Introduction

A generation has passed since I wrote The Cake Bible. In recent years, it has been a great pleasure to hear people tell me they grew up with birthday cakes from my book or that they built careers on my recipes. But the greatest happiness has been, and continues to be, the connection to the universe of bakers that my books have provided and the knowledge that my work has touched other people’s lives in a positive way.

People often expressed surprise when I told them I was working on a new cake book, saying, “I thought you’d already ‘done’ cakes.” I respond now with a quote from Michael Batterberry, publisher of Food Arts magazine, who in his opening address of the International Association of Culinary Professionals meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2000 extolled the virtues of creativity by referring to it as “a bottomless well of inspiration.” This is my mantra.