Photo by Matthew Septimus What a lovely coincidence that the 10th anniversary of Bake from Scratch is this year and The Cake Bible is celebrating its 35th anniversary edition at the same time! I am so honored to be a contributing editor to this wonderful publication dedicated to the home baker and will be writing a special essay for each of its bimonthly editions this year.I’d like to share some highlights about what it took to give my book such long-lasting relevance and to become a book that changed many people’s lives and careers.When I approached Maria Guarnaschelli, editor at William Morrow, with my idea to write a book about cake, one of her first questions was how much money I hoped to earn.

My unhesitating answer was that I would do it without any money if I could have a photo of every cake.And her response was that she could not accept such a generous offer.But I knew that I had gained her notoriously hard-won respect.

And years later, Maria told me I was the only one who approached her offering to write the book without royalties, and ironically, I was the only one who was actually earning money! In those days, cookbooks weren’t big sellers, and especially not baking books.William Morrow had just published two baking books by major food celebrities, both of which had failed.Maria asked me to make a lunch for her and the publisher Sher

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