One of my earliest cake memories centers around the cover of Time Life Foods of the World: Vienna.

The cake featured, a Spanische Windtorte, was the epitome of perfection. White and fluffy, piped to within an inch of its life and embellished with candied violets, I dreamed of this cake for years. Funny enough, when I tried to recreate it using my grandmother’s recipe book, it was a bit disappointing-basically meringue and whipped cream (both are delicious, but not cake in my own book!).

From this obsession, I branched out, baking in earnest on weekends during my elementary school years.