Beatrix Bakes: 15th Anniversary Edition

Beatrix, the Melbourne bakery that Natalie Paull ran for fifteen years before closing, was known for sweet baking that combined professional rigor with genuine irreverence. This anniversary edition preserves both.

Paull writes with the detail that composed desserts demand: many recipes are built from multiple elements, and the instructions reflect that complexity. The "Adaptrix" notes throughout give bakers ideas for playing further with flavors or substituting ingredients; the Cheesecake chapter alone offers a crumb base, a bought biscuit base, no base, or a failed-cookie base, each a legitimate path.

The more than seventy recipes span eight chapters covering doughs, pastries, tarts, cakes, yeasted bakes, and the supporting elements (creams, custards, fillings, glazes, buttercreams) that make the composed desserts work. A sandwich cookie called Calamity Janes, named for Doris Day's "singin', dancin', pistol-packin'" turn in the 1953 film, sandwiches espresso marshmallow and syrup-preserved strawberries between chocolate-dipped wholegrain flour cookies. A Tart-A-Misu fills a nutty pastry crust with tiramisu components.

Entirely sweet baking, richly photographed and illustrated. For bakers who want professional rigor and permission to play in equal measure.