Introduction

When I was in college I read a short story called “Eat Mangoes Naked.” It wasn’t about the sensuality of eating mangoes in the buff as you might assume. No, it was about the author’s idiosyncratic fear of eating mangoes naked because she didn’t think she could handle being that sticky.

That issue stuck with me. In fact, I’ve been troubled by it ever since. Most of us have hang-ups eating or doing most anything else naked. And whether our apprehensions have to do with hygiene, body image, a fear of voyeurs or simply a dread of being cold, we just tuck them away under the armor of clothing, never to enjoy the sensuality of just being in our altogether.

It’s taken me a long time to find the perfect way to address the issue. But then I had it! I thought: I’m going to write a book of aphrodisiac desserts because they’re the perfect thing to eat naked. (And because dessert is my favorite part of any meal.) Now, when I tell people I’m working on a book called Eat Cake Naked, they inevitably ask, “Do you mean eat cake that has no frosting or do you mean strip down and eat cake in your birthday suit?” Well, I actually meant the latter but I started to realize that the former has something to do with it, too.

You see, I’ve always had an issue with dessert as an aphrodisiac. Not that desserts can’t be aphrodisiac! Many ingredients used in typical desserts are historically considered aphrodisiac. But the problem is with how they’re combined, particularly in the United States, with staggering amounts of sugar, not to mention artery-clogging (and orgasm-blocking) fat. Have you ever had dessert and regretted it later? Have you ever gotten a stomachache or headache from an overload of sweet? Or a rush of energy followed by a depressive crash? It’s not uncommon to have regrets after dessert.

But the point of an aphrodisiac food is to spark feelings of love, lust and desire—not put you in a food coma. When you look at the majority of the foods considered aphrodisiac throughout history from a nutritional standpoint, you realize that they’re really healthy. And the truth about aphrodisiac foods is that they don’t contain mystical properties of seduction. They’re just great ingredients packed with nutrients essential to sexual hormones and sexual performance.

I realized that if I was going to write an aphrodisiac dessert book that encourages people to tear off their clothes, I was going to have to makeover dessert recipes to be the kinds of foods that make people feel amazing. And so eating cake naked became so much more than simply stripping down and eating dessert fearlessly in your birthday suit. It became a book about stripping down dessert recipes to their sexy essence. And then building them back up into sensual indulgences that make you look and feel like stripping down and fearlessly eating cake naked…and then moving on to even sweeter desserts.

I knew there was one person who could help me make a book of the kind of dessert that could make anyone want to tear off their clothes and stoke the flames of passion. And so I reached out to Delahna. Her expertise in nutrition and years of experience as a private chef making over desserts for clients on restricted diets were invaluable to the reimagining of many classic desserts in this book.

Delahna taught me how to strip desserts of unnecessary sugar and sneak in ingredients that are not only aphrodisiac but will prime the body for mad, hot sex. I could go on, but if you think about the healthy side too much, it all starts to lose its sex appeal. Later in the book we go into some of the nitty gritty on our ingredient choices. It’s pretty interesting if you’re into understanding the nutrition side of things. But if you’re simply here to make seductive desserts to turn your lover on, just know that when you eat our recipes, you’re going to feel like dancing to Barry White all night long. And, of course, you’ll be doing the whole thing naked.

—Amy Reiley