Presents thirty designs for wedding cakes and celebration pastries, providing tips on incorporating the theme of a wedding, pairing a cake with acompanying pastries, and directions on carving, sculpting, and stacking cakes.

Of all the decisions that go into planning a wedding, choosing the cake may be the sweetest. Much more than dessert, this beloved wedding symbol should be as special as the bride and groom themselves. Whether you imagine a majestic cake blooming with fresh flowers, a pristine fondant-covered masterpiece, or a homespun take on strawberry shortcake- or even if you don’t know where to begin- Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes will provide you with more than 100 delicious and inspiring ideas for timeless and beautiful confections that are perfect for every style of wedding. Not just visually inspiring, these pages are filled with information you won’t find anywhere else. Martha Stewart and Wendy Kromer, the master baker and decorator who has been creating cakes for Martha Stewart Weddings for more than a decade, guide you through everything you need to consider when selecting a cake- and even how to bake and decorate one yourself. Novice and experienced bakers alike will find recipes and insiders’ techniques to create truly memorable wedding cakes. You will learn: Where to begin- how to decide what style and flavors are right for you, taking into account the season, location, and theme of the event Buttercream or fondant? Ganache or meringue? Useful charts explain the delicious materials bakers use, so you can choose the ones that suit your taste and style Creative ways to display your cake so it takes center stage at the reception How to find and hire a baker, including questions to ask and contract considerations Ideas for cutting costs without sacrificing quality or beauty How to incorporate traditions from around the world Everything you need to know about baking a cake yourself, with complete recipes as well as how-to decorating techniques with color photographs and reference charts A treasury of inspiration, Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes will ensure that your cake, whether homemade or professionally baked, triple-tiered or a tower of cupcakes, embellished with fresh fruit or elaborate sugar roses, is every bit as magical as your big day.

Experience the Joy and Delight of Creating Amazing Wedding Cakes from Scratch. Lorelie Carvey will show you how to make and decorate the perfect wedding cake. The award-winning pastry chef has spent over thirty years perfecting her techniques and now offers advice that will ensure a sweet memory for your bride's special day. From the first idea to the spectacular result, Carvey guides you through everything you need to know to make the ultimate dream dessert. She includes her favorite recipes, like her chocolate buttermilk cake, hazelnut cake, chocolate mousse, lemon cream cheese, Italian meringue buttercream, and so much more. Carvey personally perfected each recipe during her baking career. In addition to recipes, Carvey clearly and comprehensively explains and demonstrates (with detailed photos) the baking and decorating techniques so you can create your unique cake design. With her own guide to ingredients, cooking methods, baking utensils, and decorating tips, you'll have everything you need to create a magnificent wedding cake that will be remembered and cherished by everyone. Your purchase comes with benefits including...a membership to Lorelie's exclusive cake support group, step by step video, a discount coupon for Cake Stackers, printable guides to pan sizes with number of servings, cups of batter, baking temperatures, baking times and cups of icing to frost and decorate. It also includes a guide to bakers measures and equivalents, emergency substitutions, cake ingredients, functions, fails and causes, a photo tutorial of delivering your cakes, plus cake decorating ideas and instruction.

From wonderful classic cakes to inspiring confections of seasonal fruit, these homemade desserts make the most delicious impressions at every occasion--a birthday or wedding, an elegant holiday dinner or casual summer luncheon, a country picnic or everyday meal. Easy-to-follow recipes guide you each step of the way, and color photographs of all the desserts offer beautiful, creative serving ideas.

