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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Review: Confections of a Closet Master Baker

Review: Confections of a Closet Master Baker

February 18, 2020 7 Comments

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I’ve been on Goodreads for a couple of months now and absolutely enjoy the site. If you love reading, maybe you should check it out too (no, they are not paying me to say this). I am planning to share my reviews of cookbooks and food-related books here as I post them on my Goodreads profile. Here’s the first one.

Confections of a Closet Master BakerPinConfections of a Closet Master Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I had waited even 10 minutes after finishing this book, I’d have probably given it a four. That doesn’t mean a bad thing necessarily, just that the aftertaste of this book is just so… delicious. I had very low expectations when I started the book, I am yet to read a food-related memoir that I thoroughly enjoyed. I haven’t read very many either, to be fair.

Midway through the book, I realised “Sandy” and “my sister who is an actress” that the author references now and then is Sandra Bullock! The author worked in Hollywood for a while and then moved to a small town and set up her own bakery. The promos and intros to the book hype this fact a lot. She gave it all up and moved away. But (thankfully) the book doesn’t dwell on this fact too much. Yes, she’s very clear she found Hollywood fake, tiresome, and boring but that’s not the central theme of the book (again, thankfully).

The bits that stood out for me are the afternoon tea stories the author shared with her Omi (grandmom) and her mom who died of colon cancer. It’s touching, it’s a German tradition that even as a South Indian, I could fully relate to. Each time she mentions her dead mom and her memories associated with her, my heart went out to her.

Of course, all the butter, sugar, flour, and chocolate in the book appealed to the food-lover part of me. She confirms the fact that having one’s own pastry shop is no cake walk, literally. I knew it, but it still helps to hear it again so that I won’t feel tempted to leave my job (that I enjoy, btw) and follow that path. Some of the recipes seem delicious and I am reluctant to return the book before I have atleast taken some photocopies of those pages.

A must-read if you even remotely enjoy baking.

Want to buy your own? Here are the links: AMAZON | FLIPKART

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By nags Filed Under: Uncategorized

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nicole Gamble

    November 21, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    THANK YOU!!! I so appreciate this site. This is the information I was looking for.

    Reply
  2. Archana Chari

    November 20, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    Awesome, I just checked! It is not on loan at Bugis and Clementi 🙂 Will pick it up over this week.

    Reply
  3. Gayathri Ramdas Sreekanth

    November 20, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    Infact I had read and reviewed this as part of our online cook club..Found it pretty interesting and as u said the best part was the little stories of her family- cooking with dad, her granma's coffee time, relationships she has built w her customers esp the one of the throat cancer patient whose first treat after 5 yrs was Gesine's chocolate mousse.. 🙂

    Reply
  4. sliceofmylyfe

    November 20, 2011 at 10:03 am

    I follow gesine's blog regularly. But I did not know she had a book with the same name as her blog. Thank you so much for the review. Might pick it up as I love reading memoirs

    Reply
  5. Archana Chari

    November 20, 2011 at 6:23 am

    I have never read a food memoir! This sounds like a must read. Did you buy the book, or was it thro the libraries?

    Reply
  6. Nags

    November 20, 2011 at 11:52 am

    for me it was the other way around 🙂 i didn't know she had a blog (or even existed!) before i read the book!

    Reply
  7. Nags

    November 20, 2011 at 8:04 am

    I borrowed it from the national library here in singapore 🙂

    Reply

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I am Nags, the face behind Edible Garden, a food and recipes website for the busy (and sometimes lazy!) cook since 2007. My recipes are meant to be quick yet healthy and delicious - Nothing fancy, nothing too difficult. Follow Me On Instagram for real-time food and life updates.

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