Jennifer Ross is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, a transplanted Texan who experienced a culture shock of her own when she moved away from New York. She writes novels and produces films. Currently she is in the middle of producing a gangster film based in London … and crossing her fingers that it will be filmed there.

On the side Ross is an amateur baker. She learned most of her baking skills from her grandmother, who was taught to cook in a sod house in Colorado. As her grandmother used to say, "If you can make something good in a wood burning stove, you know how to cook." Her grandmother funded most of her retirement with a backdoor baking business that provided other grandmothers with "homemade" cookies for their grandchildren's visits.

Ross graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in religious studies. She is now working on a double Masters in acupuncture and herbs.

Ross and her husband Kim have three children, all named after family: Columbus, Lyrah and Treat. They live in Austin, TX.

The Icing on the Cupcake is a multi-generational story about a young Texan woman named Ansley, who builds a new life for herself after a broken engagement by opening a cupcake shop in New York City.

Jennifer Ross writes, "The idea for this story was born when I was pregnant with my daughter. I had a huge sweet tooth, and I baked almost every day—cakes, cookies, brownies and eventually cupcakes. Once I hit cupcakes I didn't go any further—I made dozens of cupcakes. I experimented with all sorts of frostings, fillings, and flavors.

Baking like that reminded me of my grandmother, who was a baking legend in my family. She ran a small business out of her kitchen selling her cookies and cakes to other grandmothers, who would pass them off as their own. She never gave out a completed recipe. Whenever she gave someone a recipe there was a crucial step or ingredient missing—she didn't like competition. I grew up baking in her kitchen and I learned a lot there.

I think for a lot of bakers and cooks being in the kitchen reminds them of their own childhood, and it's a nice warm feeling. I wanted to capture that in a book."