What happens when David Atherton, the gay, 2019 winner of The Great British Bake Off, teams up with Harry Woodgate, whose book Grandad’s Camper, about a girl and her queer grandpa, earned major awards in both the U.S. and U.K.? Good things—including tasty recipes and incidental queer inclusion in the illustrations.
This is Atherton’s third cookbook for kids, though his first collaboration with Woodgate. As in the first two volumes, Atherton brings a clear love of baking and a fun, light tone to the recipes, which are broken down into simple numbered steps. There are breads like Hot Cross Hedgehogs and Iced Bear Buns (no actual hedgehogs or bears involved), cakes like Lemon Drizzle Cake and Swampy Banana Choco Cake, sweet cookies and bars, savory pastries, and even “showstoppers” like a Birthday Ombré Cake, a Stripy Strawberry Pavlova, and much more.
Woodgate’s illustrations are as delightful as always, not only showing ingredients, tools, and techniques for each of the baking steps, but also giving us images of children baking, eating, and playing across the pages. Several of the children are of ambiguous gender, and there are at least two who read as assigned male at birth who are wearing skirts or dresses. Alternatively, they could be read as short-haired girls or nonbinary kids—they’re not labeled and that’s fine here. (I’m tagging this book as having nonbinary, gender creative boy, and gender creative girl representation, however, so that people seeking such representation can decide how they wish to read the characters.)
As with any cookbook for youngsters, some adult guidance may be necessary, but that will depend on the age, experience, and inclination of your children. I’m a big proponent of starting kids in the kitchen early, and this book (along with Atherton’s first two volumes, Bake, Make & Learn to Cook and Bake, Make & Learn to Cook Vegetarian) will help kids have fun as they develop their skills and make some tasty treats! (And baking together is always a fun experience at any age—I still bake with my college-age son when he’s home.)
Note that this is the U.S. version, with all measurements and temperatures in U.S. units.
