Love is a Pink Cake: Irresistible bakes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between

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This ravishing trove of recipes and baker's lore is a testament to years of practice and endeavour ... a marvellous achievement Jeremy Lee, author of 'Cooking' Ptak's love for nature's bounty shines through in this collection for fans of farm-to-table baking.--Jessica S. Levy "Booklist"

Not to say this undermines the book. For a hobby baker wanting to sharpen my skills, the challenge is part of the allure. Meanwhile, other recipes offer failsafe reliability. A Big Sur cookie uses up leftover granola; it’s not only a great cookie, but an exciting paradigm: Any recipe using up the dregs of my cupboard is a winner, and the final product will vary greatly by granola. Ptak’s bakewell bars are buttery, nutty, and laced with tart jam. They cut beautifully, look great on a stand, and make a traybake out of the most British possible tart. It was Violet that first opened my eyes to the potential of bakewell, a U.K. bakery case staple that can be stodgy, gummy, or bland. These, on the other hand, are now on my roster, along with those rye brownies.Claire Ptak is the coolest girl I know. She makes baking sexy ... in a wolrd of saccharine this is the antidote Fiona Leahy

I know that all I’ve pretty much done is shout recipe titles at you, but it’s hard to temper my excitement, and I’m not sure I’d ever want to. I regard the happiness I get from Love is a Pink Cake as a real gift, and I’m so grateful to Claire Ptak for it. It remains for me to do no more than tell you that the recipe I’m sharing with you today is her mother’s Lemon Meringue Pie Bars. Love Is a Pink Cake offers glimpses of Ms. Ptak's personality, as well as of her personal life . . . Rich in color (a pistachio-green plum cake with candied violets) and texture.--Emilia Petrarca "New York Times" Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/ gas mark 6. Butter and line an 18×30cm (7×12in) baking tin with baking paper. For the topping, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy but not fluffy. Add the extracts, salt, eggs and egg white, then beat well. Preheat the oven to 150°C fan/170°C/340°F/ gas mark 3½. Grease and line either 1 deep or 3 shallow 20cm (8in) cake tins.Put the butter, sugar and oil into the bowl of a stand mixer and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until combined.

As a sort-of celebrity baker Ptak is webbed across continents and industries; what seems like name-dropping can also be true to the author’s experience.Stir in the chopped almonds, flour and baking powder just to combine. Dollop this over the jam—don’t worry about spreading it evenly as it will melt into place in the oven and spreading it can cause the jam to get mixed in rather than remaining its own layer. Return to the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until golden and set. Allow to cool for 20 minutes.

A lot of the photos depict the setting of the sections, Northern California and England. While there might be more scones in the England section, I really couldn't classify the recipes as being strictly NoCa or UK. They all sound worthy of making.

Claire Ptak's recipes are generous, intuitive, and beautiful. This is a celebration of life, and the bounty of the earth. You will feel as though an old friend is taking you by the hand and teaching you how to make the perfect fluffy blueberry muffin. Pull up a chair. Claire is the friend everybody needs in their life.--Laila Gohar Of course, Berry’s cookbook is good; just to be sure about that tart shell, I remade it for a quiche, and it remained an unassailable tart shell, one I’ll make again. To say that the book suffers in comparison to Ptak’s would be incorrect; they are different, with divergent goals, and as a hobbyist I need a completist tome as much as I enjoy reveling in Ptak’s meadowy sensibilities and artistic sympathy. But as both books are being issued around a great national inflection point, it makes sense to note that, just as they illustrate two very different kinds of baking books, they each also represent how baking can explain two confections of Britain’s national character, the cool multicultural East London and the white upper-middle-class English countryside. Claire's recipes are generous, intuitive, and beautiful. This is a celebration of life, and the bounty of the earth. You will feel as though an old friend is taking you by the hand and teaching you how to make the perfect fluffy blueberry muffin. Pull up a chair. Claire is the friend everybody needs in their life. Laila Gohar Claire's desserts are more than just a conclusion to a great meal; they're bites of special memories for me . . . Her cakes have been at the center of some of our most cherished family moments.--Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex "New York Times" London’s East End meets Northern California in 75 indulgent bakes from the author of The Violet Bakery Cookbook .