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 116)
31. Battenburg cake (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 210)
32. French apple tart (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 251)
33. Greek Orange and almond cake (Delia Smith's Book of cakes pg 61)
34. Viennese tartlets (Delia Smith's Book of cakes pg 121)
35. Shrewsbury biscuits (Delia Smith's Book of cakes pg 149)
36. Peach pudding cake (Delia Smith's Book of cakes pg 167)
37. Baked parkin with rhubarb (Desserts - James Martin pg 57)
38. Baked pear and honey tart (Desserts - James Martin pg 134)
39. Warm pecan caramel cupcakes (Hamlyn all colour cookbook 200 cupcakes - Joanna Farrow pg 36)
40. Mile high marshmallow cupcakes (Hamlyn all colour cookbook 200 cupcakes - Joanna Farrow pg 56)
41. Coconut & Almond Munchies (Chocolate & Baking, quick and easy proven recipes - General editor Gina Steer pg 28)
42. Apple and cinnamon brown betty (Chocolate & Baking, quick and easy proven recipes - General editor Gina Steer pg 114)
43. Rosebud madeleines (How to be a domestic goddess - Nigella Lawson pg 49)
44. Ricciarelli (How to be a domestic goddess - Nigella Lawson pg 56)
45. Welshcakes (How to be a domestic goddess - Nigella Lawson pg 75)
46. Peach cream pie (How to be a domestic goddess - Nigella Lawson pg 119)
47. Cheddars (The great British book of baking pg 80)
48. Naan (The great British book of baking pg 118)
49. Cornish saffron buns (The great British book of baking pg 129)

That's probably enough to be getting on with!  I will update this post and move recipes to the completed section below once I have baked them, see how long it takes me to manage them all!

Completed:

• Honey Chocolate Madeleines (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 54)
• Cornish saffron buns (The great British book of baking pg 129)