In Sweet Celebrations the woman InStyle called “New York's reigning cake diva” shares her recipes, designs, techniques, and tips in a gloriously illustrated book. Bon Appétit called master baker and decorator Weinstock “the Leonardo da Vinci of wedding cakes,” and her stunningly original creations have graced the celebrations of Oprah Winfrey, Ted Turner, and Whitney Houston. Her repertoire includes not just grand, romantic, floral wedding cakes but cakes appropriate for all of life's festive moments. Now she shares her expertise with bakers who want the perfect cake to commemorate that very special occasion. Sweet Celebrations includes cakes for birthdays, anniversaries, bon voyage send-offs, victory parties, and more. Graded according to difficulty, there are cakes for the beginning as well as the experienced decorator. Present your favorite graduate with a richly bound pile of books, welcome a newborn with a delectable stack of pastel-colored blocks, or serve the charming cottage cake at a housewarming. Each of the featured twenty-four cakes is shown in full color, with complete step-by-step instructions for baking, assembling, and decorating. In addition there are many inspiring photographs of the fabulous cakes Weinstock has created for clients around the world. The book provides recipes for cakes, frostings, and fillings, as well as detailed illustrated instructions on decorating techniques. Sweet Celebrations is a must-have volume for home and professional bakers who want to make and serve cakes that taste as good as they look.

First published in 1992, Wedding Cakes and Cultural History is a unique contribution to the anthropology of food, tracing the fascinating history of wedding cakes, from late medieval feasts and rites, through the Victorian wedding breakfast and into the 1990s. Dr. Charsley maps the intricate creation of the wedding cake and explores its uses and meanings. He shows that the wedding cake provides a vivid illustration of the traditions and traditional values inherent in all foods and demonstrates the part that material culture plays in the process of change. Challenging in its ideas, yet approachable in style and subject matter, this book will be of great interest to students and teachers of anthropology, sociology and cultural studies.

The wedding market is a $32 billion business. Experts say that brides-to-be generally buy every book and magazine they can get their hands on when planning a wedding, and yet, remarkably, The Wedding Cake Book is the first cookbook of its kind -- a gorgeous idea book that really shows you how to bake a beautiful wedding cake. There are 30 complete recipes in all, with detailed, step-by-step instructions. A one-of-a-kind resource, with gorgeous photography throughout, The Wedding Cake Book is sure to become a classic cookbook among bakers, and makes the perfect shower gift.

A fiction debut that will leave you wanting seconds, from an award-winning cookbook author. Claire “Neely” O’Neil is a pastry chef of extraordinary talent. Every great chef can taste shimmering, elusive flavors that most of us miss, but Neely can “taste” feelings—cinnamon makes you remember; plum is pleased with itself; orange is a wake-up call. When flavor and feeling give Neely a glimpse of someone’s inner self, she can customize her creations to help that person celebrate love, overcome fear, even mourn a devastating loss. Maybe that’s why she feels the need to go home to Millcreek Valley at a time when her life seems about to fall apart. The bakery she opens in her hometown is perfect, intimate, just what she’s always dreamed of—and yet, as she meets her new customers, Neely has a sense of secrets, some dark, some perhaps with tempting possibilities. A recurring flavor of alarming intensity signals to her perfect palate a long-ago story that must be told. Neely has always been able to help everyone else. Getting to the end of this story may be just what she needs to help herself.

IACP AWARD FINALIST • The expert baker and bestselling author behind the Magnolia Network original series Zoë Bakes explores her favorite dessert—cakes!—with more than 85 recipes to create flavorful and beautiful layers, loafs, Bundts, and more. “Zoë’s relentless curiosity has made her an artist in the truest sense of the word.”—Joanna Gaines, co-founder of Magnolia NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME OUT Cake is the ultimate symbol of celebration, used to mark birthdays, weddings, or even just a Tuesday night. In Zoë Bakes Cakes, bestselling author and expert baker Zoë François demystifies the craft of cakes through more than eighty-five simple and straightforward recipes. Discover treats such as Coconut–Candy Bar Cake, Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze, and decadent Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake. With step-by-step photo guides that break down baking fundamentals—like creaming butter and sugar—and Zoë’s expert knowledge to guide you, anyone can make these delightful creations. Featuring everything from Bundt cakes and loaves to a beautifully layered wedding confection, Zoë shows you how to celebrate any occasion, big or small, with delicious homemade cake.