From the Introduction: I wanted to find ways to make cakes at home that didn't involve a lot of piping or professional techniques. So rather than pipe borders, I would fake them with candy or other things. I realized I could make some nice cakes without a lot of special tools. I also wanted to do it without creating a huge mess to clean up afterwards. With a combination of short cuts and tricks, I feel like I came up with some great ideas. I love to serve a cake that fakes people into thinking I'm a more experienced decorator than I really am I challenged myself to come up with as many ideas as I could for decorating that did not require special tools or techniques. Most of the ideas I came up with are so simple a child could follow the directions and create a beautiful cake. I knew there are plenty of home bakers out there that could use some of these tips. The title for this book, "Cake Fakery," comes from my feeling that I was cheating, faking certain parts of the cake, like using candy or cookies or ribbon for the border, and adding texture to the cakes to hide my sloppy icing jobs. There's no crime in tricking your guests into thinking it took you longer than it really did to make your cake, especially if it saves time, money and clean up I hope these ideas will be helpful to you.