I've got a new project - hint, hint, it's sweet
It's a work in progress / It's dear to my heart / It's something I want to share with you / Think #TEAMCAKE
Bonjour! Bonjour!
For many months now, I’ve had a secret. I had no intention of keeping it a secret. No reason not to tell the world. Actually, looking back, I had every reason to tell, if not the world, then you, who share so many of the same passions that I do. But I was mum. And time passed. And then I kind of got used to chugging away merrily and quietly on the work. Yep, it’s a work project.
It’s a book!
A cake book. A book of very simple cakes. Right now, the working title is KITCHEN CAKES. It’s funny, I always say I’m going to change the working titles, but I never have. We’ll see what happens with this one. [UPDATE HERE!]
The book might have been called “Comfy Cakes” — I like alliteration (even if I’ve read that it’s as shallow a form as puns, which I also like) — but the word “comfortable” and the whittled-down word “comfy” have been used so much that, as evocative as they are, I think we pass over them without real consideration. Yet the cakes that I’m creating are comforting — a real pleasure to make and so easy and satisfying to enjoy. And to share. I can’t call the book “Pajama Cakes,” but I kind of wish I could — so many of the cakes I’m making would fit perfectly into a day when you’re just taking it easy around the house or searching for the last sweet of the night. You get the idea.
Why This? Why Now? Why Me?
The short answer’s the easy and true one: I love simple cakes. Always have. Always will.
According to Eat Your Books, the website that indexes cookbooks, I’ve got about 3,000 recipes to my name! I was stunned when I learned this. Also relieved: It gave me the best excuse for why I often don’t remember that some recipes are mine — there are just so many of them. But the ones I never forget are the ones I make and remake — the simple cakes.
For me, simple cakes are the ones that welcome frosting, but don’t need it. The cakes that you can pack up and bring to a friend, carry to a picnic, nibble on the train or tuck into lunchboxes. The travel cakes. The visiting cakes. They can be Bundts or loaves or squares. They can be small, like madeleines, or big like sheet cakes and stackables. I love them all and I’m loving working on this book.
For years, Mary Dodd, my recipe tester, would test a loaf cake or a batch of muffins and finish her notes saying, “Don’t you think you should write a book with nothing but these kinds of cakes?”
At last, I am.
It won’t come into the world until Fall 2025, but there’s lots to do until then. As you know or might suspect, working on a cookbook means there are delicious successes, inevitable and multiple misses (it’s the nature of the work) and limitless questions - since you’ve told me how much you love cooking, baking and cookbooks, my plan is to share some of these ups and downs with you here in the newsletter as I try to figure things out.
Meet the Team
I’m loving the work, but I’m also loving the team I get to work with.
As I have for over 20 years, I’m working with David Black, my agent, my friend and the best advisor a writer can have.
Whatever this book will finally be called, it will be published by Harvest Books — they, formally under the Houghton Mifflin and Rux Martin Books imprints, have published the majority of my books. (When this one’s born, it’ll be number 15.) And my editor is Sarah Kwak — we’ve worked together for years.
Back — actually, she’s never left (thank goodness!) — is ace recipe-tester Mary Dodd. We’re going on 15 years as teammates. We met right about when Baking From My Home to Yours came out (2006) — Mary says that she was a child and I was a youngster — and we’ve worked together on:
New to the group — and I’m still pinching myself that I get to work with her — is Nancy Pappas. Nancy is a wonderfully talented illustrator (take a look at what she’s done with one of my favorite chocolate makers, Stick with Me Sweets). Also, she’s a joy to work with. I met her at a Cherry Bombe Jubilee and from then on I hoped we’d find a way to collaborate.
Wait until you see what she’s doing for this book. 💜💜💜💜💜 Actually, here’s a sneak peek at an adorable GIF — on theme since it shows the work in progress.
And yes, I know how lucky I am!
#TEAMCAKE
There’s lots more to come. I’ve got a lot more work to do, so that means lots more peeks, lots more stories, lots more process and more progress (there’s got to be progress — did I mention there’s a deadline?!!!). Stay tuned.
Gosh it feels good to shout my secret out loud.
Mary, Nancy and I think of ourselves as #TEAMCAKE., and now that I’ve let you in on my secret, I’m considering you an official member, too. Welcome.
I’ll be writing about what I’m working on and the kinds of questions I’m trying to answer. I hope you’ll chime in — the more brains the better. If a friend shared this newsletter with you, but you’d like to get your own copy on the regular, you can sign up here.
P.S. Here’s another illustration from Nancy:
Pre-order DORIE’S ANYTIME CAKES on Amazon, Bookshop.org or Barnes & Noble.
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👨👩👧👦 Join BAKE AND TELL, our very own clubhouse so we can bake — and share— together. It has great recipes, riffable ideas & so much to learn from each other.
💥 New to xoxoDorie? You can find an archive of past newsletters here.
Please, please, please give us a sneak peak at a few of the recipes!
This is so exciting, congrats Dorie! I love cake so I might need to make an excuse to come over and taste all the recipes😉