Love Is a Pink Cake
Irresistible Bakes for Morning, Noon, and Night
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- £15.99
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- £15.99
Publisher Description
Named One of the Best Cookbooks of 2023 by the New York Times and WBUR's Here & Now
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ptak (The Violet Bakery Cookbook), the baker behind Prince Harry and Megan Markle's wedding cake, shares drool-worthy sweet and savory baked goods from her upbringing in California as well as her adopted, and adapted, favorites from England. The bakes are stunning yet achievable; the secret to getting a tender crumb for the four-layer blackberry jam cake is to blend fat with flour rather than first creaming it with sugar, while helpful process photos make the involved chocolate and violet babka buns approachable. Throughout, Ptak shares wisdom that will be treasured by home bakers: the addition of Anejo tequila complements the caramel notes in a pumpkin pie, muffin batter should always be under-mixed, and soaking poppy seeds in black tea releases their floral flavor. She also pays respect to the efforts of American and British growers, highlighting seasonal bounty in recipes for a galette flavored with lime, bee pollen, and pink-fleshed apples from a garden in her home state's Marin County, as well as a matcha cake made with jostaberries—a cross between gooseberries and black currants—produced by a biodynamic farmer in Herefordshire. Ptak asserts that "baking is, in its own way, a love story," and her own love shines through. This is a treasure trove.
