COOKERY/MEMOIR: MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBYreviews Saved By Cake: Over 80 Ways to Bake Yourself HappyBy Marian Keyes Michael Joseph, 232pp. ¤15.99
CHOCOLATE CAN FIX a broken heart, ice cream can soothe the soul, and cake . . . well, cake can help manage depression, according to the writer Marian Keyes, whose battle with the illness began in 2009. But there’s a catch. For this particular therapy to be effective you won’t just be serving yourself another generous slice: you’ll be sifting, creaming and whisking your way to a better place.
In her introduction to Saved By Cake,a cookery book and food memoir, Keyes is frank about her experience of depression: "I couldn't sleep; I couldn't breathe; I couldn't eat; I couldn't read – by the time I came to the end of a sentence, I'd forgotten the start. Time had slowed down and each second took an eternity to tick by. Everything looked ugly and pointy and scary, even babies and flowers and Mulberry bags."
Keyes says she tried everything to “cure” herself: antidepressants, inpatient psychiatric care, conventional and alternative therapies. But it was a chocolate cheesecake she made for a friend’s birthday that ignited a passion that would become part of her personal coping strategy.
Although previously dismissive of home baking – “Why would you spend time and effort making something yourself when you could just go out and buy something far nicer in Marks Spencer?” – Keyes caught the baking bug so badly that she found herself foisting cakes on strangers, just to clear her kitchen for the next bout of “therapy”. Her new-found interest has been a significant factor in managing her illness, she says. “Baking hasn’t ‘cured’ me. But it gets me through.”
The dark humour that Keyes is known for in her fiction surfaces here too: “To be perfectly blunt about it, my choice sometimes is: I can kill myself or I can make a dozen cupcakes. Right so, I’ll do the cupcakes and can kill myself tomorrow.” It makes for uncomfortable reading at times; this isn’t, after all, a character in a chick-lit novel we’re reading about. But this is, in the main, a cookery book, and an excellent one at that.
Novice bakers will appreciate the clarity of the instructions, the demystifying of some of the more advanced techniques, and the hand-holding when things get complicated. The method for a lavish four-tier chocolate hazelnut meringue cake, for example, begins: “Get a good night’s sleep the night before. You need your wits about you for this cake.” The effort seems to be rewarded, though, as the instructions end with the words: “People were amazed and astounded by this cake. My friends were in awe and my enemies were sickened.”
More experienced cooks will find inspiration in some of the more challenging recipes, such as balsamic, black pepper and chocolate cake, and wasabi and white chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel icing. Coconut milk cake is a clever idea, too, and simple to make, while pineapple tarte tatin, with chilli flakes, is an interesting take on a classic.
The food photography by Alistair Richardson is gorgeous, and there’s a full-colour, beautifully styled image of every cake, tart and biscuit in the book, bar one – Slightly Sinister Star Anise Cupcakes, just how scary were you? Helpful lists of equipment to buy, rules to follow, and baking terminology explained will appeal to those tempted by the pretty pictures to roll up their sleeves, pull on a pinny and get stuck in.
Baking may have been her salvation, but, in writing this book, Marian Keyes might just be responsible for some weighty problems of a different kind. It should be called Saved By Cake: How to Save Your Sanity and Gain a Stone.
Marie-Claire Digby is an Irish Timesjournalist
