The Great Cake Bake Tapa dura - 2005

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.