Eat Cake in Crazy Challenge Connection

Oct 07, 2021 Book Concierge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, family, minnesota, concierge, strong-women, library, music, food

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Ruth Hopson likes to bake cakes. She finds comfort in comforting others, and lately everyone – including Ruth – needs some comfort. Her mother has moved in after a day-time burglary at her home, her teenage daughter has all the sullenness and angst of most 16-year-olds, her son’s away at college, and her hospital administrator husband has just lost his job. Then her father, a traveling piano player whom she hasn’t seen in 35 years, breaks both wrists in a fall and has ...more

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Mar 23, 2018 Jan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: zz-finished-in-2018, chick-lit-women-fic, favorites, cal-own-read

This was such a sweet book! I loved how the family ended up working together and healing and reconciliation happened. A very enjoyable read!

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Sep 15, 2013 Connie N. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: food-and-drink, family, blue, chick-lit, minnesota, sandals-shoes-on-cover, feet-on-cover

This book was a total surprise! I chose it simply to meet a challenge requirement. I'm not a baker but I do have a sweet tooth, so it sounded nice and seemed like a quick and easy read. Much to my surprise, I fell in love with this book. It is warm and positive and family-oriented. Rather than spend a lot of time on the dysfunctional part of their family, this author focused instead on the positive that developed out of unfortunate circumstances. This is chick lit at its best, in my opinion. We This book was a total surprise! I chose it simply to meet a challenge requirement. I'm not a baker but I do have a sweet tooth, so it sounded nice and seemed like a quick and easy read. Much to my surprise, I fell in love with this book. It is warm and positive and family-oriented. Rather than spend a lot of time on the dysfunctional part of their family, this author focused instead on the positive that developed out of unfortunate circumstances. This is chick lit at its best, in my opinion. We meet Ruth Hopson as she's about to enter a trying time in her life. Her husband loses his executive job, her mother has already moved in to their home a year earlier, and her father (divorced from her mother) falls and breaks his wrists, necessitating his moving in also. Add to that a 16-year-old daughter (a typical thoughtless and independent teenager), and you have a crowded and uncomfortable household. As an avid baker, Ruth escapes into her kitchen whenever things overwhelm her. When she can't bake, she pictures her happy place--inside the center of a warm Bundt cake, soft and secure and smelling delicious. As husband Sam faces joblessness, she worries about finances. She must also deal with her parents' arguments, as well as the endless care of someone who can't use his arms or hands. Not to mention, all of the responsibilities of the day-to-day life of a homemaker. Despite all these potential downers, Ruth (and the whole family) discover that anything can be dealt with, even if you have to step back and take a completely different look at the situation and consider an entirely different approach. There were some lovely moments throughout this book between various family members. It was written so softly that even the hectic and unpleasant parts seemed overcome-able. I will definitely read more by this author.

And on top of all this, there are a number of cake recipes in the back of the book. Although I don't bake, the directions seem very clear and detailed so that I could probably follow them. As Ruth's mom said, "If you can read, you can bake."

There are so many special moments in this book that I just want to quote them all. So I'll try to limit this to my favorites.

Quote about Ruth's happy place: "The place that I went, the place that I still go, was the warm, hollowed-out center of a Bundt cake. It is usually gingerbread, though sometimes that changes...The walls that surround me are high and soft, but as they go up they curve back, open up to the light, so I feel protected by the cake but never trapped by it...I press my cheek against the cake, which is soft as eiderdown and still warm. This isn't a fantasy about food exactly, at least not insofar as I want to eat my way through a cake that's taller than I am. It's about being inside of cake, being part of something that I find to be profoundly comforting.

Ruth's thoughts about cake: "Cakes have gotten a bad rap. People equate virtue with turning down dessert. There is always one person at the table who holds up her hand when I serve the cake. No, really, I couldn't, she says, and then gives her flat stomach a conspiratorial little pat. Everyone who is pressing a fork into that first tender layer looks at the person who declined the plate, and they all think, That person is better than I am. That person has discipline. But that isn't a person with discipline, that is a person who has completely lost touch with joy. A slice of cake never made anybody fat. You don't eat the whole cake. You don't eat a cake every day of your life. You take the cake when it is offered because the cake is delicious. You have a slice of cake and what it reminds you of is someplace that's safe, uncomplicated, without stress. A cake is a party, a birthday, a wedding. A cake is what's served on the happiest days of your life."

About the enjoyment of cake: "...reaction was one I rarely saw in an adult: She gave in to the cake. She allowed herself to love the cake. It wasn't that she surrendered her regrets...she HAD no regrets. She lived in the moment. She took complete pleasure in the act of eating cake."

About her teenage daughter: "I was never sure how a person could have such good manners for strangers and such bad ones for the people she saw every day, but probably if I had to choose, I would want it to be this way instead of the other way around."

When Ruth is feeling hopeless and drops to the floor in frustration, "I looked at the light in the kitchen ceiling and noticed there were a few dead bugs caught in the glass fixture. You never really know what's going on with your ceiling until you just give up and lie down on the floor."

And when Ruth's mom plays the piano and her dad sings along: "It was worth everything, that moment, that song. It did the very thing that music can do when it is at its best: It elevated us and healed us and showed us how to be our better selves." ...more

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Apr 19, 2008 *Nan* rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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Oct 15, 2009 Suzanne rated it liked it · review of another edition

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Oct 03, 2010 Jennifer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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Jul 17, 2011 Rebecca NJ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

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Dec 26, 2011 Annika rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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Dec 30, 2012 Gina marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, women-s-issues, 2012-book-releases, humor, family, food-and-drink-fiction, women-s-fiction, chick-lit, relationships, romance

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