Featured in numerous magazines, Sullivan is a respected and creative baker. For the first time, she brings her knack for creating the unusual to those of us who want to bake more than a layer cake but aren?t sure how.

This book features her recipes and cake-decorating tips as well as personal stories about creating and delivering cakes. She has used cookies as cake toppers, made dozens of multicolored flowers on a hat-shaped cake, and created cakes in the shapes of taxis and diner coffee cups. Whether a lush, vibrant ?Monsoon Wedding? cake or a larger-than-life, 3D ?Cup o? Joe to Go,? Kate?s cakes always inspire people to ask, ?How did she do that??

About The Author
Kate Sullivan?s wedding and party cakes have been featured in numerous magazines, including Oprah, the New York Times, Self, and Time Out New York, as well as on VH1 and in Broadway theater. She lives in New York City.

The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef brings up-to-date coverage of the latest baking and pastry techniques to a new generation of pastry chefs and serious home bakers. This book covers advanced material and - like chef Bo's classic The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, Fourth Edition - contains contemporary information to meet the needs of today's pastry kitchen. This volume contains nearly 500 recipes, which emphasize the techniques and presentations offered in top restaurants and bakeshops today.

topics covered in depth include:

• Decorated cakes
• Modernist desserts
• Wedding cakes and holiday favorites
• Sugar work
• Marzipan figures
• Chocolate decorations

A companion to Master Chef Bo Friberg's classic The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, this comprehensive collection is ideal for second-year courses in baking programs at culinary schools, as well as for accomplished chefs in personal or professional kitchens who want to keep abreast of contemporary trends.

Chef Bo begins with elegant decorated cakes, describing the myriad complications and variations, then moves on to creating individual pastries and plated, frozen, and low-calorie desserts. He presents a special chapter on wedding cakes, which includes valuable information on the corollary business aspects, such as calculating size and determining cost. Other chapters address the rich world of charlottes, custards, Bavarian creams, mousses, soufflés, modernist desserts, and holiday favorites. Most importantly, in this advanced volume, Chef Bo offers clear, concise instructions, reinforced with line drawings and step-by-step photographs, of advanced decorating techniques, sugarwork, and chocolate artistry, as well as marzipan figures. Recipes include:

• Opera Cake
• Petite Chocolate and Brandied Cherry Pastries
• Milk Chocolate Marquise with Finger Banana Center and Red Currant Sauce
• Cinnamon Semifreddo Venizio with Coffee Bean Crisps
• Date-Stuffed Saffron-Poached Pears with Chardonnay Wine Sauce
• and many more. A special chapter on holiday desserts contains a host of traditional recipes, including Santa's Gingerbread Chalet, Swedish Spice Bread (Vörtbröt), and Chestnut Rum Torte.

Illustrated step-by-step instructions demystify even the most complex techniques and preparations, ensuring the recipes remain eminently accessible throughout. With over 100 vivid color photographs that bring the delicacies remarkably to life, The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef provides expert instruction on the latest and greatest desserts for the serious baker.

With thousands of photos showing step-by-step instructions, you'll learn to identify and trim any kind of meat, seafood, fruit, and vegetable, and extensive photos and descriptions of spices, pasta, and grains take the guesswork out of new and unusual recipes. Seemingly complicated techniques for recipes such as Hollandaise Sauce are described with photos and with so many tips, tricks, and troubleshooting guides you feel as though an instructor is cooking alongside you. Organized from the simplest techniques and most basic information to the more complicated, you can use this book as a reference guide, a resource for increasing your confidence in the kitchen, or as a recipe-filled cookbook. The seventh edition has been completely reworked to include more-contemporary techniques alongside classic, more-sophisticated recipes, and there's greater emphasis on food safety, nutrition, and technology in the kitchen. --Leora Y. Bloom

From Library Journal
In the seventh revised edition of the basic textbook for the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the editors claim that they explain to the potential chef not just how to cook, but why the CIA insists on doing things the way it does. Since the CIA is often criticized for problems ranging from its devotion to classic French technique to its role in maintaining the patriarchy that dominates the profession, such justification seems in order. But there is actually little of it, either in the introductory essays or in the text that follows. There is little else to find fault with in this well-organized, comprehensive text. But while anyone aspiring to a career in food service may find it useful, it falls short of being a good learning text for the average cook. Its recipes are all written in scaled formulas, rather than in the cups and spoons measures most consumers use. In addition, those recipes mostly yield ten servings, and the task of reducing them to manageable proportions will put off most nonprofessional users. So although this is an excellent guide to the profession, it is recommended only for academic libraries supporting culinary programs and larger public libraries with comprehensive cookery collections. Tom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., MO
Copyright 2001 Reed business Information, Inc.

Yes, you can.

If you love to bake and are willing to plan ahead, you can make a spectacular wedding cake—and you don't have to be a pastry chef to do it! Let prominent wedding cake expert Dede Wilson guide you through every layer of the process—from choosing among flavors and styles to baking, assembling, and decorating your way to a beautiful and delicious cake. This accessible cookbook not only gets you ready for the big event, it helps you lend a truly personal touch to the celebration.

"If you want to make your own wedding cake, Dede Wilson is the perfect guide. She helps you bake with confidence every step of the way to a delicious personalized result."
—Donna Ferrari, BRIDE'S magazine

From the Inside Flap
"I do not believe in cakes that are made for beauty and ceremony only. I believe they should be eaten—and enjoyed! In fact, the majority of the time my cakes are used as the dessert, as opposed to a symbolic addition."
—Dede Wilson

Let them eat cake—in fact, let them eat your cake. Whether you're the bride, the groom, or a loving friend or family member who wants to make that special day unforgettable, public television cooking show host Dede Wilson knows that you—yes, you—can bake, frost, assemble, and decorate a spectacular, delicious, and totally unique wedding cake that won't put your budget over the edge—even if you've never mastered anything more complicated than a birthday cake or two. In wedding Cakes You Can Make, this top-tier expert reveals that all it takes to make that big-day cake is a love of baking and a willingness to plan properly and work patiently.

Whether you're feeding 20 or 150 people, preparation begins long before you preheat the oven. In this easy-to-follow, hands-on guide, Wilson takes you through the entire process, from the drawing board to the presentation table, sharing time-tested techniques that help you turn that cake of your dreams into a delectable reality.

She helps you get started by having you write a wish list that can be honed into a framework for the ideal cake. Then it's time to make the cake happen by working through all the practical elements that come into play, such as setting your budget (and sticking to it); choosing the essential flavors (if chocolate is the bride's passion, don't leave it out!); considering the wedding date (if it's October, think about fall colors); accommodating the number of guests (small guest list equals modest-sized cake); keeping in tune with the wedding's style or mood (beach-casual vs. black tie-formal); and getting organized (time to borrow that decorating turntable).

When it comes to execution, Wilson encourages you to use the highest-quality ingredients and equipment specific to the task, and to gain a foundation by making a six-inch sample cake—an integral step that, much like dating, allows you to try the cake on for size before making the final commitment. She shares her own favorite flavor combinations as well as those most frequently requested by bridal couples. For each of the 16 cakes, Wilson provides essential details—a timeline, thorough recipe directions, and tips. Recipes range from the lighthearted Raspberries and Cream Cake to the contemporary Nutella Cake and the sophisticated Gilded Mocha Cake. Color photographs of all the finished cakes and dozens of how-to photos give you the inspiration and know-how to bake your own special wedding cake.

As Wilson says, wedding cake flavor and design choices are infinite. In wedding Cakes You Can Make, she helps you create your own special slice of what is possible.