Review: Confections of a Closet Master Baker, by Gesine Bullock-Prado

I adore baking and reading about it, so I started this book with considerable enthusiasm.  Bullock-Prado left a job with her sister's production company and moved to Vermont, where she started a bakery, Gesine's. Most of the book is a description of life in the bakery, mixed with memories of Bullock-Prado's late mother. A recipe completes each chapter. When I realized Bullock-Prado is Sandra Bullock's sister, my heart sunk a bit, but I continued.

Normally complaining in memoirs doesn't put me off , but something about Bullock-Prado's tone is incredibly irritating. She whines about Hollywood, the habits of dishwashers, and folks who order a cake and then expect it to (gasp) be ready. Americans are too fat because they eat excessive amounts of crappy sweets, but bakeries like hers don't encourage gluttony. Everyone wants a piece of her to be close to her sister. Her world is bittersweet, but more bitter than sweet.

The sections where Bullock-Prado writes about her family are by far the best.  Confections of a Closet Master Baker would have been more successful (and less annoying) as a straight-up family memoir with recipes.

Rating: two celery stalks