Sticky Fingers, Green Thumb invites your imagination to travel out of the kitchen and into the garden. Almost sixty recipes celebrate vegetables, herbs and edible flowers in cakes and other sweet snacks. Tips on how to harness their unique flavours, prep them for baking and even grow them yourself will inspire you to create flavour-packed baked treats.

Recipes such as Spiced Parsnip & Willow Blossom cake; Porcini Caramel & Chestnut cake; Apple Cider and Zucchini muffins; Lavender Bay Leaf shortbread; Sweet Pea & Green Tea cake; Hibiscus brownies; and Lemon Myrtle & Fennel Seed honey cake, will get you thinking about your garden produce in a whole new way.

Broken into five chapters, including: Real Baking Know-how, Vegetables in Baked Desserts, and Edible Flowers & Herbs in Baked Desserts, each recipe includes a beginner gardening tip or trick so you can grow the produce you bake with.

This is baking as it should be – soulful, earthy and seasonal.

Soulful, earthy and seasonal baking.

Hayley McKee is a cookbook author, recipe developer, food stylist and owner of Sticky Fingers Bakery.

She has spent a decade creating sweets that taste of nature, where the ingredients are familiar, the colouring is genuine, and the flavours are unmasked. Her unique custom cakes are made with Australian native ingredients, vegetables, homegrown herbs and edible flowers.

Hayley has had recipes and writing featured in both international and local press, including Vogue, Food52, The Washington Post, Lunch Lady, Frankie, Peppermint, and Real Living.

She's hosted unique dessert pop-up events and baked for the likes of J.K. Rowling, The Australian Ballet, Romance Was Born, and Beci Orpin’s book Find and Keep. She made the cover of Epicure/GoodFood in 2016, ranked number 1 for Melbourne wedding cakes.

Her family food blog, Patacake, was launched in 2019 for foodie families looking for recipes that are wholesome, modern and easy to follow. A kids baking book is in the works …

CHOCOLATE WATTLE

chocolate sour cream cake with wattleseed, espresso syrup, riberries, salted chocolate crumble and a fudge or cream cheese frosting

BLACK FOREST ROSELLA

chocolate sour cream cake with sour cherries, hibiscus syrup, salted chocolate crumble and a fudge or cream cheese bean frosting

MINTY MONTY

vanilla butter cake with raspberries, coconut cream, white chocolate pieces, mint and a coconut cream frosting

ZESTY BASIL

vanilla butter cake with raspberries, orange zest, basil oil and a vanilla bean frosting

HEIRLOOM CARROT

purple carrot cake with pecans, cinnamon myrtle, beetroot, white, chocolate crumble and a cream cheese frosting

STRAWBERRY SUNDOWNER

strawberry and elderflower butter cake with racked black pepper, strawberry jam, salted shortbread crumble and a cream cheese frosting

HONEY FOR RAY

fennel and lemon myrtle cake with fennel seeds, honey lemon syrup, salted white chocolate crumble and a honey frosting

LOLITA

zesty lemon myrtle cake layered with lemon curd and a lemon cream cheese frosting

CHAMOMILE MAPLE SYRUP

chamomile and maple syrup yoghurt cake with white chocolate pieces, salted white or dark chocolate crumble and a honey frosting

PERSIAN LOVE

rose yoghurt almond cake with rose petals, cardamom, pistachios, almonds and a vanilla rose frosting