The Birthday Cake Book

Whether you are going to be 1 or 100 years old Fiona Cairns has the perfect birthday cake for you - not only amazing to behold but also absolutely delicious to eat.

Fiona is a veteran at catering for every style and taste, and amongst the 50 cakes featured in this book there are masses of tempting choices as well as six themed birthday parties, each with a large cake, cupcakes, and biscuits. Starting with kids, any child will remember their birthday party when it has been embellished with tiny fairies sitting on top of tasty lemon fairy cakes; or a Dinosaur Party complete with Volcano Cake, Dinosaur Biscuits and Bones Cupcakes. A spherical Disco Glitter Ball Cake is a wonderful gift for the party girl in your life, while a realistic Vegetable Plot - complete with hidden courgettes and carrots in the cake beneath - is the very thing for your favourite gardener.

Even those who lack a sweet tooth are remembered, with a Savoury ‘Cake' of home-made soda bread and smoked salmon, ‘iced' with cream cheese to look like the real thing. Those with allergies are catered to as well: there is a choice of recipes that are flour-free, and some even free from all common allergens. Fiona's warm writing style and easy-to-follow instructions means making beautiful, surprising and divine-tasting birthday cakes is something everybody can achieve, no matter how inexperienced, and enjoy the process. So bring a special gift to the party, and get baking!

About the Author

Fiona Cairns made the cake for 2011's Royal Wedding. Her greatest innovation was the miniature cake - since widely copied - and first sold to the Conran Shop while working from her kitchen table. Her company now bakes 750,000 exquisite cakes every year for Waitrose, Harrods, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, and Le Bon Marche in Paris. She also makes Sir Paul McCartney's Christmas cake every year. Despite the fact that her bakery doubled in size in 2010, Fiona loves home baking and still makes cakes at home for friends and family. She lives in Leicestershire with her husband and two children. This is her second book, following the critically acclaimed Bake & Decorate, also published by Quadrille.