One of the New York Times Best Cookbooks of 2023 • One of WBUR Here & Now's Best Cookbooks of 2023 London’s East End meets Northern California in 75 indulgent bakes from the author of The Violet Bakery Cookbook. Renowned for the wedding cake she created for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Claire Ptak knows there’s nothing like a cake when it comes to expressions and celebrations of love. A Chez Panisse alum, Ptak is a Northern California native who now runs the wildly successful Violet Bakery in London. Reflecting on her upbringing and love of in-season produce, she shares 75 sweet and savory creations, including Huckleberry Basil Sugar Scones, Peaches and Cream Angel Food Cake, and a strawberry-coconut meringue cake. Her bakes are homey yet elevated, made with the best possible ingredients, so as to extract the best possible flavors. Included are gluten-free, refined sugar-free and vegan bakes, as well as the sought-after recipe for the Duke and Duchess’s lemon elderflower cake. Featuring gorgeous photographs shot in both England and California, Love is a Pink Cake is a treasure trove of inspiration for anyone eager to emulate Ptak’s unique sensibility and dreamy creations in their own kitchen.

A design-forward cookbook for sweet and savory baked goods from London's popular Violet Bakery that focuses on quality ingredients, seasonality, and taste (as opposed to science) as the keys to creating satisfying, delightful homemade pastries, tarts, sweets, and more. Violet is a jewel box of a cake shop and café in Hackney, east London. The baking is done with simple ingredients including whole grain flours, less refined sugars, and the natural sweetness and nuanced hues of seasonal fruits. Everything is made in an open kitchen for people to see. Famed for its exquisite baked goods, Violet has become a destination. Owner Claire Ptak uses her Californian sensibility to create recipes that are both nourishing and indulgent. With a careful eye to taste and using the purest ingredients, she has created the most flavorful iterations of classic cakes, as well as new treats for modern palates. Over 100 recipes include nourishing breakfasts, midday snacks, desserts to share, fruit preserves, and stylish celebration cakes. This book is about making baking worth it: simple to cook and satisfying to eat.

'Absolutely enchanting' Nigella Lawson | 'Marvellous... a ravishing trove of recipes and baker's lore' Jeremy Lee | 'My favourite baker ... A Violet recipe always works perfectly' Anna Jones | 'Generous, intuitive, beautiful' Laila Gohar The very best cakes are always the ones we bake with love at home. Inspired by the best ingredients found in her native Northern California and her adopted home in England - from fresh-picked berries to peaches straight from the orchard - these 85 recipes for cakes, cookies, desserts and savoury treats showcase how seasonal local produce is the key to creative, memorable and delicious homemade bakes. Be inspired by the Californian way of life with English classics that take on a west-coast twist, such as Brown Sugar Victoria Sponge, Chocolate Violet Babka Buns, Tahini Halva Brownies, and English Angel Cakes that are perfect for a birthday party. You'll also find Californian favourites reimagined with British flavours like Ras el Hanout Snickerdoodles, Coconut Pudding Cake and Black Tea and Poppy Seed Muffins. You'll even find the recipe for Prince Harry and Megan Markle's famous Lemon and Elderflower Wedding Cake.

One of the Washington Post’s Best Cookbooks of the Year: “Just reading it puts me in a very happy place.” —Nigella Lawson Designed with fetching retro patterns and illustrations alongside luscious photography, this cookbook features blue-ribbon recipes inspired by baking pamphlets from the 1920s to the 1960s, rendered with irresistible charm for modern tastes. Here are more than fifty cookies, pies, cakes, bars, and more, plus informative headnotes detailing the origins of each recipe and how they were tweaked into deliciousness. For home bakers and collectors of vintage cookbooks or kitchenware, this little collection is a gem. “A sweet blend of cheeky nostalgia and modern-day baking innovation. Expect to find revamps of classic standards like silky Bavarian Pie with a Mexican Hot Chocolate twist, rich Devil’s Food Cake with espresso undertones, and a glossy chocolate- and ginger-glazed update of Molasses Doughnuts.” —Bake From Scratch Magazine “Ms. Sheehan has elevated vintage baking and cooking to a fancier standard.” —GeekMom

