Filed under: Dessert, Books, Cookbook of the Day

When we were celebrating Slashfood's first birthday, I featured a cookbook about birthday cakes, but today deserves another birthday cake cookbook because it's my birthday, and a birthday just isn't the same without cake. If you have ever seen one of the Food Network cake challenges, you might already know who Colette Peters is. She is an extraordinarily talented baker and cake decorator who, fortunately, decided to share more than a few of her tricks in Colette's Birthday Cakes. She provides some good basic recipes to work with, including chocolate and white cake recipes, buttercreams, ganache, fondant and others. Once the basics are mastered, you can move on to the decorating. The techniques provided in the book are good, but as with most artistic things, good instructions will not necessarily result in a showpiece. There is no substitute for practice, but with the great photos, recipes and tips from Colette, your cake making will probably improve by quite a bit. Just take care not to make the cakes too elaborate or no one will want to cut in to them for a taste!