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 perfection in my six year-old mind. White and fluffy, decoratively 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 later on 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 early obsession, I branched out, baking in earnest on weekends during my elementary school years, dog-earring and staining my copy of Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts-gifted to me by a friend of my mom’s who was clearly paying attention to my “hobby”. A baking lull followed during the vegetarian years, when I was forced to learn to cook savory food for sustenance. In my 20’s I made my first wedding cake for good friends and that is where I really got going. 

Many cakes later, I will say that I love cakes featuring clean, traditional flavors of the highest quality made using classic techniques. I insist on good butter, farm eggs, organic ingredients (whenever possible) and my preference for decoration is always fresh and local flowers.

I’m not a trendy baker, so perhaps that limits my scope in these days of TikTok and Instagram fabulous bakes…And, I am okay with that! If you are on the island and looking for a cake baked with care and experience, I am here and look forward to working with you on your special day.