A few years ago, after completing The Baking Bible, team “RoseWood”—my longtime collaborator, Woody Wolston, and I—was gearing up to embark on a wedding cake book when our visionary editor, Stephanie Fletcher, suggested first doing a book for “beginners.” For a few seconds I resisted, saying that beginners work just fine from all of my other books, even young people who win blue ribbons at county fairs. But as the words were halfway out of my mouth I did an immediate about-face as I suddenly, with lightning bolt clarity, realized the potential. So I said: “If we could have step-by-step photos of the recipes and techniques, the book would be invaluable for both the beginner and the advanced baker, and I would have the book of my dreams.” And gradually I realized that although all of my books have all the details needed for success, at first glance they may be perceived as challenging—perhaps due to so much detailed information. A photo, however, is indeed worth a thousand words and would not give that perception, especially if we changed the formatting of the text to be as concise as possible. It would also serve to show exactly what the various stages of baking are supposed to look like. Videos are great, but carefully chosen photographs, focused on the specific steps needed, are actually far more useful.
I also realized that the recipes would be more logically written in the way I actually make them, so I put any necessary preparation right at the top where it belongs, and call it “mise en place,” just as the setup for ingredients is referred to in professional kitchens.
At the end of most recipes, I have added Baking Pearls that contain special tips for success and good-to-know information. I’ve also added Make This Recipe Your Own, which will give you tested ideas for suggested substitutions and variations.
One of the changes in this book I’m most pleased about is that ounces are now mostly eliminated and grams come before volume. This is because most kitchen scales now measure both grams and ounces and switching between the two is easy. Weighing is easier and more reliable than measuring by volume. I’ve preferred it since the publication of my first book more than thirty years ago, and by now many people have embraced it. If you haven’t yet, you should. This is an important step to near guarantee a successful outcome.
Another change that turned out to have huge impact on the complete precision of information is that Woody and I decided to do all the preparation and styling for the step-by-step photography on our own, in my dedicated baking kitchen. We knew that this would give us total control of the recipes, including the ability to enter every tweak and improved technique that would ensue from baking the recipes after they were tested and written up in final form. The next step was to find a first rate photographer who embraced the idea of coming to Hope, New Jersey, for many days, over a period of several months, to achieve the more than 600 step-by-step photos. Matthew Septimus was our man. For the “beauty” shots, we were additionally blessed to have our dear friend, the talented food stylist and baking author Erin Jeanne McDowell, join the team.
It is my goal to teach and share with all of you many tried and true favorites, now brought to life with instructional photos, as well as new delicious discoveries and exciting new techniques that make baking more fun than ever before.
Bake with Love,
ROSE