Review: Like ‘British Baking Show’? You’ll eat up ‘Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame’

Do you know what an entremet is? Are you familiar with the concept of a proofing drawer? Do you fear the “soggy bottom”?

If you answered “yes” to those dessert-based questions, there’s a pretty good chance you’re a fan of “The Great British Baking Show,” which has made Bakewell tarts and choux pastry as familiar to its fans as Twinkies. It also probably means you will enjoy “Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame,” in which a woman in her 70s competes on a show that is called “Britain Bakes.” While it has slightly different rules, the show is very much like “British Baking Show,” which debuted here on PBS but currently airs on Netflix.

Author Olivia Ford is a veteran of British reality television and her first novel draws heavily on what she knows. “Mrs. Quinn” has tons of convincing background info, including details of the audition process, how competitors prepare for challenges and the mechanics of filming.

For instance, after Jennifer Quinn and her fellow baketestants complete their first challenge (drizzle cakes), they are told to take a break for “pretties.” Make-up retouching? No, it’s about the real stars — the break allows the camera crew to get art-directed close-ups of the most recent bakes.

If you love “British Baking Show,” you’ll eat that stuff up but, even if you don’t, you may respond to Jenny, an extremely likable creation who never thought of herself as a real baker until she took a chance and entered the competition. Ford’s novel takes us through the weekly challenges — again, with contests focusing on biscuits/cookies or bread, they are similar to the real TV series — but also backtracks to show us Quinn falling in love with baking under her grandmother’s tutelage and using her oven as therapy to get over a traumatic event she has kept secret from her husband of 60 years, Bernard.

There are a couple of recipes included at the end of the book. I haven’t attempted them, but I’m going to assume that taking them out of the oven will — like “The Great British Baking Show” and “Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame” — feel all warm and cozy.

Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame

By: Olivia Ford.

Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books, 352 pages, $29.