Anytime Cakes, Everyday Joy: Baking with Dorie Greenspan

On the podcast, I recently chatted with Dorie Greenspan. Dorie is a five-time James Beard Award winner, two-time IACP Cookbook of the Year recipient, longtime New York Times bestselling author, and a beloved voice in home baking. Her most recent book, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, features 100 recipes devoted to simple, comforting cakes and serves as a love letter to everyday baking.

In this episode, we chat about how cake can anchor memory and connection, why the simplest cakes are often the most meaningful, and how baking can bring love and joy to daily life.

Listen to the full episode or keep reading for some of the highlights from our conversation.

How Did You Get Started as a Baker?

The very first thing I ever cooked was when I was about twelve or thirteen years old. I was trying to fry French fries, so I boiled a pot of oil, and suddenly there were flames everywhere. I burned my parents’ kitchen down. That experience put me off cooking for a while.

When I returned to the kitchen, something clicked. I realized I genuinely loved cooking and baking, and I wanted to do it all the time. 

At the time, I had an entirely different career. I worked in gerontology and later held a position at a social research center in New York City, where I began writing. I went back to school to pursue more advanced work, but no matter how busy I was, I’d come home late at night and bake. Baking was the constant.

Eventually, I realized I didn’t want to write my dissertation or spend my life in that field. My husband encouraged me to pursue baking instead. Thinking back, I feel so lucky to get to do what I really love and want to do now.

“I always feel good when I’m baking. You enjoy the process, and then you have something really nice to share with others.”

Tell Us More About Your Latest Book, Anytime Cakes

Anytime Cakes is built around simple, sturdy cakes meant for everyday life. There are very few layer cakes.

The idea for this book evolved after I was asked to write a New York Times piece about holiday cakes. At first, I declined the story because holiday cakes are so elevated, and that wasn’t how I was baking anymore. Instead, I suggested writing about the cakes you nibble in the kitchen—the ones that never make it to the dining room. That idea sparked something bigger, and I committed the next two years to “caking.”

Cake has always been central to my life. My mother loved simple cakes and understood their power to welcome, comfort, and care for people. I almost always have cake on the counter, and the plain, everyday cakes are the ones I love most.

As I was working on the book, all these memories came back—my mother’s kitchen, my grandmother baking, the cakes I loved when traveling. “It felt like opening a little treasure box.”

The book features illustrations rather than photography. My goal was to strip away props, styling, and distraction, and let the cakes speak for themselves. Illustrator Nancy Pappas captured their shapes, textures, and colors beautifully. 

There’s also a chapter devoted to savory cakes, inspired by what I first learned in Paris—small loaf cakes served as an aperitif. Once you start exploring savory baking, the possibilities are endless.

“One of the great things about baking is that once you’ve got a solid recipe, it’s yours to play with. You can ask, ‘What if?’”

I always encourage bakers to follow a recipe as written once, then open their pantry and make it their own. That’s how baking traditions grow—through sharing, experimenting, and passing recipes along. 

“We bake to make ourselves happy because the process is so satisfying, and we bake to make others happy.”

Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, by Dorie Greenspan (Harvest, 2025).

Learn more

Listen to the full podcast episode with Dorie here. You can learn more at doriegreenspan.com and follow her on Instagram @doriegreenspan.