The Art of Baking Blind

April 15, 2015
Here's something to savor while waiting for the next season of PBS' Great British Baking Show. Eaden's, a chain of upscale British supermarkets, is conducting a Search for the New Mrs. Eaden, Mrs. Eaden being Kathleen, the recently deceased wife of the chain's founder and the author of the 1966 classic, The Art of Baking. Housewives Vicki, Jenny, and Karen; single dad Mike; and single mom Claire have made it to the competition, held on the Eaden country estate, and are baking their way through the cakes, biscuits, breads, pies and pastries, pudding, and celebratory tea rounds while dealing with various challenges at home. Excerpts from The Art of Baking head each chapter, and looks back at Kathleen's own struggles as she works on the book and tries to start a family are interspersed throughout. The problems the bakers contend withempty-nest syndrome, the demands of motherhood, a straying husbandare familiar fare. It's the baking that makes the book rise, and readers will be salivating over descriptions of Victoria sponge, Battenburg cake, Chelsea buns, and other treats. Delectable food porn, as one character puts it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)