Like so many did during COVID, the authors of this lovely tome spent their Covid lockdown baking. However, they had a bit of a head start on most of us as Gareth Whitton was the head pastry chef at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in Melbourne. When that restaurant closed, he found himself working at a supermarket when the pandemic hit…

Author Michael James, who owned Melbourne's Tivoli Road Bakery with his wife Pippa, is a Michelin-starred chef who found himself drawn to the precision of baking. This book isn’t their first cookbook rodeo, but for it they adopted a seasonal approach to baking – a bit unconventional, but it works. The recipes are definitely refined, but the vibe feels more homemade and rustic, thanks to the use of wholemeal flours and grains…

Arlyn Osborne is an American-Filipino food writer who, if you’ve been hankering for a collection of Pinoy-inspired sweet recipes, totally read your mind. There’s not much else like her book Sugarcane around, described on the cover as ‘sweet recipes from my half-Filipino kitchen.’ Mostly, these aren’t straight Filipino dishes, they’re largely where she imposes traditional flavours and ingredient combos…

If you love baking books with a warm tone, some ripper recipes to really stretch your skills, and razor-sharp instructions for optimum success, you’ll love this adorable new book from cult-followed Melbourne baker Natalie Paull. Every day before it sadly shuttered in 2022, her cute cafe Beatrix Bakes attracted the cake-erati, salivating for innovative takes on Aussie, Euro and American classics…