Get to know Sophia Cummings from SOUTHERN CAKE BAKER MYSTERY SERIES

If you were to ask Bitsy, that’d be my mama, why I became a pastry chef, she’d say that it was to make her life all doom and gloom. I’m not going to lie, it was a little satisfying seeing her cringe on the inside when I strategically told her ten years ago in front of her friend at the Rumford Country Club, RCC for short, that I wasn’t going to college and heading to pastry school.

Seriously, you would too if your mama had you call her by her nickname, Bitsy, instead of calling her mom, mama, or mother. Yes. Bitsy is as southern as you can get.

Now do you blame me for getting out of our small southern town of Rumford, Kentucky right out of high school?

Becoming a pastry chef was really a dream of mine. I’d spent the better part of the past ten years going to school and moving up in my industry. Can you imagine my joy and excitement when I hired as the head pastry chef at The Manhattan, the fanciest restaurant in New York City.

It was all mine. All my creations. Then. . .he walked in as the head chef. I can’t even bring myself to say his name because I swore that after dating him for years and then moving in together and then finding him doing more than cooking food in the kitchen of The Manhattan with the hostess, I’d never let his name cross my lips.

This was how Bitsy got back into my life. She might be a hard pill to swallow, but she’s a southern mama and no matter what, she’s loyal to me to the end. With my tail tucked and a couple of weeks off work to get my head on straight, I found myself right back in Rumford where I’d tried to escape ten years ago and in my old bedroom.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, Bitsy definitely dragged me all over Rumford to all her clubs for the first few days.

“Put on some lipstick and put on some more,” she says before we walk out the door. I had to keep up the appearance even though my heart was broken, and I didn’t have an ounce of creative baking in me.

That is until Charlotte, my high school best friend who was getting married over the weekend, cake baker had quit, and she asked me to do her wedding cake. What an honor! I was all over it.

The kitchen at the Rumford Country Club seems perfect until Chef Emile’s body is discovered, sprawled near the stove, a cast iron skillet on the floor close by and Charlotte was the number one suspect.

Charlotte can be bit of a southern pill, but she’s not a murderer. I sure hope I can help her figure out who is framing her so her wedding can go off without a hitch and before I head back to my life in New York.

Besides, I can’t wait to get out of Rumford, like I was ten years ago, because Bitsy keeps telling everyone that I’m staying. . .forever!

SIX  MONTHS LATER....

If there were a plate of crow in front of me, I'd have to say I'd be eating a big heaping lot of it.

Here's a little update. My friend, Charlotte, yep, she got hitched. Chef Emile's murderer has been brought to justice. That's big news, but NOT the biggest.

The biggest new is that I decided to stay in Rumford, buy the old Ford's Bakery and open up FOR GOODNESS CAKES BAKERY.

I know. I know what I said and that's where the crow comes in.

I'm super busy. I bought a house and my mama's cat, has now become my cat.

Rumford is going crazy with all the buzz about the Rumford Library addition. I'm very excited to be catering the big charity event being held at the Grape Valley Winery. It's the biggest event I've done so far and I'm in desperate need for the pay check. After all, I've got bills to pay.

Seriously, look at this amazing winery in the holler of Kentucky with the amazing Kentucky Bluegrass. It's the limestone rich soil that makes all the grapes perfect for the winery. And if the rumor swirling around here about Ray Peel, Rumford's most eligible bachelor, not making good on his big donation because he's selling the land the winery is on. . .has put a little damper on this event.

I better go and hurry on over to the winery office so I can get paid and things go from bad to worse.

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