Bingo 17: Vintage
Cookbook about vintage style baking bakery. Donna Bell’s Bake Shop apparently closed in 202, thanks to the pandemic. But before that, it was a Southern-style bakery in NYC. One of the main selling points was the recipes from the name sake Donna Bell, who is one of the owners’ mother.
Most of the recipes are pretty straight forward, almost to the point of basic. I kind of have to wonder that if this kind of thing is what the bakery actually marketed, how did they manage to stay around and be popular for 20 years? You can’t run a bakery only on Pauly Perrette’s (actress best known for Abby Sciuto on NCIS) fame (also, Donna Bell was her mom), or the business sense or charisma of her two friends and co-owners. Biscuits and quick breads with various glaze options make up the first section; part 2 which is really short is scones and muffins; part 3 are a few more muffins, but mostly bread puddings and bars; and finally part 4, more bars, a few cake/cupcakes, and frostings. I’d have to go back and check, but I’m guessing the personal stories about Donna Bell, the friendship journey, and the founding of the bakery take up as much space and interest as the recipes.
It’s not a bad recipe book; it’s just not a terribly interesting one. Take the cakes. There is butter pecan, strawberry short, strawberry champagne, turtle, and carrot. That’s it. The recipes are homestyle, probably tried and true, but also probably pretty similar to that family favorite every family everywhere has. Muffins? Chocolate chip walnut, peach, lemon cornbread, banana pecan, apple sausage, and (maybe the only kind of unique one) pineapple cherry crunch.
The story of Pauley’s upbringing and connection to her mom, her getting into acting, meeting her besties and then getting the bakery going is definitely the part that’s more interesting. It’s almost like one of these cozy mysteries that features a baker or a cook, and there’s recipes. Except this is a little more memoir, with a few more recipes than average.