Food Friday Book Review: Sweet Tooth by Lily Vanilli

The lovely thing about Lily is that she is not a trained chef. She has learnt her trade by trial and error and as a result has a healthy appreciation for the basics, as well as colouring a little outside the box.

I came across Lily Vanilli during one of my Sunday morning wanders around Columbia Road Flower Market. She has a little shop to one side, packed full of sausage rolls, cakes and other delights and moreover rammed full of punters. She has become better known of late, with concessions in Harrods, commissions from Elton John and articles in the style bible that is Vogue. She has recently released another book Sweet Tooth.

Now this really is one for the girls. The textured matt cover is mint green, emblazoned with gold embossed writing and the edges of the paper are dipped in a deep fuchsia pink. The pictures are divine and illustrations so sweet that it really does make for the most beautiful book. And while it couldn’t get much more sparkly-princess-fairy than this, it is certainly kitsch but definitely not naff.

There are helpful notes to explain processes, ingredients and methods alongside the step-by-step recipes, as well as useful basics: a glossary and a list of suppliers towards the back.

The very first chapter is ‘before you start’ very simple but surprisingly interesting information on sugar, butter, flour, piping bags, zesters and even washing up. This isn’t dumbed- down baking, but rather an exploration of the art of baking from a different, home taught perspective. From gluten-free carrot and courgette cake to ganache tarts with honeycomb, meringue mushrooms to chocolate avocado cake the recipes in this book go from the usual to the very unconventional, but everything looks utterly delicious.

I could spend hours with this book and intend to on many a rainy Sunday.

Sweet Tooth by Lily Vanilli
Canongate
RRP £20

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