Sweet Tween Pick: Frosting and Friendship

Frosting and Friendship
by Lisa Schroeder
Aladdin
2013
216 pages
ISBN: 9781442473966

Frothy, friendly, feminine and flirty, Frosting and Friendship is a fun read for tweens who love adventures in food!


Lily joins a mother-daughter book club with her mom and is excited until...she realizes that the host of each month's  meeting has a bake a beautiful culinary confection. Lily is so doomed! Her baking disasters have haunted her for years. She considers herself a zero when it comes to baking and wishes that the other girls would allow the hostess to simply buy a dessert from the store or local bakery. The other girls are emphatic: the dessert must be home-made. Lily has only two months to learn how to bake and the bar is set for high standards.

Lily's mom assures her that two months is a long time, and they can figure this baking thing out together. Lily is still not sure and spends her time practicing with her garage band. When the school announces that it's having its Spring Fling, the band is excited to try out for it. Lily is torn between spending time with her band mates and practicing or learning to  bake something over the top in order to wow The Baking Bookworms.

Those two endeavors  would be enough for any tween to balance, but then Lily agrees to help plan and host a surprise  birthday party for her friend Sophie.  Being pulled in three different directions is not pleasant and something has got  to give.

Each short chapter is has a cute title: "Music Lovers Cupcakes: A Perfect Harmony of Chocolate and Vanilla" and "Lollipops : Happiness on a Stick." This is a quick read and should appeal to girls, reluctant readers and "Koodies"--kids who are foodies.

For a sweet, sweet time reading, Frosting and Friendship takes the cake (yes, pun intended). Fans of Schroeder's culinary themed  books It's Raining Cupcakes and Sprinkles and Secrets will like Frosting and Friendship.

Recommended grade 5 and up.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Cupcake Pick: Winner Bakes All

Winner Bakes All
(The Cupcake Club series)
by Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk
Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
2013
136 pages

Fluffy with fondant, sweet with sugar, cute with cupcakes, Winner Bakes All is a big winner! The Cupcake Club girls of Peace, Love and Cupcakes are at it again and up to their elbows is flour and fondant.

Sadie is having trouble in math class but shines on the basketball court when she's not worried about her parents fighting or wondering whether they will end up divorced. The only thing that takes her mind off her troubles is baking cupcakes with friends Lexi, Kylie and Jenna. The girls need to grow their business and they come up with the perfect idea of Cupcake Points--which will work like a frequent shopper card. The more cupcake orders a person places, the more cupcakes she will earn as a reward.

They are enthusiastic until a huge snowstorm destroys the roof of the local bakery---where the owner always orders their latest creations. What will they do now? The girls send in a video to be contestants on Battle of the Bakers and are picked by the producers to compete. May the best cupcake win!

Readers who love a sweet story about cupcakes and competition will love Winner Bakes All. There are recipes for the cupcakes that Peace, Love and Cupcakes bakes and some helpful tips on how to hold a friendly cupcake challange of your own. Sprinkles, anyone?

Highly, higly recommended grades 4-up and for serious foodies and cupcake queens! If you haven't discovered this series, do yourself a favor and stock up on all the books. They are well worth it!

FTC Required disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Book Club & Foodie Pick: 52 Loaves

52 Loaves
by William Alexander
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
2010
339 pages with recipes and bibliography

Laugh out loud funny, seriously entertaining, almost overly informative--I did not know anything about threshing wheat until William Alexander explained it pain-stakingly for me--this food-for-thought journey of one introspective, insanely driven, nearly crazy man to bake the "perfect" loaf of bread sustains the reader. I was sorry when his journey ended and I turned the last page.

When Alexander tastes the perfect bread in a restaurant, he sets out to find how to bake the perfect loaf from scratch--I do mean scratch--he wants to plant his own seeds, harvest his own wheat, make his own flour, build his own bread oven--he wants to "return to the earth"--this is a serious labor.

He decides to tweak the "perfect" recipe and does a mountain of research, buying the best books about bread and seeking out bakers who live on the east coast. He even enters a bread contest in New York. Still not satisfied, he travels to Paris and enrolls in the hoity-toity French school Ecole Ritz Escoffier. He ventures to Morroco where he almost dies and ends up in a monastery in Normandy where he instructs monks to use their centuries old oven to begin baking the monastery's bread.

Each chapter tells that week's successes and mostly--failures. To sum up, Alexander tells the reader what he's learned in his year-long experiment:

"--Bread in a healthy diet doesn't make you fat.
--Too much bread, washed down with wine, does.
...Do not untake any project that promises it can be completed in a week-end.
--Do not drink the water in Morroco. Or the tea, or the coffee. In fact, you might think about skipping Morroco altogether. I hear Barbados is nice this time of year.
--Trust strangers. Well, some. Only those you can trust.
--Choose one thing you care about and resolve to do it well.
--Whether you succeed or not, you will be the better for the effort.
--Bread is life." (from the novel)

I could almost smell the aroma of baking bread as Alexander described each week's offering. Well-written prose almost sings off the pages. Alexander has the knack of mixing his memoirs with hysterical, often biting, humor that targets mostly himself. This is a great Christmas gift for book lovers who also happen to love food or for that "closet" wanna-be baker.

Highly, highly recommended grades 9-up and serious food junkies. This is a great book club pick for all kinds of book clubs.

Only one mature situation--Alexander gives up sex with his wife because he's worried about timing the yeast rising in his latest batch of dough.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Chick Pick: It's Raining Cupcakes

It's Raining Cupcakes
by Lisa Schroeder
Aladdin (Simon & Schuster)
2011
193 pages

Sweet, charming, captivating, and satisfying, It's Raining Cupcakes is sure to be a hit with tween and teen girls.

Isabel is so sick of her small town of Willow, Oregon. She dreams of travel and can't wait to fly off to fabulous and exotic destinations like her Aunt Christy who flies for the airlines. Isabel's mother has no love for wonderlust; she has the crazy idea of opening a "designer" upscale cupcake shop! A cupcake shop in Willow!

The problem with a new business is getting it off the ground. Just before their grand opening, a huge national chain decides to open a brownie shop on the same street! Faced with giant competition, It's Raining Cupcakes (that's what they name their cupcake shop) has to come up with a serious marketing plan--one that will show their cupcakes in the best possible light and one that can whip (whipped topping, anyone?) the competition.

Dying to go anywhere but Oregon, Isabel enters a baking contest that promises a trip to NYC and $1000.00 for the grand prize. The only problem is that her best friend Sophie enters the contest, too, and Sophie always wins--at everything.

Girls will be cheering for Isabel to win the bake-off and for It's Raining Cupcakes to trump the competition from the Goliath big-box brownie store.

Highly recommended grades 5-8. This novel will also have strong appeal for older "foodie" girls and anyone who likes a sweet story with a happy ending--imagine that! A happy ending!

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.