Baking book series in reading order

by Delia Smith

by Betty Crocker

by Jenn McKinlay

Livia J. Washburn writes mysteries and westerns, with 57 books in the catalogue from The Emerald Land (1983) to Tourist Trap (2024). Some titles appeared under other names: Ghost River (1990) and Red River Ruse (1991) as L.J. Washburn, Crusade: Lyron's Lament (1995) as Livia Reasoner with James Reasoner, and Rivers of Gold (1995) as J.L. Reasoner. Washburn series include Fresh-Baked Mysteries, Lucas Hallam, Delilah Dickinson, Kingfisher P.I., Evans Novel of the West, Palmetto, Tongue-Tied Witch and Our Town. Subjects include baking, murder, women sleuths, Texas, South Carolina and Phyllis Newsom.

Delia Smith is an English cook and television presenter who teaches basic cookery skills in a direct style. Her 32 catalogued books start with Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking (1971) and include the How to Cook series and the Delia Collection, covering cakes, baking, puddings, soups, fish and Italian cooking. Smith is Honorary Life President of Norwich City with her husband Michael Wynn-Jones, and the two were joint majority shareholders of the club from 1998 to 2024. You Matter: The Human Solution (2022) is the most recent catalogued title.

Betty Crocker is a fictional character created in 1921 by General Mills, then the Washburn-Crosby Company, to answer consumer questions about products in a personal voice. The character is used in advertising campaigns for food and recipes. The catalogue carries 251 books under the Betty Crocker name, from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book (1948) to Betty Crocker's Frosting Secret (2025). Titles include Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook (1950) and Betty Crocker's Cookbook (1969). Subjects cover American cooking, quick and easy cooking, cookies, pasta and chicken.

Mary Berry is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter, born on 24 March 1935. Berry trained in catering at college and went to France at 22 to attend Le Cordon Bleu. The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook (1970) was the first Mary Berry book, and the Baking Bible followed in 2009 among more than 75 cookery titles. Berry has presented television series for the BBC and Thames Television. The catalogue opens with Mary Berry's Cookbook (1970) and covers baking, cakes, desserts, freezer cooking and make-ahead cooking, with titles such as Popular Freezer Cookery (1972) and Family Cooking (1978).

Virginia Lowell wrote the Cookie Cutter Shop Mysteries, a six-book cozy series published between 2011 and 2015. A Cookie Before Dying (2011) opens it and Dead Men Don't Eat Cookies (2015) ends it. Baking, gingerbread, a town bakery and a friendship surround the murders, and every title turns on a cookie. No book has followed since 2015.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal

58 books• 4 series

Amy Krouse Rosenthal (1965-2017) wrote for children and adults, made short films and hosted radio. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (2005) is the memoir; Uni the Unicorn, Cookies, Little Pea, Little Hoot and The OK Book sit among more than 30 children's books published from 2005 onward. Rosenthal is the only author to have placed three children's books on the Best Children's Books for Family Literacy list in a single year. The listing holds 58 titles dated 1998 to 2024, at a median of 40 pages.

Thomas Keller

12 books• 2 series

Thomas Aloysius Keller, born 14 October 1955, is an American chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. Keller's Napa Valley restaurant, the French Laundry in Yountville, California, has taken multiple James Beard Foundation awards, among them Best California Chef in 1996 and Best Chef in America a year later. The catalogue holds 12 books published between 1999 and 2020, opening with The French Laundry Cookbook (1999) and taking in Bouchon (2004), Under Pressure (2008), Ad Hoc at Home (2009) and Bouchon Bakery (2012). Subjects record French and American cooking, baking, restaurants and cooks. Williams-Sonoma Tools & Techniques (2005) carries a publisher credit rather than an author one.

Cozy mysteries with a trade attached are Jenn McKinlay's speciality: a library, a cupcake bakery, a hat shop and a resale business each anchor a series. The catalogue reaches 69 titles between 2002 and 2026, including contemporary romance in the Bluff Point and Museum of Literature books and the Decoupage mysteries written as Lucy Lawrence. Stuck on Murder (2009) and Sprinkle with Murder (2010) start the main cozy runs, and Booking for Trouble is the most recent title.

Jane O'Connor is the writer of Fancy Nancy, a children's picture book series begun in 2005 and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. The first Fancy Nancy book stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for nearly 100 weeks, and the series grew past 100 titles and 50 million copies sold, with translations into 20 languages including Hungarian and Hebrew. Nancy moved into chapter books in April 2012 with Nancy Clancy: Super Sleuth. The catalogue lists 134 O'Connor books from Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby (1979) to Besties for Eternity (2025), across series such as Lulu the Witch, Sir Small and Miranda Bookman.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli and many others is a shared byline covering 120 early-reader books published between 2002 and 2026, from Whose Hat Is It? to Fox Catches a Wave. Volumes are very short, with a median of 32 pages, and are written for children learning to read alone. Biscuit the puppy and Mittens the cat anchor much of the list, and the stories turn on animals, friendship and small daily outings. New titles keep arriving.

Coco Simon is the name on Cupcake Diaries and its companion series for middle-grade readers. Katie and the Cupcake Cure (2011) opens a catalogue of 63 books that reaches Natalie's Sprinkle of Light (2025). Sprinkle Sundays, Donut Dreams, Cupcake Diaries: The New Batch and a graphic novel line follow. Friendship, middle school and baking are the recurring subjects, and the books run to a median 144 pages.

Laura Joffe Numeroff

60 books• 3 series

Laura Joffe Numeroff is an American children's author and illustrator, born in 1953, known above all as the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The If You Give... books form her main series, with ...Do Best and Jellybeans beside them. The catalogue records 60 Numeroff titles between Amy for Short (1976) and Ponyella (2021). Animals, friendship and stories in rhyme recur as subjects, and the median book runs 32 pages.

Lorraine Pascale writes cookbooks. Recorded subjects include baking, baked products, recipes, quick and easy cooking, international cooking, low-fat and low-calorie diets, cookies and cake. Eight titles run from Baking Made Easy (2011) to Bake (2017), taking in Home Cooking Made Easy (2011), Lorraine Pascale's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food (2012), A Lighter Way to Bake (2013), Everyday Easy (2014), How to be a Better Cook (2014) and Eating Well Made Easy (2015). The median recorded length is 288 pages across five volumes measured.