**AN OBSERVER FOOD BOOK OF 2023** **A NEW YORK TIMES BEST COOKBOOK OF 2023** 'Absolutely enchanting' Nigella Lawson | 'Delightful' Nigel Slater Whether it's for ourselves, to show love for a child, friend or partner, or to celebrate a rite of passage, there is no denying the incredible effect that cakes can have. Claire Ptak started baking as a child, taught by her mum and grandma, and has now been running her own food business, Violet Cakes, for nearly two decades. This book is a collection of her formative baking stories and tips and current favourite recipes - what she is baking throughout the day, for any occasion. From Brown Sugar Victoria Sponge, Chocolate Violet Babka Buns, Tahini Halva Brownies, and English Angel Cakes that are perfect for a birthday party to Ras el Hanout Snickerdoodles, Coconut Pudding Cake and Black Tea and Poppy Seed Muffins, you'll find bakes that are perfect for making every day delicious and memorable. You'll even find the recipe for Prince Harry and Megan Markle's famous Lemon and Elderflower Wedding Cake. These 85 recipes - from cakes to cookies and puddings to savoury bakes - are a reminder that baking is, in its own way, a love story too. 'Marvellous... a ravishing trove of recipes and baker's lore' Jeremy Lee | 'My favourite baker ... A Violet recipe always works perfectly' Anna Jones | 'Generous, intuitive, beautiful' Laila Gohar

Experience the Joy and Delight of Creating Amazing Wedding Cakes from Scratch. Lorelie Carvey will show you how to make and decorate the perfect wedding cake. The award-winning pastry chef has spent over thirty years perfecting her techniques and now offers advice that will ensure a sweet memory for your bride's special day. From the first idea to the spectacular result, Carvey guides you through everything you need to know to make the ultimate dream dessert. She includes her favorite recipes, like her chocolate buttermilk cake, hazelnut cake, chocolate mousse, lemon cream cheese, Italian meringue buttercream, and so much more. Carvey personally perfected each recipe during her baking career. In addition to recipes, Carvey clearly and comprehensively explains and demonstrates (with detailed photos) the baking and decorating techniques so you can create your unique cake design. With her own guide to ingredients, cooking methods, baking utensils, and decorating tips, you'll have everything you need to create a magnificent wedding cake that will be remembered and cherished by everyone. Your purchase comes with benefits including...a membership to Lorelie's exclusive cake support group, step by step video, a discount coupon for Cake Stackers, printable guides to pan sizes with number of servings, cups of batter, baking temperatures, baking times and cups of icing to frost and decorate. It also includes a guide to bakers measures and equivalents, emergency substitutions, cake ingredients, functions, fails and causes, a photo tutorial of delivering your cakes, plus cake decorating ideas and instruction.

A charming collection of updated recipes for both classic and forgotten cakes, from a timeless yellow birthday cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, to the new holiday standard, Gingerbread Icebox Cake with Mascarpone Mousse, written by a master baker and coauthor of Rustic Fruit Desserts. Make every occasion—the annual bake sale, a birthday party, or even a simple Sunday supper—a celebration with this charming collection of more than 50 remastered classics. Each recipe in Vintage Cakes is a confectionary stroll down memory lane. After sifting through her treasure trove of cookbooks and recipe cards, master baker and author Julie Richardson selected the most inventive, surprising, and just plain delicious cakes she could find. The result is a delightful and delectable time capsule of American baking, with recipes spanning a century. With precise and careful guidance, Richardson guides home bakers—whether total beginners or seasoned cooks—toward picture-perfect meringues, extra-creamy frostings, and lighter-than-air chiffons. A few of the dreamy cakes that await: a chocolatey Texas Sheet Cake as large and abundant as its namesake state, the boozy Not for Children Gingerbread Bundt cake, and the sublime Lovelight Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream. With recipes to make Betty Crocker proud, these nostalgic and foolproof sweets rekindle our love affair with cakes.

Joy the Baker Cookbook includes everything from "Man Bait" Apple Crisp to Single Lady Pancakes to Peanut Butter Birthday Cake. Joy's philosophy is that everyone loves dessert; most people are just looking for an excuse to eat cake for breakfast.