The baking book reinvented for your coffee table

(Carl Kleiner)

Hembakat är Bäst ( Homemade is Best) is the first coffee-table baking book from IKEA, the global affordable minimalist home design and DIY furniture store. The tome is filled with 30 Swedish recipes from small biscuits to large cakes. 

The unique approach of the book is that it highlights individual ingredients captured through the artistic styling of Evelina Bratell and photographer Carl Kleiner.

Staffan Lamm, one of the art directors of the book at the Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors, told Relaxnews on October 6 that the inspiration came from "high fashion and Japanese minimalism" and the desire to produce "a very visually unique" baking book as traditionally "90 percent of all the photographs taken in baking books look extremely alike."

On September 20 IKEA began gifting the book "to customers who visit the kitchen area of the IKEA stores in Sweden."

However demand is already high internationally as IKEA locations can be found in 38 nations. Lamm noted that, "hopefully it will be released in other countries in the near future."

For other 'out-of-the-box' baking ideas you might want to keep track of internationally renowned baker-blogger David Lebovitz with his free iPhone app ( http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/david-lebovitz/id370934083?mt=8), blog ( www.davidlebovitz.com/) or book Ready for Dessert ($35/€29), released earlier this year.

www.ikea.com