"Eat Cake" by Jeanne Ray

   

 "Eat Cake"  by Jeanne Ray. When a family begins to struggle because the husband gets laid off from his job at the hospital.  Ruth, a Minneapolis wife and mother must step up her role as a housewife, and come up with a plan to save the family from financial disaster.  The wife has a scheme to create tiny, individual cakes in perfect ,little boxes that she makes from her own kitchen to sell (Don't try this at home).

 Ruth is a tremendous baker who has  been baking for years, and she has her own kitchen filled to the brim with necessary baking materials.  The business seems successful, if not for the misery of  the long last father, the pianist, who comes to live with them, after he has broken both his hands.

 Maybe its the cake that makes the book so memorable.  But Ray does an excellent job of showing a struggling family.  A family with a rebellious teenager unwilling to help a family in crisis.  She does an excellent job in showing a father whose pride is destroyed at the sudden loss of his job, and loss of even more pride when his leading-lady must come up with a business plan that he initially believes will fail. 

Lastly, Ray does an excellent job showing a grandmother's bitterness when her husband returns, and an overall coming together of a family to help one another.

This may be a food critics best choice awards with its mouth watering descriptions of its cakes.  Note-to-self:  Barrow the book again to retrieve the fantastic recipes located in the back pages of the book.