Cressida Bell's Cake Design

Book excerpt: Home baking is hot, and Cressida Bell's Cake Designs takes the fun a step further. Cressida Bell's new book is a startlingly innovative and original take on the art and craft of cake decoration. Cressida is a scion of the famous Bloomsbury Group of artists - her grandmother was artist Vanessa Bell - and these wonderfully original designs for cakes, in their innovative use of colour and ingredients, whilst being totally contemporary in feel and look, reflect her honourable artistic inheritance. All the decorations are edible: there are cakes decorated with traditional sweets, cakes decorated with candied fruit and cakes decorated with nothing but sugar paste cut and shaped into striking, witty and vivid designs - a winner's rosette, a peacock in all his finery, a dahlia in full bloom. Each idea is inspirational, but is also eminently attainable - some easily achieved by children - and all suitable for any number of cake baking occasions from birthdays and anniversaries, to just producing something wonderful for tea. With basic cake recipes by eminent food writer, Rose Prince, Cressida Bell's Cake Designs is beautiful, inspiring, and above all, fun. Full instructions for decorating the cakes in this book can be found in the first chapter. This covers all the different techniques used, so there is no need to repeat them for each individual cake. The short paragraph opposite each cake highlights any particular variations or problems that might be encountered. This form of decoration is much easier than the traditional sort - but please do read 'Before You Start' thoroughly.