Book Review

Title: The Happy Baker: A Dater’s Guide To Emotional Baking

Publisher: Self-Published

Pages: 160

ISBN: 978-0-9811893-0-7

Website: www.thehappybakerchick.com

Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey

A smart and sassy cookbook for women who like to date and bake their way through the love and pain of relationships. Erin Bolger, Make-Up Artist turned Baker, lays out her dating life for readers while pairing her experiences with baked goods like “It’s Not Me It’s You Sea-Salted Caramels” or “Just Me, Myself and Pie.” If you have tried out internet dating, long-term relationships that went nowhere, or holiday romances, chances are you can relate to both Erin’s anecdotes between the recipes and her insatiable sweet tooth.

The Happy Baker – sometimes the thing you are, and sometimes the thing you tell yourself you are when you are emotional baking – is the title of Erin’s collection of confections. Baking really is a science, much more so then cooking, and there seems a synergy between calculating the science of love and the science of baking.

Chapters are broken up into the following: “The Early Years: When the going gets tough, the tough get baking,” “They Break It, You Bake It: Stories of heartache and heartbake,” “The Good, The Bad & The Fugly: A potluck of dating Shenanigans,” “Single & Sassy: Now What?!?!” Each section has both a sprinkling of stories about Erin’s dating life and complimenting recipes.

The book does show signs of being self-published in the editing process, some content, and some aspects regarding the repetition of recipes (biscotti, cheesecake, and squares make quite regular appearances). However, this seems minor for a first time publisher when this book has a ton going for it. Beautifully and professionally packaged, a smart way to connect with audiences, funny, and most of all, Erin seems like the ultimate ambassador for The Happy Baker. Easily, this is the best self-published book I have ever come across, and that is really saying something.

Erin’s style is sweet and empowering – much like the sugar-rush after a cupcake laden with icing. Her stories are what a lot of women experience and this reminds me of a softer version of Nadia G’s Bitchin Kitchen.

This will be the rare occasion I recommend you search out a self-published book, which you can do at www.thehappybakerchick.com.

Written by :

Kindah