Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I'm decent in the kitchen, but I'm not much of a baker, which is why I was thankful for today's interview, just in time for the holidays, is with Rose Levy Barambam, author of The Cake Bible. If you're not into baking lore, this book first came out in 1988. And it was pretty monumental. It became a

go-to resource for home bakers and professionals. But a long time has passed since that book

first came out, and Barambam is out with a new version accounting for new technology and some new

techniques. But the spirit, the philosophy of the book, is still the same.

She's spoken here now as Robin Young about the one important thing baking amateurs like me should watch out for.

That's ahead.

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When Rose Levy-Ber-enbaum's Cake Bible was first published on the fortuitous date of August 8, 1988, or 888,

you could hear a pin drop. Okay, maybe not everywhere, but in the world of baking,

there was a collective intake of air, a gasp because the wheel

had just been reinvented.

Sure, there are other cake books, but this one was the first to list ingredients by weight instead

of volume.

It introduced reverse creaming, mash up the flour and butter first instead of butter and sugar,

and charts.

So many charts.

One of them finally explaining the differences

between cakes based on the percentage of eggs, flour, liquid, and fat in every one. In short,

...