A Star is Born

My Life from Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over, One Cake at a Time

By Gesine Bullock-Prado

The Good: Her memories are sweet like her desserts. Whether or not you are a survivor of "the biz" you will surely find something in common with her and her journey to find happiness.

The Bad: The recipes need some fine tuning.

And the Ugly: My Starry Starry Nights

The Grade: A-

You can tell Gesine comes from a past of Hollywood filmmaking. In a good way, that is. Her story of losing her German mother to cancer and flipping her life around is well-structured and a bittersweet joy to read. Gesine escapes from a world of candy coated, unfulfilling dreams to join another universe that is, this time, truly coated with sugar.

The story of a regular-day-at-work is seamlessly intertwined with tales of a childhood in Germany, a movie star sister (can you guess who?) and leaving tinsel town for the far off reaches of Vermont. She reveals many insecurities and the imperfections of her confections as she becomes the master baker she is. Her honesty is refreshing.

I let you in on a little not-so-secret secret. I, too, come from Hollywood (the New York version that is). By day, Mrs. Worm has her own share of glitz, glamour and unfulfilling dreams. Time and time again I have thought of quitting altogether and opening my own bakery. Fortunately, for me, I haven't come to the point of utter distaste for my career... yet. So you can say I have a bias towards this tale.

This is not a cookbook but a memoir so her rating comes from her writing and not the quality of her recipes. Now speaking of recipes...

The Espresso Cheesecake (above) was decadent and delightful but I was left with way too much batter for an 8 inch spring-form pan. Perhaps I can blame my 15-year old brother. He made the Oreo crust. (I'm reaching.) And I did take it upon myself to add 6 ounces of melted chocolate. I recommend making two small cheesecakes or cutting down the recipe. And beware. She is honest about how long this cake will take. I was able to put it in the oven, eat dinner and attend Christmas mass before it was even done.

Starry Starry Nights. I wish upon a star that you would come out right! This is my second batch (above) and they look nothing like Gesine's picture online (below).

That's right! Twice and I even watched her video online to figure it out. I sweated over the chocolate and eggs. I froze the batter overnight. I even bought a smaller scooper... $13. Once I blame myself... or the closest relative. Twice, there must be something wrong. The good news is they were still tasty and my co-workers had no problem ingesting them. Plus, they are gluten free!

So read My Life from Scratch because it's a good read. Take the recipes with a grain of salt - and please forgive the food pun.