Cake and Punishment
A Southern Cake Baker Mystery
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4.5 • 22 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
In the first of a delectable new Southern-set baking cozy series, a pastry chef must craft the perfect cake for an old friend’s wedding while sifting through the suspects in a murder
Perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke and JoAnna Carl, Cake and Punishment—with authentic Southern recipes!—will satisfy your sweet tooth.
Bucolic Rumford, Kentucky has glowing fields of bluegrass, a fine selection of bourbons, and now a professional pastry chef. Broken-hearted Sophia Cummings has come home from New York City. She’s not there a minute before she’s charmed into making her high school friend Charlotte’s wedding cake. The kitchen at the Rumford Country Club seems perfect until Chef Emile’s body is discovered, sprawled near the stove, a cast iron skillet on the floor close by.
With one look at the shiny, new frying pan, Sophia knows it’s not Emile’s. She offers her knowledge to Sheriff Carter and her talents to Evelyn, the manager, who needs an interim chef. The mood in the country club is grim: Emile’s peppery personality had burned members and staff alike. Sophia wonders which one of them burned him?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pastry chef Sophia Cummings, the heroine of this diverting, if at times overly busy series debut from the pseudonymous Bell, wowed New York City for a decade with her sweets, but she has slunk home to Rumford, Ky., after catching her lover, chef Noah, with their restaurant's ma tre d'. Now high school chum Charlotte Harrington needs a substitute cake for her wedding, four days hence at the Rumford Country Club. When Sophia goes to meet RCC chef Emile and check the kitchen, she finds him on the floor, dead, next to a gleaming new skillet, the apparent murder weapon. She repeatedly tells handsome Sheriff Carter Kincaid that Southern cooks don't use unseasoned skillets ever. Carter knocks Sophia's sleuthing, but her skillet obsession stokes his suspicions about club manager Evelyn Moss. Sophia has to find the real killer to take the heat off Evelyn and ensure that Charlotte's dream wedding can happen. Cozy fans, especially those who are compulsive early-morning bakers, will look forward to Sophia's further culinary adventures.
Customer Reviews
Cake and punishment
Nicely written book, just right for your reading pleasure without all the gory details
The Best Baker Ever!
While this cozy mystery started slowly, don’t put it down! The mystery, the main character and the other characters will be worth the wait, just as waiting for delicious baked items to come out of the oven!
Maymee Bell’s Cake and Punishment
What a delicious, mouthwatering read!!!
Sophia Cummings, the head pastry chef for a
popular New York restaurant returns home to
Rumford, Kentucky. Sophia discovered her
boyfriend, Noah the chef, cheating on her
and needs a break away from New York.
Sophia connects with her old high school
friends. One who was getting married soon
and had the wedding cake baker pull out so
Sophia ends up volunteering to make the
cake. What she doesn’t expect is to be at
the Rumford Country Club when their head
chef is found dead in the club’s kitchen.
Intrigue Sophia finds herself in the midst of
a murder investigation plus she needs to
prove the manager innocent.
The characters are well defined with amazing
interaction between them.
The details took me right into the small Southern
setting of Rumford. I felt that the characters
included me into their activities.
Recipes for Rev Velvet Crunchies, Surprise Puffs,
Southern Skillet Apple Pie, Banana Pudding
Cupcakes, Kentucky Butter Cupcakes and
Kentucky Derby Pie included after the books end.
I am not sure which one to try first!!
There is an empty bakery in Rumford, will Sophia
stay there to open her own or go back to the
prestigious restaurant in New York?