Where to Start with Katarina Cermelj
Katarina Cermelj is a cookbook author, food writer, and the creator of The Loopy Whisk, one of the most popular gluten-free baking blogs on the internet. She holds a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, a background she puts to practical use by approaching baking as a science rather than a set of rules to memorize. After being diagnosed with gluten and dairy intolerances in 2015, she began experimenting with allergy-friendly recipes and discovered that understanding the chemistry of ingredients made it possible to produce baked goods indistinguishable from their wheat-based equivalents. She launched The Loopy Whisk in 2016, and her first cookbook, Baked to Perfection (2021), won the Fortnum and Mason Debut Cookery Book Award and the Guild of Food Writers Specialist Subject Award. Her second book, The Elements of Baking (2024), expands the approach to cover dairy-free, egg-free, and vegan adaptations alongside gluten-free techniques.
Start here
Baked to Perfection
Katarina Cermelj · 384 pages · 2021 · Easy
Themes: gluten-free baking, baking science, flour blends, bread and pastry
Cermelj’s debut cookbook applies her Oxford chemistry training to the challenge of gluten-free baking. The book opens with a detailed primer on how different flours and starches behave, then moves through 100 recipes covering everything from crusty bread and cinnamon rolls to layered cakes, brownies, rough puff pastry, and delicate patisserie.
Why Start Here
This is Cermelj’s foundational work, the book where she lays out her complete approach to gluten-free baking. The science explanations are clear and practical: you learn why psyllium husk works in bread but not in cake, how the ratio of starch to protein flour affects texture, and what makes certain commercial flour blends more reliable than others. That understanding means you can adapt any recipe, not just follow the ones in the book.
The range of recipes is impressive for a first book. Cermelj covers breads, pastries, cakes, cookies, and everything in between, each recipe tested to the point where the results genuinely rival wheat-based versions. The instructions are detailed enough for complete beginners but never condescending.
What to Expect
A 384-page hardcover with full-color photography throughout. Winner of the Fortnum and Mason Debut Cookery Book Award 2022. The tone is warm and encouraging, with the science woven naturally into the recipes rather than presented as a separate textbook section. Expect to invest in a few specialty flours, but the book guides you through exactly what to buy and why.