When I signed the contract to write this book, I was told I had almost two years from that time to the actual publication date. I thought, No big deal, how hard could this be. I already had a lot of the recipes and had been making them for years. Well, I discovered that writing a cookbook is not a small undertaking. It takes an army of very patient people to make it come together.
First, my deepest thanks to my loving husband, Mark, and our two kids, Luca and Mina, for putting up with my working late nights and long weekends, for understanding why I had to make ten recipes a day while on a vacation in Cape Cod, and for suffering through years of recipe tasting. Thank you, too, to my grandmothers and mother, who flamed the baking fire in my soul, and my friends, for their belief in my ability to write a book and their unfailing encouragement along the way.
I’d like to thank my work family for making every day feel like a party. To Steve Abrams—my business partner, dear friend, and brother in crime for more than twenty-five years—and his wife, Tyra Abrams: We’ve celebrated a lot of successes together and suffered through a few losses with humor and dignity. Thank you both for your support and for letting me run with some of my crazy ideas. Together we built this little company into an international brand and got to see the world while we were at it.
To Cheryl Saenz, I’m grateful for your loving support over the many years we have worked together. You have an amazing eye, which is clearly reflected in the photographs here. You matched the props to each recipe perfectly and effortlessly. We laughed and danced through an insane few weeks of attempting to shoot more than 150 recipes—and we did it. You keep me sane. To Ned Semoff, Magnolia Bakery’s creative director and photographer extraordinaire, who shot the gorgeous images in this book, I am thankful that I work with you. You are insanely talented and a blast to be with. Your music choices keep me dancing and singing every day. Thank you to Sara Gramling and Lexi Portrait, for not only building the Magnolia Bakery brand, but also your editorial contributions to the book. Your suggestions always make me sound smarter.
My thanks to the many talented bakers and cake icers at Magnolia Bakery. Thank you, Joely Anderson, for working morning, noon, and night during the photo shoots to “get it right” just one more time. Thank you to Amy Tamulonis, Sarah Wallace, Sarah Kirkwood, and Jennifer Edwards for the last round of tweaking, and to America Salazar, for all the buttercream recipes she tested and the beautiful cakes she decorated. Thank you to my friend Cara Tannenbaum and to Olivia Mack McCool for jumping on board at the last minute to test entire chapters.
I would also like to thank everyone who has worked at Magnolia Bakery over the years; each of you has contributed to what we do and helped us grow. Thank you to Sina, Abby, Christa, Jaimie, Angel, Sam Z., and so many more dedicated bakers who tested, tested, and tested recipes over the years. Without your love for Magnolia Bakery, creative input, testing, tasting, feedback, and support, this book would not exist.
To my editor, Elizabeth Viscott Sullivan, I knew the minute I met you that you were the editor I wanted to work with. Thank you for believing in me, holding my hand through this tireless process—and for our late-night chats and emails that encouraged me when I thought I could never get the book done. You promised me the hardest work would be over soon and that you would deliver a beautiful book, and you did. To Laura Silverman, thank you for your help and writing support. When I told you I was struggling with the recipe headers because I’m not a writer, your reply—“You just wrote a cookbook, you are a writer.”—made me more confident. You helped me find my voice and made my stories come to life.
To Tricia Levi, who spent hour upon hour reviewing the recipes to make sure the instructions made sense and that every gram and ounce was correct, my deep thanks. Your attention to detail is unsurpassed.
To the team at Harper Design—art director Lynne Yeamans, production director Susan Kosko, and book designer Michelle Cohen—thank you for your stunning work on the book design and printing.
Finally, I’d like to thank all the loyal Magnolia Bakery customers, fans, families, and partners from around the world. You are why we’re here.
