You’ll find an Adaptrix section for each

recipe where you, the baker, get to steer
your sweet ship past ingredients you don’t
like and bring in beloved ones instead.
Don’t like hazelnuts? An almond can jump
in. In this book we are taking Adaptrixing

to a higher plane of Betwixt-trixing!

Mix and match across the two books
(nothing would make me happier!).
The Roasted peaches (from book 1) are
extraordinary baked into the Brown butter
frangipane tartlets (book 2); the Brisee
butter crust (2) is an on-par-pastry for the
Banoffee custard pie (1), bringing flakier
feels. Pipe Salty dulce de leche (1) into the
top of The brownie (2); fill a Coconut shagg
cake (1) with Kaya coconut jam (2) – actually
my new favourite Adaptrix. Layer roasted
cherries (2) into the Red velvet layer cake
(1); fill a Sponge roll (2) with Sweet whipped
ricotta (1), or layer Four-hour spiced quinces
(1) into the Hazelnut layer cake (2).

Plan Bs
A bad bake is just a bad decision made somewhere
along the way – missing a cue while cooking
caramel, forgetting to set a timer. Things like this
don’t make you a bad baker. The path to perfect
cakes is lined with the burnt, the overmixed,
the wrongly weighed and the dropped. I will
stage-whisper a solution when I can – look for
the asterisk.* Don’t grieve for too long … dust
the flour off your apron, change tack or start over.

Embrace and celebrate the imperfections. Find
the wonderful in the wonky, and cherish each
failure as a learning experience. If this is how it is
for us as humans, so it should be for cake as well.

Hello again, baker!
If you have the first Beatrix Bakes bakebook,
there may be a sense of déjà vu as I reiterate
some of my most tried and true sweet-treat tenets
here. I do this because I believe, to the tips of my
flour-dusted toes, that they make baking better.

This book is full of new doughs I adore, a cake list
revelling in my obsession with plush whipped egg
white layers, pillowy portions, sponges, airy cake
structures and cream in lieu of buttercream.

It has yeasted bakes that never found their way
to the shop’s counter, easy and faster bakes, such
as cookies, and a pantry full of basics that will
enhance your sweet kitchen quests!
If you have an edition of Beatrix Bakes that calls
for 190 g (6½ oz) unsalted butter in the Super
flaky pie crust on page 52, please change it to
150 g (5½ oz). And the Red velvet on page 116
should be baked a little longer – 30–35 minutes.

I’m so sorry!

This continuum of acquiring and refining
knowledge is at the very heart of ALL baking
and food, and even life. We learn and adopt new
practices and skills, test their truth and apply or
discard. When you know better, you dough better.

You don’t have to own the first bakebook to bake
from this one.

Adaptrix
Some recipes are just an outline waiting for you
to colour in with your fruit or flavour fondnesses.

They may have to change because of what’s in
(or not in) your pantry. Just because you don’t
have (or like) rhubarb, that shouldn’t stop a hand
pie from being in your hand. Sometimes before
committing I’ll go gingerly and test a spoonful
of flavour, like adding a pinch of spice to a tiny
scoop of buttercream. Other times, I’ll boldly dive
right in, relishing the success or recording the
failure for the what NOT to do in the future. Follow
my suggestions or dream up your own dessert
directions. I’ll be right here, cheering you on every
sweet step of the way!