Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe

“Come and meet Issy Randall, proud owner of The Cupcake Café.
Issy Randall can bake. No, more than that – Issy can create stunning, mouth-wateringly divine cakes. After a childhood spent in her beloved Grampa Joe’s bakery, she has undoubtedly inherited his talent.
When she’s made redundant from her safe but dull City job, Issy decides to seize the moment. Armed with recipes from Grampa, and with her best friends and local bank manager fighting her corner, The Cupcake Café opens its doors. But Issy has absolutely no idea what she’s let herself in for. It will take all her courage – and confectionery – to avert disaster . . .”
This book occupies a very special place for me as the first book that made me recognise that ‘food fiction’ was becoming a genre in its own right and that I loved it! I think it was recommended to me by my friend Tara from Seven Hills Crafts at a time when we both worked in 9-to-5 jobs for the same company and both dreamed of escaping and working for ourselves – a dream we have both since achieved.
For me, all of Jenny Colgan’s food-themed novels have a perfect combination of warm characters, an obsession with the food and a main character on a journey to live their dreams. I find them the most comforting of comfort reading.