Terry and the Cake Shop team recommend
Selected by the Bookshop
The recipe books (and more) that inspire Terry and the Cake Shop team. Find out more about the Cake Shop and what they’re reading, eating and cooking on the blog.
For more inspiration from the Cake Shop, have a look at their recipe pamphlets, Volume 1: Summer and Volume 2: Winter, or order their Wild Food Book Box via the London Review Book Box.
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘A multi-generational saga set in the mountains of the Old West. The main character is a tea leaf reader, which immediately drew me in, as did Fajardo-Anstine’s exploration of ancestral connections and stolen indigenous lands. Her descriptive storytelling poignantly evokes the lost landscape, transporting me out among the sage bushes, below the stars.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘A treasure trove of beautiful recipes that has been inspiring me at home and in the shop.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘An absolute delight of a book – an electric and unconventional queer love story, and a powerful evocation of the Windrush generation and the London Caribbean community.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘A wee treat of a book.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘Bero’s joyful, celebratory approach to cooking keeps resonating with me – a nourishing and healing practice, both ancient and new.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘Davis writes in a way that is profoundly approachable. Her style is punchy, buoyant, full of colour; there’s a touch of that Aussie familiarity that makes me feel right at home. The recipes are easy and accessible, but always satisfying for the curious palate.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘The Wilderness Cure is one of those books that is many things at once, and that’s what makes it such a brilliant companion. It’s a cultural history of foraging and its impact on our culinary evolution as a species; it’s an almanac of the changes that the seasons bring in Mo’s home of West Lothian; it’s a personal diary of the pledge that she made in 2020 to live only on free, foraged food for an entire year. It’s a trove of foraging tips, cold hard fact, history and recipes or nods to recipes both new and vintage, showcasing Mo’s expert knowledge of plants, fungi and seaweeds. It’s an exploration of the disconnect that lockdown exposed in so many of us, and the hope that this experience might change us in some way.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘It's a flavour inspiration.’
From the publisher:
Preserving the Japanese Way, nominated for a 2016 James Beard Award in the International Cookbook category, introduces Japanese methods of salting, pickling, and fermenting that are approachable and easy to integrate into a Western cooking…
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘High on the Hog broke my heart open to a larger world perspective. Jessica traces how ingredients, cooking techniques and recipes travelled from Africa to America, through the horrors of slavery, evolving and transforming along the way in a story of courage and survival.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘Such a great book – it meets you where you are.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘My old faithful, always at hand.’
From the publisher:
Now a major Netflix documentaryA Sunday Times Food Book of the Year and a New York Times bestsellerWinner of the Fortnum & Mason Best Debut Food Book 2018While cooking at Chez Panisse at the start of her career, Samin Nosrat noticed…
From the publisher:
At noma - four times named the world's best restaurant - every dish includes some form of fermentation, whether it's a bright hit of vinegar, a deeply savory miso, an electrifying drop of garum, or the sweet intensity of black garlic.…
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘One of our all-time favorite books.’
From the publisher:
Sweeten your everyday meals and treats with this whimsical cookbook where flowers take a starring role. FLORAL PROVISIONS makes incorporating edible flowers into dishes and desserts an easy task - with gorgeous and delicious results. Enjoy…
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘I’ve been diving into the treasure trove of Aboriginal and BIPOC writing out there to discover. My current top three are Melissa Lucashenko’s darkly funny novel Mullumbimby, Tara June Winch’s award-winner The Yield, and Song Spirals by the Gay'wu Group of Women.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘I’ve been diving into the treasure trove of Aboriginal and BIPOC writing out there to discover. My current top three are Melissa Lucashenko’s darkly funny novel Mullumbimby, Tara June Winch’s award-winner The Yield, and Song Spirals by the Gay'wu Group of Women.’
McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture
Harold McGee
£40.99
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘Deeply informative yet never dry.’
From the publisher:
Seaweed is so familiar and yet its names - pepper dulse, sea lettuce, bladderwrack - are largely unknown to us. …
Recommended by David:
‘If it wasn’t for fungi, life on Earth would simply be impossible. Merlin Sheldrake’s spell-binding account of mushrooms in all their baffling beauty and diversity details what we know about them (quite a lot) as well as what we don’t (an awful lot more), and is beautifully illustrated by the author’s own artwork, drawn in ink he made from, predictably, fungus.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘a deep dive into an overlooked plant nation.’
From the publisher:
'This inspiring and urgent book is one of the few food books that has ever given me goosebumps... A story full of both loss and hope.' BEE WILSON'We all need to pay more attention to what we are (and are no longer) eating. Dan Saladino…
From the publisher:
'The books I value most are those I return to again and again. Such has been the case with The Flavour Thesaurus' – Nigel Slater'Every time I return to it, which is often, it makes me tingle with happy greed' – Bee Wilson'A…
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘I’ve been leafing through The Bloomsbury Cookbook again for inspiration ... it’s comforting to see how this particular band of friends stayed connected through food throughout the global shake-ups of the 20th century. I’ve got Lytton Strachey’s Freedom Pie earmarked, and Vanessa’s Loving Cup – champagne, madeira, brandy, lemon balm and little blue borage flowers.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘Katherine May talks about the healing power of winter, as a season and as a metaphor, interweaving memoir, mythology and nature writing. Her emphasis on seasonality speaks to me – on the idea of accepting each time of year for what it brings.’
Recommended by Terry and the Cake Shop team
‘packed with apple history and lore.’
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