From Epiphany Cakes bakery in Nelson, BC, a collection of 60 recipes to cover all your dessert needs, from the ultimate hiking cookies to showstopping three-layer cakes, and including options for gluten-free and vegan confections.

Tucked into Nelson, BC’s leafy Uphill neighbourhood, Epiphany Cakes has been supplying sweet tooths, restaurants, and cafés across the Kootenays for almost twenty years. Now the bakery’s founder, Melissa Owen, shares 60 of her favourite dessert recipes with home cooks.

Epiphany Bakes offers ample vegan and gluten free options, and lots to satisfy everyone from lemon lovers to chocoholics to those who like a little salt in their sweet, with ingredients that call on Melissa’s Middle Eastern heritage and ones that are Kootenay through and through. Try your hand at

• Simple Lemon Bars
• Vegan Brownies with Smoked Sea Salt
• Ube Cheesecake Bars
• Backcountry Cookies
• Vanilla Funfetti Cupcakes
• Tahini Caramel Sandwich Cookies
• Strawberry Frangipane Tarts
• Chocolate Halva Cake, and many more.

Complemented by lush photography and stories of the friends, customers, and loyal staff who have made the bakery what is, you’ll find chapters on brownies and bars, cookies, tarts, and cakes (from simple to super-fancy), as well as building block doughs and icings, and a step-by-step guide to some seriously pro-level cake decorating. You might even find yourself having a kitchen epiphany of your own.

Melissa Owen is the owner of Epiphany Cakes, a bakery in Nelson, BC, that supplies cafés and restaurants across the Kootenays. After studying fine arts in university Melissa attended the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver, and went on to work as a pastry chef at Sweet Obsession and the Vancouver Art Gallery & Café. She has lived in Nelson since 2005. You can find her online at epiphanycakes.com.

Melissa Owen's profile page