Sweet-toothed Dottie (12) adores baking, but her messy nature often leads to dippy middles and soggy bottoms. When she joins the Great Summer Baking Academy at a Victorian boarding school in South East London, she soon worries that she’s bitten off more than she can chew. What’s more, everyone else—even the teachers—seem to think she’s out of her depth too.

That is, until she discovers an ancient cookbook stuffed behind the pipes, hidden for centuries. Could these recipes give her the edge? Using the book’s strange method and secret ingredients, she tries a recipe for Foraged Week, and it’s perfect. Suddenly, Dottie is back in line to be Cream of the Crumb.

But as the weeks progress, she realises these aren’t ordinary recipes. There’s magic within them. And with each bake comes a consequence more dangerous than the last. With the help of her fellow bakers, Dottie must turn a kitchen disaster into a showstopper—before the cookbook’s magic poisons them all.