This is a story of a friendship cultivated over cake. Not as in, "Let’s talk over coffee and cake," but rather, "Did the yeast eat up all the sugar in my panettone?"

That panettone, or Italian Christmas cake, was a baking project in 2006 of Hawaii resident Hector Wong, an information technology specialist who posted his inquiry on the blog of Rose Levy Beranbaum, an award-winning author of nine baking cookbooks who lives in New York City and rural New Jersey.

"I couldn’t believe she replied," Wong recalled last month at Leeward Community College, where Beranbaum held a cake-baking demonstration for culinary students and Wong served as an assistant. "I wasn’t even sure it was her."

Wong’s passion for baking and his tenacious, endless pursuit of Beranbaum’s knowledge led to a close friendship built over daily email correspondence.

The baking buddies met in person for the first time during the author’s December trip to Hawaii. Wong took Beranbaum island hopping and held a dinner in her honor at his home.

"Along comes Hector," Beranbaum said in discussing her early encounters with Wong, who grew up in Peru. "He was just so complete in his enthusiasm I thought he was a stalker. We had never spoken, you know. All our discussions were through email.

"But it reached a point when Hector and I finally spoke on the phone, and he has a Spanish voice that’s a calm, soft voice — it’s beautiful."

Beranbaum has a reputation for being incredibly detailed in her recipes; her dictionary-sized cookbooks testify to that fact. The exacting details enable home bakers to execute her recipes successfully, and she’s developed a fan base so devoted that a number of her followers have baked their way through entire books. Some even help her test recipes.

Wong himself baked every recipe in "Rose’s Heavenly Cakes" (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., $39.95). He’s now working through Beranbaum’s "Cake Bible" (HarperCollins, $35), named Cookbook of the Year in 1989 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

But Wong is more than just a superfan. He’s a gifted baker in his own right, garnering accolades for inventive cakes based on Beranbaum’s recipes. Fueled by an interest in plant science, he incorporates isle-grown fruit, nuts, chocolate and vanilla.

Wong bakes cakes for hire and has been mentioned in various media. He even has his own special place on Beranbaum’s blog, "Hector’s Take on Rose’s Cakes," which links to his website, "My Yellow Kitchen Takes the Cake."

"I use her recipes and make them my own," he said, citing his revamp of Beranbaum’s Golden Lemon Almond Cake as one example. "I replaced the almonds with macadamia nuts and used Kona lemons. I also did the same cake with local oranges."

Wong’s cakes are stunning, and he sometimes takes months to assemble all the elements for his more elaborate creations.

One of his most astounding riffs was his Yellow Fruit Shortcake, based on Beranbaum’s Red Fruit Shortcake, which uses raspberries, strawberries and red currants.

"I had a lot of passionfruit and thought of preserving it because you can’t just buy fresh lilikoi," he said. "Then I thought of Rose’s red cake and figured I could make it yellow."

Adding pineapple and papaya to the mix, Wong cooked and pureed the fruit, then figured out how to produce molded shell-shaped gelatin toppings resilient enough to hold their intricate detail without refrigeration. It took him three months to accumulate enough "shells" in his freezer to top the cake.

For the shortcake, he incorporated homemade pineapple syrup.

For someone so thoroughly versed in baking, Beranbaum comes from an unlikely background. Her mother was a dentist and her grandmother owned a store, so no one had much time for cooking or baking, much less making food taste good.

"I didn’t like to eat as a kid. Bad food is torture to children with refined palates," she said. "My grandmother said a good apple pie wasn’t worth the work it took. But I thought, you can make it how you want.

"The magic of baking is that the palette of ingredients don’t remotely resemble the finished product. From butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla and flour you get a cake. It’s transformative and amazing."

Wong, in contrast, was at his mother’s heels in the kitchen. She was a dim sum pastry baker.

"In those days, they normally didn’t let children in the kitchen because it was considered dangerous," he said. "But my mom allowed me to be there. Since I was 8, I was baking my own birthday cakes."

Wong’s artistic talents — he beautifully photographs all of his cakes — come from his paternal lineage; his father was a photographer, his grandfather a painter and calligrapher.

Wong’s mother hailed from Hawaii, and the family moved here in 1989. It was then that his aunt gave him a copy of the "Cake Bible," telling him a boy would appreciate the technical nature of the recipes.

Though Wong began using the cookbook soon after, it wasn’t until his mother died in 2004 that he devoted himself to baking.

"They say you’re not fully yourself until your parents go," he said. "My siblings and I decided we would sell my parents’ house, so I began throwing dinner parties there before we sold it. I grabbed the ‘Cake Bible’ and started baking. It opened up my eyes. It taught me everything I know.

"I bake because it’s the only moment that I feel fully satisfied," said Wong. "I use my interest in plant science, my photography skills, the artsy part of myself. Plus I love to meet people. When I make a cake from beginning to end, I feel complete."

———

On the net:

>> Rose Levy Beranbaum’s blog: www.realbakingwithrose.com
>> Hector Wong teaches private baking classes and takes inquiries about baking for private events. Visit www.myyellowkitchen.com.