Recipe pages have French & English Text

The recipes in this book include desserts with common-sounding names like cheesecake, macaroons and tarts, with 17 recipes for sponge cake alone.

Other names sound less familiar: millefeuille, valenciana and choux, to name three.

But the commonplace sound of the names belies what's seen in the photos. Take the lemon tart, pictured on page 186: a base with a fluted edge, a ring of chopped pistachios and a mound of lemon cream with a shiny yellow coat, topped with a raspberry and a thin white chocolate square with faint stripes of green.

Crispy, creamy, fruity or nutty, the layered and multi-component cakes and tarts in this volume took ambition to create, but you can make them too and serve desserts fit--in appearance and taste--for a banquet hall.

• 89 recipes
• Picture of finished dessert
• Photos of cake in the creation stages, to walk you through the steps
• Computer graphic of dessert with identification of each layer and topping

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