FANTASTICAL CAKES

Baking and decorating a cake can be a challenge - and when the end result doesn't taste as good as it looks, a disappointing one! With Fantastical Cakes, everyone can learn to make doable, incredible celebration cakes that taste as good as they look.

Author and seasoned baker Gesine Bullock-Prado has perfected a method for creating eye-catching spectacular cakes that measure up. Her step-by-step instructions for baking, piping, and decorating make each bit manageable. A few of Bullock-Prado's easy-to-tackle techniques include her methods of baking layers ahead of time and freezing, and taking the time to crank out a slew of gorgeous frosting flowers that hold beautifully in the freezer until needed. Her aim is to present a "system" for cake decorating that carries the reader through from baking to final touches, no step skipped or left unexplained. Fantastical Cakes ensures a stunning, delicious cake from start to finish with "BaDASS": Bake ahead, Dam, Assemble, Smooth coat, and Spruce it up.

Bullock-Prado's layer directions are as easy as box mixes, and the smoothing and decorating instructions work the first time not a thousand passes later. From custom shapes to complement a party theme, to ultra-gorgeous cakes for special occasions, the recipes of Fantastical Cakes are all within reach.

Gesine Bullock-Prado is the owner and instructor of Sugar Glider Kitchen, a baking school in Hartford, Vermont, and is the author of Bake It Like You Mean It, Let Them Eat Cake, My Life from Scratch, Sugar Baby, and Pie It Forward. She has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, People Magazine, and In Style Magazine. She appears regularly on the Today Show and The Talk, and she's the host of Food Network's Baked in Vermont. Bullock-Prado lives in Hartford, Vermont, on a small farm with her husband, two dogs, two cats, chickens, and water fowl, where she bakes and cooks from the bounty of her property.