Austin - Maggie austin cake - artistry and technique

Copyright 2017 by Maggie Austin
Photography 2017 by Kate Headley

Still Life with Flowers and Fruit by Jan van Huysum, , courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-544-76535-1 (hardcover);
978-0-544-77032-4 (ebook)

Book design and hand-lettering by Laura Palese

v1.0317

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My agent, Berta Treitl, for your patient encouragement and sensitive perseverance. That first cup of tea has taken us a long way and I cant wait to see where we go next! My publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for sharing my vision and making it happen. My editor, Stephanie Fletcher, for your light touch and keen eye. From the moment we met, I felt so fortunate to have found my ideal match. Book designer Laura Palese, for crafting a beautiful home for all of this work.

Photographer Kate Headley, for your boundless energy and sense of adventure. You were our undaunted partner and I am so proud of what we made together. Stylist Lauren ONeill, for your extraordinary attention to detail. Jane Covington Restoration, for opening the doors of Old Chapel Farm so graciously, and my friend Nicole Watson, for making the introduction. Something Vintage, for lending us your gorgeous table settings.

My instructors at the French Pastry School, whose passion for the craft ignited my own. My fellow cake designers and sugar artists, past, present, and future. I am so honored to be part of this nurturing and creative community.

My fans and followers, for your overwhelming support and enthusiasm. My students and interns, for sharing your talent and your spirit. My clients, for the absolute pleasure of celebrating with you.

My business partner and sister, Jess, who has always been and will always be at my side.

Finally, my heart goes out to my mom, my dear friends Joli and Diana, my wonderful family, and the loves of my life, my husband, Robert, and our dog, Bessie. Your unconditional support means the world to me. I love you all.

INTRODUCTION

MY JOURNEY TO CAKE design began in the ballet studio. I was four years old the summer my mom signed me up for class. Ballet struck a chord within me; I was drawn to the quiet, repetitive work and attention to detail. For as long as I could remember, becoming a professional dancer was not my dreamit was simply my path.

My ballet career began right out of high school. The work was exhausting but unbelievably rewarding. Every morning, I arrived at the studio energized and excited. Now that I was dancing for an internationally renowned ballet company, the bar was higher but the ritual was the same: training every day to achieve the subtle tilt of the head, the rounded shape of the arm, the clean line of a perfect arabesque.

Suddenly, an injury changed everything. The doctors said I had irreparable damage to a tiny bone in my foot. As a ballet dancer, this meant the inability to go en pointe . My dancing career was over.

Ballet had been my focus for twenty years. Without it, I was adrift.

I found solace in the kitchen. As a child, I was always my dads sous chef, and the ritual of baking, with its precise steps and centuries-old techniques, reminded me of dance. It helped me regain a sense of order in my life. I enrolled in LArt de la Ptisserie program at the French Pastry School in Chicago and studied with acclaimed pastry chefs Sbastien Canonne and Jacquy Pfeiffer. When we studied sugar flowers, I was hooked. Like ballet, the crafting of roses, peonies, and other flowers out of sugar required patience and attention to detail, and the results could be astonishingly beautiful. At last Id found a new discipline through which I could achieve the beauty and artistic expression I craved.

I pursued my new craft with all the intensity Id brought to ballet. After graduating, I interned at the legendary Charlie Trotters in Chicago, where I worked with chef Della Gossett preparing elaborate plated desserts. The high pressure and grueling hours were unforgiving. On rare days off, I recovered by working quietly with my sugar flowers. But the frenetic energy of a restaurant kitchen was not a good fit for me. I relocated to Washington, D.C., to live with my sister, Jessica. In the quiet of her dining room, I began experimenting with cake design for the first time. I played around with line and texture, developing my own techniques and aesthetic. The results were exciting, so Jessica and I decided to start a business. I photographed some cakes and built a website, while Jessica worked on a business plan and scheduled meetings with event planners. We rented a kitchen by the hour and booked a few local clients. Maybe in a few years, we thought, we might get a photo in a magazine.

But fate had something very different in mind. Two weeks after we launched the website, the Today show invited me to New York to participate in their popular wedding series, Today Show Throws a Modern Wedding . When host Gail Simmons introduced viewers to my cake design on national television, she called me the darling of the blogosphere. Unbeknownst to us, bloggers had been taking photographs of my cakes from the website and sharing them all over the Internet. My cakes had been blogged, tweeted, pinned, and shared worldwide. Maggie Austin Cake had gone viral.

After that, business grew steadily. High-profile clients from all over the world booked me for weddings. I made sugar flowers for the White House Christmas and was featured on HGTV. I have a line of wedding cakes at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. I even made Dr. Jane Goodall a birthday cake!

Throughout all this, sharing what I do and how I do it is second nature. Whether in workshops or via video instruction, I find the process of passing along my craft to be both personally rewarding and professionally exciting, and it fulfills my need to connect with people who share my love of making beautiful things. And what a vibrant and diverse community it is! In my experience, a retired accountant who has never heard of gum paste is just as capable of producing a stunning sugar orchid as an executive pastry chef.