Saved by Cake: British Book Awards Author of the Year 2022

by Marian Keyes

Learn to bake with Britain's favourite women's fiction author Marian Keyes, in her startlingly honest cook-book Saved by Cake.

Saved by Cake gives an extremely honest account of Marian Keyes' battle with depression, and how baking has helped her.

A complete novice in the kitchen, Marian decided to bake a cake for a friend and that was it - she realised that baking was what she needed to do in order to get her through each day. And so she baked, and she wrote her recipes down, and little by little the depression started to lift, along with her sponges...

With chapters on cupcakes, cheesecakes, meringues and macaroons, chocolate cakes, fruit cakes and favourite classics, Marian's recipes are aimed firmly at beginner bakers, offering hints and tips to help along the way.

From her Consistently Reliable Cupcakes and Very Chocolately Macaroons, to the ease of her Fridge-set Honeycomb Cheesecake, you will want to have a go at making all of Marian's recipes. The shoe and handbag biscuits particularly. Very covetable. Very Marian.


Never patronising, always honest and witty, accessible and full of fun, the bakes and cakes that Marian serves up in this cookbook will put a smile on your face and make you happy.
__________

'Medically speaking, there is no such thing as a nervous breakdown. Which is very annoying to discover when you're right in the middle of one. Whatever was going on with me, I had to wait it out. I had to find ways of passing the time until I was restored to myself again. So I baked a cake - a chocolate cheesecake, as it happens. And I enjoyed making it so much that I baked another. And another' Marian Keyes

• ISBN10: 071815889X
• ISBN13: 9780718158897
• Publish Date: 16 February 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Michael Joseph Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 232
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9780718158897

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Saved by Cake is how Marian Keyes pulled herself from depression to somewhere a bit better. She's the first to admit that she isn't "cured" per say but in a better place than she was before she discovered that baking was a way of concentrating her mind and making her focus on what was in front of her and it helped. She also says that before baking she had tried other things that didn't work, but that this was what worked for her and that that's what you should do for yourself if you find yourself in her shoes, find something, drugs, therapy or activity that works for you and use it.

The recipes are very readable, yes, readable, the intros are often hilarious and the way she has of writing the recipes is more like a friend telling you how to cook or bake something rather than a dry clinical average recipe. I loved them. Even the heavily chocolate one (yes, I'm not all that into chocolate, yes I'm female)

I haven't tried any of the recipes, yet, but the book is heartwarming.

Gluten Free recipes in the book that caught my eye (because this is really important to me!) Apart from the fair few in pastry cases that could be converted by using Gluten Free pastry or the chapter on Cheesecakes that could be easily converted using gluten-free biscuits instead of standard biscuits there is:
Fridge-Set Honeycomb Cheesecake p91 (using home made honeycomb or Crunchies for the base)
Green Tea Panna Cotta p104
Blueberry Mess p140
Shirely's Ginger and Pineapple Pavlova p143
Zagina Reform Torta p144
Basic Cranberry Macaroons p151
Tiramisu Macaroons p155
(actually pretty much the whole chapter on Meringues and Macaroons is littered with Gluten free goodies)
Sean's Rosemary Truffles p213

And if you do want to bake for a gluten-avoiding friend (Coeliac or gluten sensitive like me) please be careful of flour and crumbs of flour in baking trays and pans.

And her twitter feed is hilarious!