It's so obvious. Sweet Tooth is the perfect title for a baking book.* Sweet, in fact, as the cool ones say.
I spoke too soon in my earlier post; Lily Vanilli's book has so many recipes I'd like to bake that I can put my own book back on the shelf. I began this morning with the Pink Grapefruit, Almond and Brown Sugar Teacakes. The slightly bitter, zesty pink grapefruit works beautifully with the sweet frangipane sponge; when eaten while still warm (no-one was prepared to wait), the cakes are sticky and very delicious.
A couple of Sundays ago we stumbled upon Lily's little bakery off Columbia Road and brought home some Bakewell tarts and brownies so we knew we liked her style. Her book not only has the perfect title, it's full of fabulous recipes and takes the adventurous baker a little further into sweet techniques. The hard candy 'jewels' and sugar shards are top of Phoebe's list, and I want to make the mini-Bakewells so I don't have to wait for a Sunday to eat them.
And the colour of the book cover is just lovely; when it's shut, it looks like a very unusual layer cake.
* so good that there are two new books with this title, but I don't suppose they do clever things with sugar in Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth.
