1. Blind baking is a technique for ensuring a perfect pastry case yet, as Jenny muses, “so much can go wrong.” The impossibility of perfection is a major theme of this novel. Who, in your opinion, is the character that personifies this trait most clearly? And what lies behind the “be perfect” compulsion exhibited by many women?

2. The germ of this novel came when the author started baking with her small children. At the same time, she noted the competitiveness of mothers running school cake sales. Is this an expression of a hankering for a simpler, gentler --- and perhaps fictitious --- time? Or is it about a need for validation particularly among highly-educated, stay-at-home mothers?

3. At the heart of the book is the idea of family. For most of the women, baking, or cooking, represents the idea of “home” --- or an idealized home. Why do we invest food with such significance? And what do you think of the characters in the novel who fail to perceive food in this way?

4. Food can also be about control, as exemplified by Karen, who “had long known that the brief elation of surrender just cannot compare with the thrill of denial.” What do you think of the depiction of disordered eating in the novel? Is the portrayal sympathetic --- do we understand Karen’s behavior? 

5. “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” The Yeats’ epigraph is recalled by Jenny as her sponge curdles and she thinks of her disintegrating marriage. Where else is baking used figuratively to represent personality traits, or to mirror a character’s experience?

6. Many of the women in the novel are struggling with a change in their lives --- and it’s this dissatisfaction that leads them to apply for the competition. Jenny has lost her old role of wife and full-time mother; Karen is struggling with the idea that her body is aging; Vicki is struggling to adapt to being a stay-at-home mom who may only have one child. Only Claire --- whose mother applies on her behalf --- is not at such a crossroads. Does this make her a less dynamic, or less sympathetic, character? If not, why?

7. Are there any characters in the novel that you found unlikeable? What made you feel that way?

8. Did you expect Kathleen’s story to end as it did? Did you find that satisfying?

9. In my own family, we have passed down favorite recipes. What are yours, and is there an equivalent of an Art of Baking in your life: the culinary Bible that has shaped the way you bake?