'One Cake' is a recipe for all your baking needs

Every change of the seasons used to send pastry chef Greg Case back to his mixing bowls to devise new desserts. After a while, he realized that he was tweaking the same few recipes over and over again. That's when he challenged himself to come up with one master recipe that could be transformed into everything from cheesecake to brownies.

The result turned into the new cookbook "One Cake, One Hundred Desserts," co-authored with Keri Fisher. Playing off the concept of culinary shortcuts, the book starts at a higher level with a recipe from scratch. "Ours is the book for those who would not be caught dead buying a boxed cake mix," says Fisher, referring to the popularity of books such as "The Cake Mix Doctor," and "Semi-Homemade." In contrast, "One Cake" sends you into the kitchen to bake with butter and eggs and measure your own dry ingredients. Fisher, a contributing editor at Cook's Country magazine, based in Brookline, met Case when they both worked at the former Salamander restaurant. Now living near Philadelphia, she is a contributor to the Food section.

Case was a pastry chef at Hamersley's Bistro, owned the G. Cake Baking Co. , and assisted former White House chef Henry Haller on "The Presidential Palate" show on PBS. "The basic cake recipe in the book probably evolved during my whole baking career," says Case. At first, Case wanted to use a genoise (a fairly difficult but light French cake leavened only by the air beaten into eggs). Then he realized that baking powder would make the basic recipe more foolproof. The final cake is a sponge cake made with a teaspoon of baking powder, as well as milk, vanilla, three eggs, and three extra yolks.

The baking duo then set to work testing the batter with chocolate, orange marmalade, key lime juice, and even York Peppermint Patties to satisfy Fisher's candy-crazed nephew. "That was the fun part of it," Case says. "We kept pushing to see what we could do."

Over their three years of testing -- during which Fisher gave birth to two sons -- they went through thousands of eggs and hundreds of gallons of milk. Even they were surprised by the recipe's adaptability into hot fudge upside-down cake, blackberry petits fours, butterscotch Madeleine cookies, whoop i e pies, and summer berry pudding. Along with the dessert recipes, the book includes a chapter on fillings, frostings, and toppings.

"One Cake," which includes step-by-step photos of the master recipe, should give timid bakers plenty of confidence. "The more you bake the recipe, the more you become familiar with it, and become proficient," says Fisher.