All Cakes Considered

A producer of NPR's All Things Considered, Melissa Gray has compiled a collection of her favorite tried and true cake recipes into this fun collection, All Cakes Considered. In order to perfect some of her cake recipes, Melissa began baking a cake each week, which she would take in to her coworkers at NPR. Eventually it became a weekly tradition. Her reason for taking the cakes to work: "these people will eat anything." She mentions that when she brings her cake in on Monday morning, it will be gone in 90 minutes. "These people communicate and orchestrate their movements like army ants. They will appear suddenly in one long, continuous line, and they will ravish said cake. There will be nothing left. No crumbs. No icing....a chocolate cake at the office will be whittled down to the last quarter slice in less than 30 minutes." It's true, isn't it? Even at 9 a.m., people will devour a cake.

The recipes sound delicious: Sour Cream Pound Cake (aka the Man Catcher), Key Lime Cake, Drunken Monkey Banana Bread, Tunnel of Fudge Cake, Butter Rum Cake, Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake (aka The Naughty Senator). Unfortunately, I was not able to test any of these recipes because I don't have a working oven in my new house yet, and I've found that baking in a toaster oven is a pain and does not yield great results.* So I was left with just the pictures and my imagination. I imagine I would line up like an army ant to get a piece of one of these cakes. The book begins with the easier recipes and works its way up to more advanced recipes. Readers are mean to start at the beginning and perfect the techniques of the easy cakes before moving on. She includes little stories about her family and coworkers with each recipe, which are lighthearted and fun. If I ever get a working kitchen, I'll be making some of these cakes for my coworkers.

*So much for my idea of a cookbook based on toaster oven cooking.