From Booklist
A cake is de rigeur for any American birthday celebration worthy of the name. Continuing her series of volumes pictorializing her sumptuous cakes, Peters brings her decorative skills to cakes designed specifically for birthday observances. And anyone receiving a cake like one of Peters' creations should be particularly grateful. Peters' skill with milled fondant overshadows that of most other professional bakers. She can carve fondant into tight, sharp geometries, or she can swirl it, fold it, and wave it into silken ruffles and curves that belie its solidity. Line drawings assist the cook in recreating these elegant pastries, but only professionals and those with some formal training in handling fondants and cake-decorating tools and techniques will readily pick up on Peters' barebones instructions. Recipes, too, reflect a professional's approach, measuring by weight rather than volume. Mark Knoblauch
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FROM THE PUBLISHER

No birthday celebration is complete without a birthday cake, and no one makes more astoundingly beautiful or imaginative cakes than Colette Peters, cake decorator extraordinaire. Here are cakes for every month in the year and every sort of birthday celebrant. Each month has a sign of the zodiac cake (for Aquarius, a Water Pitcher mosaic), a birthstone cake (for June, a Crown of Pearls), and a flower cake. In addition there are Colette's fabulous one-of-a-kind cakes, such as an astonishingly realistic "leather" doctor's bag, a chess set, an art deco cake, and a Cherry Pie Purse.