Zoë Bakes Cakes

The expert baker and bestselling author behind Zoë Bakes explores her favorite dessert--cakes!--with more than 100 recipes to create flavorful and beautiful layers, loafs, bundts, and more.

Cake is the ultimate symbol of celebration, used to mark birthdays, weddings, or even just a Tuesday night. Yet too many people use chemical-laden mixes even though a cake is so easy to make from scratch and infinitely more fun to share. In Zoë Bakes Cakes, bestselling author Zoë François demystifies the craft of cakes with more than 100 easy-to-use recipes, showing how to get gorgeous confections on the table to mark any occasion, big or small.

In the opening chapter, Zoë explores the techniques and tricks of cake baking, using step-by-step photos to break down baking fundamentals like creaming butter and sugar and whipping egg whites, making it easy to follow along. In the following chapters she gives simple, straightforward recipes for loaf cakes, layers, fillings, frostings, and more--including treats like Apple Cake with Honey-Bourbon Glaze, Lemon Curd Pound Cake, Coconut Candy Bar Cake, and Chocolate Devil's Food Cake. There's even a tutorial on how to make a wedding cake from scratch, complete with constructing the layers.

With Zoë's encouragement, as well as her lighthearted approach, delicious homemade cake is within reach for any celebration imaginable.

Auteur

Zoë François studied art at the University of Vermont while also founding a cookie company as a way to earn extra money. She then traveled throughout Europe, tasting pastries along the way, and later studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Since then she has been a pastry chef at several Twin Cities restaurants and has worked repeatedly with Andrew Zimmern. Together with Jeff Hertzberg she wrote the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which turned into a bestselling series. She created the Zoë Bakes website in order to share her passion for pastry. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Graham, and two sons, her best creations yet!