Adorable Cakes


Full disclosure, I'm not a cake lover. I really can take it or leave it, and most often choose the latter. However, my "Literate Foodie" bookclub is discussing this one, along with sampling cakes made from the recipes, so I read it.

I found it charming. The illustrations are adorable, and the musings about cake give the reader something to think about. Cake is seen as not just a food, but really more of a centerpiece for gatherings with the bonus of also being delicious.

There are only 17 recipes, and the majority of those seem to be nothing special. If you are a baker, though, perhaps you will see them as innovative in a way the I can't perceive. Each of the recipes comes with a few notes, and those provide a bit of information the reader may not already know. The illustrations have little to do with the specific recipes provided, and the personal narrative included with the illustrations references cakes for which there is no recipe included.

It was a quick read (about 15 minutes if you spend some time looking at the pictures and you're not reading the recipes), so just a bit of a diversion. It might work well as a bookclub book, though, since everyone will have their stories of important personal events that included cake, I imagine.

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