The 175 cake recipes in this collection represent the best of Maida's baking career, including an ever-so-lighter take on her legendary Queen Mother's Cake, Maida's self-proclaimed favorite, featuring a flourless chocolate cake that is rich and moist without being heavy or dense. There are delicious plain and fancy cakes, stolen, sticky buns, shortbreads, gingerbreads, doughnuts, cheesecakes, muffins, nutcakes, ice creams, and sauces. Maida's fool-proof recipes, suitable for novice and experienced bakers alike, are held in high-regard for their consistently clear, easy-to-follow instructions, along with her signature baking tips that ensure the perfect dessert every time when followed to the letter. If a specific brand name product creates an extra-velvety cream cheese filling or a particular kitchen instrument, like a 12-cup fancy tube pan, yields the perfect rise to a Kugelhopf, Maida includes this bit of information within the recipe in her straight-forward, approachable style. From easily prepared recipes like the East 62nd Street Lemon Cake to the flavorfully frosty East Hampton Chocolate Ice Box Cake to the health-inspired Whole-Wheat Yogurt Date-Nut Gingerbread, this first-ever paperback edition of Maida Heatter's Cakes allows you to bring the cake renaissance into your own kitchen, along with a little bit of help from the Queen of Cake. Author Bio: Maida Heatter is the author of nine dessert cookbookseach a classicincluding the New York Times bestseller and James Beard award-winning Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts. She is a member of the James Beard Foundation Hall of Fame, has been named to Cook's Magazine Who's Who in Cooking, and was one of the first people inducted into Chocolatier's Hall of Fame. At 95, she continues to bake every day.