The arrival of the cake is the highlight of any party. But imagine the oohs and aahs when it arrives in the form of a fairy castle, a jack-in-the-box, or a baby's cradle! Master baker Ann Pickard shows how to create these and 22 other cake designs in this fun and fabulous guide. Each technique is presented in detail and illustrated with delectable photographs, from making royal icing, to using a special piping nozzle for creating hair and grass, to modeling some of the sweetest characters your party guests ever ate.

Ann Pickard qualified as a Baker and Cake Decorator in 1983 and opened her own shop, The Icing Centre, in 1986. She runs a successful cake-decorating business in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, UK and has published seven books on cake decorating called 'The Idiot's Guides', which have sold in excess of 45,000 copies in the last 16 years. She has also produced a range of DVDs on the same subject, as well as the recently published book Cake Characters. Also available by the same author: Cake Characters 9781861086433