Marie Porter is an Aspergian polymath, which is just a fancy way of saying that she knows a lot of stuff - and does even more stuff - with a brain that runs on a different operating system than most.Because of that OS, her career has spanned across many facets: She’s a trained mixologist, competitive cake artist, professional costumer, and - last but not least - author. As of 2016, her written works include 6 cookbooks, 6 specialty sewing manuals, and a tornado memoir.As a trained mixologist, Marie has combined her bartending knowledge with her aptitudes for baking and experimentation, culminating in her first cookbook - "The Spirited Baker" - for beginner and experienced home cooks alike. On the cake front, Marie is an award winning cake artist. Known as much for her delicious and diverse flavor menu as for her sugar artistry, Marie's work has graced magazines and blogs around the world. In 2013, Marie was selected as a top 100 finalist for season 4 of MasterChef USA.Having baked for brides, celebrities, and even Klingons, Marie is proud to share her wealth of cake knowledge with beginner and experienced home bakers alike. Her second cookbook, "Evil Cake Overlord" is replete with 'ridiculously delicious' cake, frosting, and filling recipes, as well as plenty of information on cake assembly, handling, etc. Also includes Marie's delicious fondant recipe, guaranteed to win over even the most anti-fondant consumers!Marie was approached by the Minnesota Historical Society Press to write a corn-centric cookbook. This resulted in Marie’s 3rd cookbook, Sweet Corn Spectacular.Her 4th cookbook was the result of a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. The goal was a gluten-free cookbook with recipes “as good or better than the real thing”. Overwhelmingly positive feedback seems to say she met that goal!Porter’s 5th cookbook is the first of its kind - it’s centered around the use of hops in cooking. With recipes utilizing hop flowers, shoots, and even leaves, it is sure to be a hit among current and yet-unrealized hopheads alike! With her current popularity as a cookbook author, it would be easy to miss the fact that Marie once had an illustrious career in a completely different industry - Spandex costuming.Marie began sewing spandex costumes as a way to finance her figure skating training, starting at age 11. By the time she retired from the fashion industry at the ripe old age of 25, she had created stretchy works of art for entertainers, Olympic athletes, the Canadian National Synchro team, WWE wrestlers, and more.Marie is now proud to share her wealth of spandex costuming knowledge with beginner and experienced seamstresses alike. Her line of "Spandex Simplified" sewing manuals are appropriate for beginner to advanced levels of sewing ability, and are written from both a designer, and former "performance" athlete's point of view. They teach everything from the basics to tricks of the trade. "Spandex Simplified" manuals prepare the reader to design and make almost any design of practice or competition outfit possible for such sports as Synchronized Swimming, Figure Skating, Gymnastics, Fitness and Bodybuilding, as well as recreational swimwear and cosplay!