Saved by Cake: Over 80 Ways to Bake Yourself Happy

by Marian Keyes

Beloved novelist Marian Keyes tackles the kitchen with a new cookbook featuring desserts that are both simple and delicious, with step-by-step instructions and stunning photography.

"To be perfectly blunt about it, my choice sometimes is: I can kill myself, or I can make a dozen cupcakes. Right so, I'll do the cupcakes and I can kill myself tomorrow."

In Saved by Cake, Marian Keyes gives a candid account of her recent battle with depression and her discovery that learning to bake was exactly what she needed to regain her joie de vivre. A complete novice in the kitchen, Marian decided to bake a cake for a friend. From the moment she began measuring, she realized that baking was the best way for her to get through each day.

Refreshingly honest and wickedly funny, Saved by Cake shines with Keyes' inimitable charm and is chockfull of sound advice. Written in Marian's signature style, her take on baking is honest, witty, extremely accessible and full of fun. Her simple and delicious recipes-from Consistently Reliable Cupcakes to Fridge-set Honeycomb Cheesecake-are guaranteed to tempt even the most jaded palate.

• ISBN10: 0452299055
• ISBN13: 9780452299054
• Publish Date: 2 April 2013 (first published 16 February 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Plume
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 240
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780452299054

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!