Sweet

Who’s the author? Alexina Anatole is a chef, presenter and writer based in London. After reaching the final of MasterChef in 2021, she made a career change from the trading floor to the food world. Her debut cookbook, Bitter, was published in 2023 to critical acclaim; she also writes Small Wins, a Substack dedicated to enhancing your cooking and your life in small, manageable ways.

Alexina has been featured on BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, and BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme as well as social media platforms including MOB and TopJaw.

What’s it about? Most key life events are accompanied by something sweet: birthday cake, wedding cake, cupcakes for a baby shower, mince pies at Christmas and chocolate eggs at Easter. In this new book, Alexina guides us through the secrets of sweetness, with chapters covering key ingredients such as brown sugar, strawberries, bananas, peaches, pears, milk and honey, vanilla, coconut, and dates.

Alexina is a firm believer that desserts should more than just cloyingly sweet; her recipes show how to balance ingredients, flavours and textures to create interest, contrast and comfort. This is not a book about complicated techniques for budding pastry chefs, nor is it about making show-stopping creations that are more style than substance. Instead, its 80 recipes offer classics with a twist and exciting new creations with bold flavours. Whether you are a keen baker, a hardcore pudding fan or believe that you’re ‘not a dessert person’, this beautiful cookbook is guaranteed to inspire and delight.

Recipes we love: Banoffee Coffee Sundae, Matcha Tiramisu, Sticky Figgy Pudding, Pear Sorbet with Frozen Roquefort, and Peach Melba Galette.

Perfect for: Foodies and home cooks who love to experiment with flavour combinations, as well as fans of Alexina’s first book Bitter.