The Birthday Cake Book - Tapa dura

Fiona Cairns turns her attention to birthdays, adding a touch of bling to her trademark pretty style. Every day of the year is someone's birthday, the chance to celebrate with close friends or family, or maybe an excuse for a larger bash. A birthday cake is the centrepiece, ablaze with candles, cut with a secret wish and shared to create precious memories. Many families have a treasured recipe, baked for every birthday. Perhaps you'll find a new family favourite in these pages. Whether you are one or 100, a Goth or a gardener, there is the perfect cake for you here. The Birthday Cake Book has 52 new recipes and 61 cake decorations, including 16 cupcakes. Every recipe is delicious. Try the sensational masala chai cake with ginger fudge frosting, or a sophisticated pistachio, Grand Marnier and olive oil creation. Many require no sugarcraft skills at all. Fiona also gives five spectacular themed parties, from Vampires, with an eye-popping crystal skull cake, to Vintage Tea Party, with a super-realistic crocodile handbag cake. So bring a special gift to a birthday party, and get baking!

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.