The Great Late Bloomers' Cake Baking Contest

Enter our baking contest for a chance to win great prizes from Didrik's/Local Root, The Wellington, Bells & Whistles, Topsfield Fair, and more! Our judges are: Wellington pastry chef Jennifer Larosa, Belmont Books bookseller and baker Alessandra Spencer-Pereira, and professional pastry chef and novelist Louise Miller, author of The City Baker's Guide to Country Living and The Late Bloomers' Club. 

We'll begin with a reading from Louise's latest novel, The Late Bloomers' Club before the contest, with judging and tastings after.

Rules
No premade cakes, mixes, or frostings.
Cakes must be entered between 3:30 PM and 4 PM on Saturday September 15. Entries will be capped at 20, so sign up early!
When you enter your cake on September 15, you must also submit: 2 copies of the complete recipe, with your name, address, and phone number on the back; your name on the bottom of your cake plate; and a serving utensil.
Cakes will be judged on cake texture, frosting texture, overall appearance, and originality.

To sign up, talk to a bookseller or email your name and phone number to events [at] belmontbooks [dot] com.

About The Late Bloomers' Club
Nora, the owner of the Miss Guthrie Diner, is perfectly happy serving up apple cider donuts, coffee, and eggs-any-way-you-like-em to her regulars, and she takes great pleasure in knowing exactly what's "the usual." But her life is soon shaken when she discovers she and her free-spirited, younger sister Kit stand to inherit the home and land of the town's beloved cake lady, Peggy Johnson. 

Kit, an aspiring--and broke--filmmaker thinks her problems are solved when she and Nora find out Peggy was in the process of selling the land to a big-box developer before her death. The people of Guthrie are divided--some want the opportunities the development will bring, while others are staunchly against any change--and they aren't afraid to leave their opinions with their tips.

Time is running out, and the sisters need to make a decision soon. But Nora isn't quite ready to let go of the land, complete with a charming farmhouse, an ancient apple orchard and the clues to a secret life that no one knew Peggy had. Troubled by the conflicting needs of the town, and confused by her growing feelings towards Elliot, the big-box developer's rep, Nora throws herself into solving the one problem that everyone in town can agree on--finding Peggy's missing dog, Freckles.

Louise Miller is a writer and pastry chef living in Boston, MA. Her debut novel, The City Baker's Guide to Country Living was selected as an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association, a Library Reads pick by Librarians across the U.S., and was shortlisted by the America Library Association’s Reading List Council for best women’s fiction in 2017.  Her second novel, The Late Bloomers' Club, was published in July 2018. In addition to baking and writing, Louise is an art school dropout, an amateur flower gardener, an old-time banjo player, an obsessive moviegoer, and a champion of old dogs.