Life Is What You Bake It

ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Boston Globe • ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Food Network, The Washington Post, Time Out, Glamour, Taste of Home, Southern Living, Library Journal “As much about a collection of recipes that makes your mouth water and tugs at your heart with food memories as it is about the chronicles and life lessons of a true comeback kid.”—Carla Hall Popular baking personality and lawyer turned baker Vallery Lomas debuts her first baking book celebrating more than 100 recipes for everything from Apple Cider Fritters to Lemon-Honey Madeleines and Crawfish Hand Pies to her Grandma’s Million Dollar Cake. Vallery shares heirloom family recipes from her native Louisiana, time spent in Paris, The Great American Baking Show (which she famously won!), and of course sweets and breads inspired by her adopted hometown, New York City. Vallery’s “when life gives you lemons, make lemon curd” philosophy will empower legions of bakers and fans to find their inner warrior and bake their best life. “Life Is What You Bake It is not only a collection of recipes but also an empowering book that shows us there’s often more possible than we can even imagine.”—Julia Turshen, bestselling author of Simply Julia, host of Keep Calm and Cook On podcast, and founder of Equity at the Table

ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Boston Globe • ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Food Network, The Washington Post, Time Out, Glamour, Taste of Home, Southern Living, Library Journal “As much about a collection of recipes that makes your mouth water and tugs at your heart with food memories as it is about the chronicles and life lessons of a true comeback kid.”—Carla Hall Popular baking personality and lawyer turned baker Vallery Lomas debuts her first baking book celebrating more than 100 recipes for everything from Apple Cider Fritters to Lemon-Honey Madeleines and Crawfish Hand Pies to her Grandma’s Million Dollar Cake. Vallery shares heirloom family recipes from her native Louisiana, time spent in Paris, The Great American Baking Show (which she famously won!), and of course sweets and breads inspired by her adopted hometown, New York City. Vallery’s “when life gives you lemons, make lemon curd” philosophy will empower legions of bakers and fans to find their inner warrior and bake their best life. “Life Is What You Bake It is not only a collection of recipes but also an empowering book that shows us there’s often more possible than we can even imagine.”—Julia Turshen, bestselling author of Simply Julia, host of Keep Calm and Cook On podcast, and founder of Equity at the Table

Cakes by Melissa is a mouthwatering collection of easy and imaginative cakes from the creative force behind the delicious bite-size cupcake brand Baked by Melissa. Melissa Ben-Ishay, the baker, mom, and founder of Baked by Melissa—the tie-dye and fun-loving bite-size treats company—shares her secrets in this vibrantly illustrated cookbook that offers more than 120 recipes for fabulous cakes, icings, fillings, and toppings for endlessly delectable combinations. Melissa believes baking should be fun and easy—and that incredible flavor can be in bite-size amounts. This ethos and her lively, personal style are infused throughout Cakes by Melissa. A simple-to-follow crash course in making baking more like crafting, it offers Melissa’s fresh takes on traditional cakes and inventive ideas to make dessert in any form extra sweet. The cookbook will encourage home bakers to be creative and spontaneous in their baking, even including fill-in-the-blank ingredient sheets to individualize their special treats. From the very recipe that started it all—the tie-dye cupcake—to peanut butter banana cake batter and icings and crumbles that inspire the baker in us all to create scrumptious desserts, Cakes by Melissa is filled with unique and totally irresistible recipes to devour. Replete with 125-150 photographs and stunningly designed pages that mirror the down-to-earth and colorful Baked by Melissa aesthetic, Cakes by Melissa is a celebration of the joys of baking for experts and novices alike, and is a must for Melissa’s fans.

The first of its kind mental health and resilience cookbook.

Michelle Lopez—the wildly popular and critically acclaimed blogger behind Hummingbird High—teaches busy people how to make cookies, pies, cakes, and other treats, without spending hours in the kitchen. If anyone knows how to balance a baking obsession with a demanding schedule, it’s Michelle Lopez. Over the past several years that she’s been running her blog Hummingbird High, Lopez has kept a crucial aspect of her life hidden from her readers: she has a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. But she’s figured out how to have her cake and eat it too. In Weeknight Baking, Lopez shares recipes for drool-worthy confections, along with charming stories and time-saving tips and tricks. From everyday favorites like “Almost No Mess Shortbread” and “Better-Than-Supernatural Fudge Brownies” to showstoppers like “a Modern Red Velvet Cake” and “Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie” (it’s vegan!), she reveals the secrets to baking on a schedule. With rigorously tested recipes, productivity hacks, and gorgeous photographs, this book is destined to become a busy baker’s go-to. Finally, dessert can be a part of every everyday meal!

A one-of–a-kind cookbook, Savory Sweet Life is a wonderful collection of inventive and playful family recipes that celebrate the everyday moments in life—from birthday parties and family game nights to potlucks and summer backyard barbecues. Alice Currah, whose popular food blog, SavorySweetLife.com, attracts half a million page views every month, now combines warm, personal stories, helpful advice and time-saving tips, and real-life food for those together times that the whole family will love— whether it’s Pulled Pork Tacos and Chocolate Chip Cookies on family game night or Creamy Tomato Soup with Grilled Garlic Cheese Sandwiches and Spiced Gingersnap Cookies on an unexpected snow day.

Holistic nutritionist and highly-regarded blogger Sarah Britton presents a refreshing, straight-forward approach to balancing mind, body, and spirit through a diet made up of whole foods. Sarah Britton's approach to plant-based cuisine is about satisfaction--foods that satiate on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. Based on her knowledge of nutrition and her love of cooking, Sarah Britton crafts recipes made from organic vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds. She explains how a diet based on whole foods allows the body to regulate itself, eliminating the need to count calories. My New Roots draws on the enormous appeal of Sarah Britton's blog, which strikes the perfect balance between healthy and delicious food. She is a "whole food lover," a cook who makes simple accessible plant-based meals that are a pleasure to eat and a joy to make. This book takes its cues from the rhythms of the earth, showcasing 100 seasonal recipes. Sarah simmers thinly sliced celery root until it mimics pasta for Butternut Squash Lasagna, and whips up easy raw chocolate to make homemade chocolate-nut butter candy cups. Her recipes are not about sacrifice, deprivation, or labels--they are about enjoying delicious food that's also good for you.

In a novel as warm and embracing as a family kitchen, Barbara O’Neal explores the poignant, sometimes complex relationships between mothers and daughters—and the healing magic of homemade bread. Professional baker Ramona Gallagher is a master of an art that has sustained her through the most turbulent times, including a baby at fifteen and an endless family feud. But now Ramona’s bakery threatens to crumble around her. Literally. She’s one water-heater disaster away from losing her grandmother’s rambling Victorian and everything she’s worked so hard to build. When Ramona’s soldier son-in-law is wounded in Afghanistan, her daughter, Sophia, races overseas to be at his side, leaving Ramona as the only suitable guardian for Sophia’s thirteen-year-old stepdaughter, Katie. Heartbroken, Katie feels that she’s being dumped again—this time on the doorstep of a woman out of practice with mothering. Ramona relies upon a special set of tools—patience, persistence, and the reliability of a good recipe—when rebellious Katie arrives. And as she relives her own history of difficult choices, Ramona shares her love of baking with the troubled girl. Slowly, Katie begins to find self-acceptance and a place to call home. And when a man from her past returns to offer a second chance at love, Ramona discovers that even the best recipe tastes better when you add time, care, and a few secret ingredients of your own.