Cafe Fernando

The Artful Baker is out!

The Artful Baker is finally out for you to bake from! I’ve been waiting impatiently for this day to arrive for almost two years now!

It feels like yesterday, but I started working on the Turkish edition of The Artful Baker over 7 years ago. Following four and a half years of hard work, it was published in 2014. Right after the book tour and then a short vacation in San Francisco, I started working on the English edition. I still can’t believe I was able to finish it in 18 months. Thanks to my dear friend Rachel Berman Boller, who you’ll meet in person if you can make it to one of the book tour events in San Francisco, all the recipes I and my army of Turkish recipe testers worked on for years were tested with U.S. ingredients. The majority of the recipes worked in her kitchen just as greatly and we were able to finalize those that needed a few tweaks within the deadline.

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The Artful Baker book tour

I can’t believe there is only one day left until the publication of The Artful Baker! I’m beyond excited to share my stories and recipes and can’t wait to meet you in person.

I’ll be embarking on a book tour in New York and San Francisco. I hope you’ll stop by to say hello if you’re in the area.

Below are the confirmed events so far. Please RSVP via my Facebook group’s events page and share the news with friends and family who might be interested! More may be added close to the publication date, so follow me on Instagram, join the The Artful Baker/Cafe Fernando Facebook group or bookmark the book’s website for updates.

Hope to meet you soon!

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Sour Cherry & Almond Upside-Down Cake From The Artful Baker

In celebration of my book’s upcoming release (out on Tuesday!), I’d like to share the video I’ve created for my favorite recipe in the book: Sour Cherry & Almond Upside-Down Cake.

Considering that there is a chocolate cake using over a pound of chocolate (page 144), passion fruit caramels that make me weak in the knees (page 274), and several ice creams that I can’t live without, “my favorite recipe in the book” is a big statement. I’m not sure whether it’s the sticky-sweet sour cherries against that buttery, almond-y crumb, or the fact that the fruit layer gets sweeter and stickier each time I apply the sour cherry glaze to refresh it, but this cake is what I crave most.

Here’s what the queen of baking, Rose Levy Beranbaum, said about the cake in her review: “The almond cake is a high achievement in perfection of texture–surprising for a layer cake so low in wheat flour.”

I hope you have a stash of sour cherries in your freezer!

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