Tag Archives: The Great British Baking Show

Two Sweet Romances for LGBTQ Pride Month: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake and For the Love of Cake

30 Jun
images from Overdrive

I started off Pride Month, this June, with a post about Trans and Non-Binary Authors writing speculative fiction.  To end the month I thought I’d focus on two romance novels, I recently enjoyed, featuring bisexual protagonists both set in the competitive world of baking shows.

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake
by Alexis Hall
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake is the first in Alexis Hall’s new Winner Bakes All series.  The series has as its backdrop a baking competition that bears striking similarities to the fan favorite Great British Baking Show.  Rosaline is a young single mom and amateur baker.  Her wealthy parents, despite being loving grandparents, are disappointed in how Rosaline has lived her life and what they see as her lack of ambition.  The baking competition is her chance to shine and set an example for her daughter about following her dreams.  It also gives Rosaline the unexpected opportunity for finding love when two very different fellow contestants catch her eye.  Rosaline is proudly bisexual and the book handles this in a nuanced way looking at issues of bi-erasure and prejudice.  Even though both of Rosaline’s love interest are men, her identity as a bisexual woman is never undermined. Interested in reading more books by Alexis Hall; I’ve written previous blog posts about some of Hall’s other work including The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, Looking for Group, and the Kate Kane Series.

For the Love of Cake
by Erin Dutton
Erin Dutton’s For the Love of Cake is also situated in the world of competitive baking although this show feels slightly more generic and is representative of many that air on TV or streaming channels.  It features some characters from one of Dutton’s previous romance novels, A Place to Rest.  Maya is the first winner of For the Love of Cake, who is tasked with both coaching and judging a competition with middle aged baker Shannon as one of the new contestants.  They find themselves fighting an attraction to one another which could spoil Shannon’s chance at a win and Maya’s career.  Maya is bisexual while Shannon, despite a previous marriage to a man, identifies as a lesbian, which causes a brief moment of friction between the two early on.  The novel despite having a sweet romance at its center also manages to examine a variety of social issues.

Love baking competitions? You can also check out a previous post which featured bake-off fiction and non-fiction that is sure to delight your palate.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Head of Information and Digital Services

Tags: , , , ,

Bake Offs: Tasty Books and Prize Winning Recipes for You to Try at Home

28 Nov

My son and I love to bake together; the weekend I wrote this post we made cookies for a class party.  But one thing we love almost as much as baking itself is to watch baking competitions together on TV.  Here are a few suggestions that you might enjoy if you too love the sweet taste of victory.

Great British Baking Show
GreatBritishBakingShow
I was curious to first checkout the Great British Baking Show because I was a fan of one of the hosts, Sue Perkins from the funny historical foodie show Supersizers Go…  I found this show just as delightful with contestants who are sweetly kind to one another rather than being cut throat like many reality competitions. They compete in three rounds: the first, a signature bake puts their unique spin on a classic, the second round where they must recreate one of the judge’s tricky bakes with minimal instructions, and a final show stopper round where the baked good frequently almost look too beautiful to eat. Even when disaster occurs and a contestant has a dreaded “soggy bottom” on one of their tarts the judges always have at least a kind word or two for the bakers. You’ll be rooting for your favorite baker and wishing you could taste the delicious looking treats they prepare.  Besides two of the seasons, Hoopla also has available Master Classes with Judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood who show you how to make their special treats.

Plus you can get the behind the scenes scoop with The Story Of The Great British Bake Off by Anita Singh.  You can borrow seasons 1-5 on DVD and try out the recipes yourselves with The Great British Bake Off: Big Book of Baking and The Great British Bake Off: Perfect Cakes and Bakes to Make at Home by Linda Collister from BCCLS libraries.  Learn more about judge, Paul Hollywood, in his memoir/cookbook A Baker’s Life: From Childhood Bakes to Five-Star Excellence.

The Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Series

bestofpillsburydesserts

Image from Hoopla

The Great British Baking Show is titled The Great British Bake Off in the UK, but changed its name because of Pillsbury’s copyright on the phrase in the US .  The Bake Off sponsored by Pillsbury is one of the most legendary in this country.  You can borrow a variety of cook books from Hoopla divided into different dishes including one on desserts which covers yummy goodies from over 50 years of competition from 1957’s now classic French Silk Chocolate Pie to more modern winners.  The book also looks back at the history of the competition and how desserts have evolved.  Each recipe includes the contestant’s name, home town, and year they competed.  You can also borrow bake off books on casseroles and specifically on making my family’s favorites: cookies and bars.

The Bake-Off
by Beth Kendrick
bake off
The Bake-Off by Beth Kendrick use a national bake-off as the setting that brings together two very different estranged sisters. Their grandmother thinks a top-secret family pie recipe will not just have them winning the competition but also find common ground. Of course, neither one is a baker, and if you’ve ever tried to bake one you might be questioning the phrase “easy as pie.”

If you are a fan of foodie fiction you can also check out All’s Fair in Love and Cupcakes by Betsy St. Amant where aspiring baker Kat’s best friend Lucas Brannen signs her up for TV baking competition called Cupcake Combat; it seems like Kat may achieve her dreams, but Lucas is afraid he might lose Kat to the big city.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Head of Reference

Tags: , , , ,