Sugar Cube: 50 Deliciously Twisted Treats from the Sweetest Little Food Cart on the Planet

This covetable cookbook is a greatest-hits collection from Sugar Cube, a tiny pink food cart in Portland, Oregon, that is thronged daily by hungry hordes craving voluptuous sweets intensified with a spike of booze, a lick of sea salt, or a whoop of whipped cream. Sugar Cube founder and baker Kir Jensen left the fine-dining pastry track to sell her handmade treats on the street. Recipes for 50 of Kir's most enticing cupcakes, cookies, tarts, muffins, sips, and candies are made more irresistible (if possible ) by 32 delicious color photographs. Sassy headnotes and illustrations that resemble vintage tattoos liven up this singular boutique baking book.

"If IFC's Portlandia had an official cookbook — full of hip recipes with savory-sweet twists from a food cart that always has a line — one can't help thinking it would be just like Jensen's. The culinary-trained Portland, Ore., chef struck out on her own in 2008 with a small pink cart, serving up made-on-the-spot treats to sweet-tooth fans. Chapter titles include 'I Did It All for the Cookie' and 'Lovin' from the Oven,' and there are sections devoted to breakfast and drinks and snacks. The author's philosophy that 'love and care' trumps 'fancy equipment' and her experience of baking and making dishes in a small space makes her collection of recipes accessible to new bakers and cooks whose kitchens may not be decked out with a full-size, stand-up mixer. Recipes include those garnered from pastry chef friends and Jensen's mother, as well as quirky-titled dishes named after ex-boyfriends (the Aric-A-Strata) and plays on tradition (Twisted Toll House cookies), as well as a savory shortbread with a film-inspired moniker (Rosemary's Baby Cookies). Solid writing, appealing illustrations, and the fun spirit that infuses this title make it a particular gift for those who aren't afraid to stray from tradition with dishes like molasses-buttermilk corn bread with maple-white dog whoop and candied bacon. Agent: Stacey Glick." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Boutique baking book from Portland Oregon's Sugar Cube, a food cart famous for its awesome sweets and attitude with whimsical desserts such as Twisted Toll House Cookies, Mom's Coffee Mallow Meringue Pie, and Brown Cow Panna Cotta. Sugar Cube is Miette with edge.

Kir Jensen grew up in the Midwest USA and attended the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. Jensen decided to strike out on her own after working in a bakery and created Sugar Cube, a food cart of luscious baked goods. In two years it became one of the hottest carts in Oregon. Danielle Centoni was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and also works as a freelance writer, editor, recipe developer and recipe tester.