Impress your friends and loved ones with your cake decoration skills - whatever the occasion. Ann Pickard sets out 25 fun and fabulous cakes that are ideal for that special celebration, including an enchanting fairy castle, a delightful Jack-in-the-box, mouth-watering chocolate ruffles, a Halloween Pumpkin, baby's cradle and a figgy pudding. No prior knowledge is needed - Ann has simplified the process in an ingenious way, so even beginners will be amazed by the fantastic results they can achieve following her fully illustrated step-by-step instructions. Making royal icing, covering the cake, creating a range of cake characters and piping hair and grass are just some of the basic techniques carried through the 25 projects that are suitable for the beginner to the more advanced cake maker. Whatever the occasion, the personal touch will mean so much more and the guest of honour will be delighted to receive a cake that has been custom-made just for them. AUTHOR: 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