Great Cake Bake

When Mayor Fargenberg announced a cake-baking competition for the town's big Fourth of July celebration, Donna Rae Hadley started thinking. And as all of Danville knew, once Donna Rae got one of her big ideas, anything could happen. Not just any cake would do for Donna Rae's entry. Of course it needed to taste wonderful. But her cake also needed all the drama of the Boston Tea Party. It needed to showcase patriotism, like the Statue of Liberty. It needed the pizzazz and excitement of Paul Revere's ride. Even Mayor Fargenberg, who was secretly sweet on Donna Rae, could see a culinary disaster in the making. Bring your fork and your appetite to this spirited holiday bake-off, but don't forget your napkin. The cake will be flying. Helen Ketteman grew up making cakes from scratch. Like Donna Rae, she sometimes had mishaps in the kitchen, including the double-layer cake that only measured an inch high because she forgot to add baking powder. Helen wrote Heat Wave and Shoeshine Whittaker for Walker & Company. She has two sons, Greg, an archaeologist, and Mark, a biologist, who grew up eating their mom's baked goods. Helen lives with her husband, Chuck, and feline "daughters," Geraldine and Tigger, in Florida. Matt Collins is an illustrator who likes eating cake. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Scientific American. The Great Cake Bake is his first picture book. He lives with his wife, Amy, and their daughter, Charlotte, in Connecticut. Amy is a phenomenal baker, and Charlotte is learning to bake like her mother.Ketteman, Helen is the author of 'Great Cake Bake', published 2005 under ISBN 9780802789501 and ISBN 0802789501.