Saved by Cake

A lovely book with pictures alongside most of the cakes, which I appreciate as too often cookbooks come with only a few chosen cakes etc making the pictorial cut. I really enjoyed reading the background to the book and her tips about baking equipment and the various pitfalls in baking. It was nice to see her mention that she does not endorse any particular products or brands/makes and that anything she refers to in the book is something that worked for her. Now to practice her recipes and maybe use some of them for the next birthday party in my extended family.

Racked up 6 quid in late fines before realising I needed my own copy. I love Marian's novels, and this is just as funny in places. Her wit and humour are just heart warming (sometimes in a bittersweet way) and I just love her even more! She's so candid about her depression, and refreshingly honest about what baking has done to help her. I adored reading about her recipes (although yet to make any of them) because they're not 'normal' - they're very experimental with ingredients - I'm going to attempt the lavender cheesecake soon, although I'll be substituting some of the ingredients for lactofree stuff and hoping they turn out fine! I seriously recommend this book and will update my review when I've attempted some of the recipes (cos I feel I shouldn't even be reviewing it without having done that) but wanted to say that this is a real must for Marian fans.

This is a lovely book filled with the most gorgeous,glamourous, kitsch cakes and desserts. Its also a really good read, Ms Keyes' skills as a writer shine through. Just reading the recipes makes you smile.I've tried several of the recipes already and they have been wonderful. The author's no-nonsense, down to earth style and her sense of humour make baking the cakes a real pleasure and as most of the desserts are decorated with as many sprinkles and edible glitters as possible, whats not to love? I made the lime and ginger cheesecake and it looked amazing, exactly like the picture and went down a storm at my school bake sale. The book is worth buying for the coca cola cake recipe alone!

Except for the nice story behind the making of this book, that I believe that all fans of Marian Keyes will appreciate, this is also a really really nice cookbook, especially for beginners. Not only does it have a lot of useful tips and ideas about how to go about baking and making of sweets but it is also written in a personal and fun way that makes it easy to read even if you are not interested in actually baking at that specific moment.it is like reading a good friend's recipe book written just for you and I just wanted to put my apron on and get a start on baking sweet goodies for me and my family.

I've made about 6 recipes from this book and they've all turned out really well. I do find that a lot of the recipes require way more sugar than I'd expect and I've found some of the things rather sweet for my taste (the cola cake in particular was impossibly sweet, and I only used a third of the amount of mini marshmallows it said to use!) so I think I'll reduce the sugar in future if it seems like a lot. In general, there are some interesting and unusual recipes which were the reason I bought the book - I already have lots of baking books so I don't want one that will just repeat common recipes that I already have - and the recipes are all easy to follow.