Pâtisserie Made Simple, Quick Bites and Giveaway
May 9, 2025 by JennyEnter our US/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of two copies of Pâtisserie Made Simple: The Art of Petits Gâteaux by Maxine Scheckter.
From the French-trained pastry chef who founded the Sugar Flour Pastry School in Wellington, Maxine Scheckter, comes the perfect introduction to making your own exquisite little cakes and slices at home – Pâtisserie Made Simple: The Art of Petits Gâteaux.
Complete with simple-to-follow recipes, broken down into achievable steps, and stunning photography that will make you salivate, this book is perfect for every baker who wishes to build their skills. This book is absolutely perfect, the photography is amazing (including step-by-step technique photos), the recipes (organized by season) are spectacular in appearance but appear to be approachable for any level baker.
Maxine’s baking classes have been added to our calendar. I think I need to start saving for a trip to New Zealand or maybe I can talk her into visiting Denver and staying with me! A girl can dream.
I made the Tiramisu [petits gâteaux] – photo to the left. My nerve disorder causes issues for me – the photograph is not as lovely as I was hoping for but this is not a reflection on Maxine. She provides explicit instructions for every aspect – including portioning, building the cakes and more – she has us covered. I shared some tiramisu with a neighbor who called a day later asking for more. The Russian honey cake is next for me – I have all the ingredients ready to go.
Jane made three desserts and her photographs are gorgeous – see the collage below of Carrot cake [petits gâteaux], Raspberry, beetroot and chocolate [petits gâteaux], and Anzac biscuit [petits gâteaux]. She is in love with this book as much as I am!
There are four online recipes for you to try now:
- Mille-feuille [petits gâteaux]
- Pineapple and rum [petits gâteaux]
- Sticky toffee pudding [petits gateaux]
- A piece of toast [petits gâteaux]
If you buy one pastry book this year, make it this one. We are working on getting the books over to the US but it is worth every penny to order one from New Zealand!
Maxine has answered a few questions for us in the Quick Bites below:
Maxine Scheckter has spent the last eleven years mastering her craft in some of the world’s top kitchens. She founded Sugar Flour Pastry School in 2019 and finds incredible joy in teaching passionate bakers the tricks of the trade and helping them understand how recipes work.
Q: What first triggered your interest in baking? Your first baking memory?
My parents own a deli which I worked in growing up, so our lives always revolved around food. I started baking when I was about 11, after my mum bought me a cupcake making kit for my birthday. My earliest memory from this is always having raw cupcakes, because I was so worried about them being dry – since I always heard people talk about dry cake on TV.
Q: If you had to describe your baking style, what would it be?
I’d like to say my baking style is playful and fun with a bit of personality. I like to to take the complex patisserie techniques that I’ve learnt in my career and combine them with a slightly less serious approach – I want baking to be fun!
Q: Are you a cookbook collector? If so, tell us about your collection – number of books, favorite genre, favorite author? What you look for in a cookbook?
I definitely am! I would say I have over 300 books (but there’s always room for more!). My favourite genre is definitely baking and patisserie. I don’t have one favourite author, but some of my go-to’s are Natalie Paull, Yann Couvreur and Edd Kimber. I use my cookbooks a lot for inspiration, for flavour ideas, decorating techniques or bakes different to what I’d normally do, so I always look for a book that will spark an idea.
Q: What is the best part of your job? Do you sometimes feel like working with food all day keeps you from wanting to get creative in the kitchen?
The best part of my job is being able to create new things all the time, and to constantly play around in the kitchen. Because so much of my job is recipe testing for new classes, I always need to be creative in the kitchen. Sometimes I go through ruts where my recipe testing isn’t working or I feel less creative, but normally one or two successful bakes will get me out of it.
Q: What is your go-to for a quick dinner and for dessert?
My favourite go-to dinner is a quick yogurt flatbread with lamb or beef and a salad, very light and Greek/Mediterranean inspired. One of my favourite quick desserts is a pavlova. It takes a bit of time to bake in the oven but can be done ahead of time, then dressed up very easily with whatever fruit is in season and other accompaniments you have.
Q: Tell us about your new book:
My new book is all about making patisserie less intimidating. I want to remind people that even the best pastry chefs start somewhere, and the only way to get there is to start. Every recipe in the book is made in one tin, so that you don’t need fancy moulds or too much equipment to create the recipes, and I have tried to make the instructions clear and concise, so that anyone can follow along. Most of all I hope the love and effort I poured into every recipe shows through in the final pages.
Be sure to follow Maxine on Instagram and Facebook for loads of inspiration.
Special thanks to the publisher for providing two copies of this title in our promotion open to US/AU/NZ Members. Entry options include answering the following question in the comments section of this blog post.
Which recipe in the index would you like to try first?
Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won’t be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post. Once you log in and enter your member name you will be directed to the next entry option – the blog comment. After that, there are additional options that you can complete for more entries. Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on June 20th, 2025.
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