The Great Cake Bake

by Helen Ketteman, Matt Collins (Illustrator)

When Mayor Fargenberg announced a cake-baking competition for the town's big Fourth of July celebration, Donna Rae Hadley started thinking. And as all of Danville knew, once Donna Rae got one of her big ideas, anything could happen. Not just any cake would do for Donna Rae's entry. Of course it needed to taste wonderful. But her cake also needed all the drama of the Boston Tea Party. It needed to showcase patriotism, like the Statue of Liberty. It needed the pizzazz and excitement of Paul Revere's ride. Even Mayor Fargenberg, who was secretly sweet on Donna Rae, could see a culinary disaster in the making. Bring your fork and your appetite to this spirited holiday bake-off, but don't forget your napkin. The cake will be flying.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

author and mother of two grown sons. Texas, where she lived for 9 years, is one of her favorite places and several of her books are set there. She, her husband, and their two cats currently live in Sanibel Island, Florida--where plenty of armadillos live, too.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

rating: 2.5

Holiday: 4th of July (kind of)

Supposedly, this targets ages 5 to 8, but I think it misses the target. The cakes were too extreme. The characters too vague (child-like adults?) And, the story has the flavor of a tall-tale, which I don't care for.

The first two sentences:

It was all the mayor's fault. ... That's a reasonable start. (Do kids know what a mayor is/does?)

He announced the great cake bake to be held at Danville's Fourth of July celebration too early, which gave Donna Rae Hadley extra time to think. ... I'd like to have a 5-year-old audience tell me what that sentence says.

Not a keeper.

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corruption abounds in this political drama. House of Cards should have featured an exploding Statue of Liberty cake.

[Jeani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty fun! The inventiveness of the main character is delightful and I like how it works out in the end.

[Sandybear76]

children's book

[Megan Boomgarden]

The reason i picked this book up was because i love to bake and so when i saw a book about cakes i thought, " Oh yea, Im all about that!" :) But i was pleasently suprised when i started flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures. What immediately jumped out at me that was differetn from other picture books was all of the variety in the form and structure of the book and illustrations. First off, the endpages are decorated with kinds of baking supplies and utensils. Then i noticed the placement of the text. sometimes it was within the pictures, and other times it was on a white background. On some pages the words were at the top and others in the middle and bottom of the page. Sometimes it was in all three spots. Most of the time it was in stright square paragraphs but a few times, the words were curved and flowing across the page. There was also variety in the page layout and size of the pictures. there are one and two page layouts, but also only half page speads and also one and a half page spread. the same is true with the borders on the images. sometimes they werent bordered and other thimes the illustrations were confined in circles and rectangles. I thought all of the variety in the text and images gave the book and itneresting asthtetic and i liked it a lot.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love to bake cakes too, but this story's ending just felt incredibly sexist. Was the moral that Donna Rae should feel successful despite her cakes' failings because she got her man? I had hoped we as a society were beyond this... With another ending, Donna Rae's imaginative cakes would have been fun.

[Riley Sorem · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is super sweet, a story about a your woman who completely overdoes every competition she enters. When the town announces a America themed cake bake off she gets to work, from the tea party to Paul Revere her cakes baffle but always go wrong. This is a fun American history filled story.

[Natalie Cottam · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute story about a woman who thinks BIG!

[Kymberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Loved that she never gave up and I love the ending. I thought at first she was a young girl until the end. That did throw me a bit.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may have liked this a little more than my girls. I thought it was very cute and funny.

[Rida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crazy, funny, weird book!