Enter our US/UK giveaway to win one of two copies of Pâtisserie Made Simple: The Art of Petits Gâteaux by Maxine Scheckter. See our prior promotion and Quick Bites for more information. Note there are four recipes with errata notations: Blueberry pancake, Lemon, poppy and blackberry, Swiss meringue and Sticky toffee pudding be sure to see the notes on these recipes. Or, you may download a pdf of the errata here at no charge.

This gorgeous title was released in the UK by Kitchen Press this month and we are celebrating with another promotional post. Maxine is a French-trained pastry chef who founded the Sugar Flour Pastry School in Wellington, New Zealand where she teaches pastry classes. Pâtisserie Made Simple is the perfect introduction to making your own exquisite little cakes and slices at home.

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 bulk up their skills. 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 and it is a dream book.

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. I have made additional recipes which I will share about later but I can say they all turned out amazingly.

Jane made four desserts and her photographs are gorgeous - see the collage below of Carrot cake [petits gâteaux], Raspberry, beetroot and chocolate [petits gâteaux],  Mandarin and cardamom [petits gâteaux] and Anzac biscuit [petits gâteaux]. She is in love with this book as much as I am!

Darcie made the Poire belle Hélène [petits gâteaux] with equally gorgeous photography - top photo before "the drizzling" and bottom after.

All three of us love this book so much! Do yourself a favor - buy this book now! Maxine may be coming to the US for some events and I will be sure to keep you all posted.

There are nine online recipes for you to try now:

Updated March 29th, 2026 with more online recipes:

Special thanks to the publisher for providing two copies of this title in our promotion – one copy for US Members, one copy for UK Members. Entry options include answering the following question in the comments section of this blog post.

Leave a comment on this blog telling us which recipe in the index you would like to make first. Please look at the index and do not just pick a recipe from those I mentioned above.

Once you leave your blog comment stating which recipe you would like to make there are three additional options that you can complete for more entries. If you have any questions about this process email me at jenny at eatyourbooks.com directly.

  1. Follow Eat Your Books on Instagram for another entry. Leave a second comment stating you followed and your Instagram name (you may omit your Instagram name if that is set to private, just add “followed”).
  2. Follow CookShelf.app on Instagram for another entry. Leave a third comment stating you followed and your Instagram name (you may omit your Instagram name if that is set to private, just add “followed”).
  3. Subscribe to the free CookShelf.app Substack for another entry. Leave a fourth comment stating you are subscribed.

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 May 5th, 2026.