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

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London's East End meets Northern California in 75 indulgent bakes from the author of The Violet Bakery Cookbook. Delightful . . . Claire has also given us a very delicious recipe for a dessert of muscat wine and raspberries, which I have already bookmarked for my own Easter lunch.--Nigel Slater "Guardian" Ptak provides an ingredient glossary to match UK ingredient names with US ones. Caster sugar is super-fine granulated white sugar. Semi-skimmed milk is low-fat milk. Strong flour is bread flour. (Most of us may know these things after seasons of The Great British Baking Show.) She uses English measurements with the the US equivalent in parentheses.

Ptak asserts that "baking is, in its own way, a love story," and her own love shines through. This is a treasure trove.-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)" I want to read, cook and devour the gorgeous food of brilliant Claire Ruth Rogers, author of the 'River Cafe Cookbook'

Lemon and Elderflower Wedding Cake

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. 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.

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 Fiona Leahy, Claire Ptak, Felicity Blunt and Stanley Tucci at the Love is a Pink Cake launch party at Rochelle Canteen Marco Bahler Claire Ptak is the coolest girl I know. She makes baking sexy ... in a wolrd of saccharine this is the antidote Fiona LeahyIt is auspicious (if not intentional) timing that both Claire Ptak’s Love Is a Pink Cake and a revised and updated reissue of Mary Berry’s Baking Bible are now out in the U.S., right on the heels of the coronation of the earnest if stilted King Charles III. The two books, published within a week of each other, are authored by ambassadors of British baking, representative perhaps more so of the idea of it than individual recipes — although they both have some great ones, and Pink Cake in particular is indispensable. Ptak, a Northern Californian who was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse before moving to London, started off selling cakes from an East London market stall and opened her cafe, Violet, in 2010. In key ways, Ptak and her bakery typify an East London style that I’ve been describing to my friends for the past year. It’s a post-industrial space softened by the memory of a country house you’ve never been to: a little gingham and a lot of linen; terra-cotta pottery; dried flowers; sponge painting; enamelware; natural wine; white-washing; candlelight. The food in this paradigm, especially as shot for Love Is a Pink Cake, is unfussy, neutrally and pastel-colored, and showcases big, ripe hunks of whichever fruit’s now in season, all arrayed in rustic interiors nobody’s swept up before the shoot. Add half of the dry flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar and mix well. Then add the coconut milk and vanilla and mix again. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl. Mix well to incorporate all of the ingredients, but do not overmix or this will make your cake tough. Because not only is Ptak’s book compelling — her baking is excellent. Violet sells the best birthday cake in London, at least to a Chicagoan born in July with a raspberry buttercream preference; the rye brownies in her last book have become my go-to, along with its flourless chocolate cake. What’s in Pink Cake is more specific, less twist-on-a-staple and more out-there (for a given value of “there”): Find not one but two riffs on traditional British summer pudding, or a standard coffee-walnut with Fernet in both the cake and the frosting. Meanwhile, whisk together the lemon juice and icing sugar until smooth. Spread this glaze over the cooled Bakewell, then slice into fingers. Decorate each slice with a preserved cherry.

There's some cookbooks you enjoy reading and there's some that you read for the delicious recipes. This book is the latter. (Besides, not to sound like an old fart, but the type is tiny.) Ptak grew up in California and was Chez Panisse trained. She's a seasonal baker and an artist. An endearing reference to Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cookbook with illustrations by Warhol. I love that Vanderbilt book just for the illustrations alone.Claire Ptak, the Chez Panisse alum who runs London's Violet Cakes, divides this sumptuous book into two. 'California' is produce-forward, while Harry and Meghan's wedding cake is the talk of 'England.'--Laura Regensdorf "Vanity Fair" 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.