Flagg Delahna - Eat cake naked: aphrodisiac desserts to heat up your love life

About the Authors

Amy Reiley is recognized as a leading authority on aphrodisiac foods. Her work as been featured in publications as varied as Playboy , National Geographic , and The New York Times . Shes helped couples learn to cook on reality television, done guest stints on The Today Show , tricked listeners on NPRs Wait Wait...Dont Tell Me! and even appeared as an expert guest on the runaway hit podcast, My Dad Wrote a Porno .

But her expertise in cooking began with dessert. Like many kids Amy had an insatiable sweet tooth. But as a picky eater, she refused to eat the vanilla sandwich cookies and Neapolitan ice cream her brother always managed to talk her mother into buying as the familys only desserts. (He knew Amy hated them.) So as soon as her mother allowed her to use the oven by herself, she started making magic with butter, flour and sugar.

As her appetite for culinary knowledge grew, she invested herself in studying the history and culture of food. Eventually, a freelance food writer, she became known for her work on aphrodisiacs. She earned her Masters Degree in Gastronomy from Le Cordon Bleu, by writing a dissertation on the relationship between food and sex in American pop culture.

In addition to speaking, writing and consulting on aphrodisiac foods, Amy is the Editorial Director of EatSomethingSexy.com and a freelance wine writer. She has two children, which is the sort of thing that tends to happen when you spend all your time cooking aphrodisiacs. Eat Cake Naked is her fifth aphrodisiac cookbook.

Delahna Flagg almost opted out of college to attend culinary school. But reason won out and Delahna earned her bachelorsand then headed off to Le Cordon Bleu, where she focused her studies on nutrition and food journalism. At Le Cordon Bleu she showed up for a lecture on aphrodisiacs presented by Amy Reiley. What she took away from that lecture was the thought that perhaps if she couldnt convince people to eat well for their overall health, maybe theyd do it for their sexual health . So she applied to become Amys intern at EatSomethingSexy.com .

After graduation, Delahna went on to work in fine dining kitchens but her heart wasnt in it. So she returned to school to study physiology and nutrition, first with a BS from UCLA then at a masters and doctoral level with Walden and Saybrook Universities and the Center for Mind Body Medicine. Her class work in cooking for special diets inspired Delahna to start a chef consultancy, cooking for clients with dietary restrictions including diabetics, celiacs and cancer patients.

As a chef for special needs clients, veganism inadvertently became Delahnas specialty. And instead of completing her doctoral dissertation as was expected of her, she took on the role of co-star in Pamela Andersons web series, The Sensual Vegan .

Delahna currently heads research & development for a company that specializes in creating healthy items for the mass market. She also serves as EatSomethingSexys Director of Nutrition. In her free time, she fosters dogs, working to improve their diets, of course!

Eat Cake

Naked

Amy Reiley & Del a hn a Fl a gg

Copyright 2018 Life of Reiley

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Contact Life of Reiley,

ISBN: 978-0-9846898-5-9 (epub)

ISBN: 978-0-9846898-6-6 (mobi-pocket)

ISBN: 978-0-9846898-7-3 (pdf)

Art Director and Designer: Deborah Daly

Editor: Ronie Reiley

Copy Editor: Mark Siagh

Photography: Amy Reiley, additional images courtesy of iStock; Shutterstock; Pixabay

Recipe Testers: Elizabeth Baker; Fred Caminite; Jena Chambers; Carol Commons; Amy Concannon; Jenna Denning; Erica Donnis; Kellee Everts; Sarah Weber Gallo; Shannon Garrison; Marianne Ghizzoni; Sarah Goss; Deb Goulding; Wendy Novak Nelson; Elaine Pool; Rob Rock; Jill Sazama; Jennifer Schneiderman; Melanie Underwood; Cassie Weinstock; Arlene Winnick

Printed in the USA

For information on bulk purchases or group discounts for this or any other Life of Reiley publication, please contact the publisher on 323.571.3571 or email

Introduction

When I was in college I read a short story called Eat Mangoes Naked. It wasnt about the sensuality of eating mangoes in the buff as you might assume. No, it was about the authors idiosyncratic fear of eating mangoes naked because she didnt think she could handle being that sticky.

That issue stuck with me. In fact, Ive been troubled by it ever since. Most of us have hang-ups eating or doing most anything else naked. And whether our apprehensions have to do with hygiene, body image, a fear of voyeurs or simply a dread of being cold, we just tuck them away under the armor of clothing, never to enjoy the sensuality of just being in our altogether.

Its taken me a long time to find the perfect way to address the issue. But then I had it! I thought: Im going to write a book of aphrodisiac desserts because theyre the perfect thing to eat naked. (And because dessert is my favorite part of any meal.) Now, when I tell people Im working on a book called Eat Cake Naked , they inevitably ask, Do you mean eat cake that has no frosting or do you mean strip down and eat cake in your birthday suit? Well, I actually meant the latter but I started to realize that the former has something to do with it, too.

You see, Ive always had an issue with dessert as an aphrodisiac. Not that desserts cant be aphrodisiac! Many ingredients used in typical desserts are historically considered aphrodisiac. But the problem is with how theyre combined, particularly in the United States, with staggering amounts of sugar, not to mention artery-clogging (and orgasm-blocking) fat. Have you ever had dessert and regretted it later? Have you ever gotten a stomachache or headache from an overload of sweet? Or a rush of energy followed by a depressive crash? Its not uncommon to have regrets after dessert.

But the point of an aphrodisiac food is to spark feelings of love, lust and desirenot put you in a food coma. When you look at the majority of the foods considered aphrodisiac throughout history from a nutritional standpoint, you realize that theyre really healthy. And the truth about aphrodisiac foods is that they dont contain mystical properties of seduction. Theyre just great ingredients packed with nutrients essential to sexual hormones and sexual performance.

I realized that if I was going to write an aphrodisiac dessert book that encourages people to tear off their clothes, I was going to have to makeover dessert recipes to be the kinds of foods that make people feel amazing. And so eating cake naked became so much more than simply stripping down and eating dessert fearlessly in your birthday suit. It became a book about stripping down dessert recipes to their sexy essence. And then building them back up into sensual indulgences that make you look and feel like stripping down and fearlessly eating cake nakedand then moving on to even sweeter desserts.

I knew there was one person who could help me make a book of the kind of dessert that could make anyone want to tear off their clothes and stoke the flames of passion. And so I reached out to Delahna. Her expertise in nutrition and years of experience as a private chef making over desserts for clients on restricted diets were invaluable to the reimagining of many classic desserts in this book.