cover image Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt

Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt

Leslie F. Miller, . . Simon & Schuster, $25 (323pp) ISBN 978-1-4165-8873-3

Freelancer Miller is a self-described “cake chronicler,” and in this memoir, she describes her indiscriminate and conflicted obsession with cakes, which yields varying and sometimes, embarrassing results. Her stories are structured like a tiered cake and begin with a series of historical tidbits based on Internet research. She mixes in her experiences as a “sloppy baker” and an owner of a low-carb bakeshop, sprinkles in detailed but uninsightful discussions with other bakers and tops it off with lists of cultural ephemera. Much of the earnest, conversational prose reads like a series of inflated blog entries and reveal a person whose love of sweet, sugary food makes her feel “addicted, neurotic, weak-willed.” Like her frantic, inconsistent attempts at baking, the writing suffers from the “perils of impatience” and a lack of focus. Miller manages to redeem herself with a few short, poignant memories—eating frosting from a can, her grandmother's kitchen and a dream about sweets. (Apr.)