Icing on the Cake: Baking and Decorating Simple, Stunning Desserts at Home

Several years back Tessa Huff made quite an impression with Layered, a stylishly approachable collection of cakes that bakers appreciated as much for its style as for its reliable recipes. In Icing on the Cake, despite the implications of its title, Huff expands her repertoire to include cookies, pastries, pies, and tarts. Each recipe is paired with a crisp, elegant photo and, where needed, step-by-step photo instructions for the occasional decorative tour de force. To be frank, some desserts require the patience to learn to pipe buttercream—for which Huff provides solid instruction—but as long as you're not opening a pastry shop tomorrow, you don't need to be perfect the very first time you try some of the enticing ideas here: apple-blackberry pie with rosette crust; pistachio truffle cake; marble-glazed lemon-hibiscus macarons. Lots of great decorating and flavor ideas to crib here. Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.