Finalist, James Beard Foundation Award, Baking & Dessert (2013) Since 2003, Valerie Gordon has provided Angelenos with award-winning sweets and baked goods from her boutique in Silverlake and her booths at the Santa Monica and Hollywood farmers' markets. With two restaurants opening in 2013 and this comprehensive cookbook filled with her beloved recipes, now even more people can eat and bake the Valerie way. Favorite desserts like petits fours, cakes, truffles, and cookies have been perfected with the addition of candied rose petals, atomized chocolate, fleur de sel, matcha tea, and other special ingredients. Valerie re-creates desserts from Los Angeles's lost restaurants such as Chasen's and the Brown Derby; she simplifies the process of making jam; she provides an accessible way to mix and match components so readers can design their own luscious cakes and pies. Filled with helpful tricks, recipes for a range of tastes, and gorgeous full-color photographs, Sweet is destined to become every baker's favorite cookbook From a childhood love of sweets, Valerie Gordon developed a lifelong passion for baking. After spending her formative culinary years working in restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles, she opened Valerie Confections with her partner, Stan Weightman Jr., in 2003. Valerie has been featured in Vogue, House & Garden, Newsweek, InStyle, USA Today, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and The Splendid Table, and on Unique Eats on Cooking Channel. Valerie and Stan live in Los Angeles with their two children, August and Lee. "Full-color photographs highlight the simple beauty of Gordon's creations. . . . This thoroughly delightful collection is a must-have for baking and confectionary enthusiasts everywhere." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "Gorgeous." -O, The Oprah Magazine "Valerie Gordon's Sweet is full of sumptuous recipes - quince and pear pie, tiramisu trifle, Champagne cake - that are sure to entice the sweet tooth in everyone." -Los Angeles Magazine "As a cookbook, Sweet sits at the intersection of art and education, with enough know-how to be a solid baking reference, but far too beautiful to be called a textbook." -Serious Eats "A gorgeous book full of decadent desserts I will most definitely be eating." -Design*Sponge