Della Carmichael owns a cooking school in Santa Monica, California and has a TV cooking show, In the Kitchen With Della.  Mickey Jordan, owner of the Better Living Channel, is to televise the first national Reggi-Mix Cake Competition.  He hopes this will boost his ratings and publicize Della's show.  The prize for the competition is $25,000, which Della can use.  The contestants are to use Reggi-Mix cake mixes (which Della claims are vile) to make an original cake. The owner of Reggie-Mix is Regina Davis, who was in college with Della. They are sworn enemies. Regina once swore that she would kill Della.

Della and her "adopted" daughter, Eileen O'Hara, have begun a business selling Della's fudge.   Eileen is the daughter of detective John O’Hara who was Della's dead husband's partner.  To add to Fella's problems, she finds that her lover, Nicholas DMartino, may be looking elsewhere to a younger woman. When Regina is found dead, face down in a bowl of one of her cake mixes, Della must determine which of Regina's many enemies has killed her. No, you will have to read the book to learn if Della wins the competition.

Death Takes the Cake is an entertaining, delightful book.  The reader is given an inside look at Pillsbury Bake Off sorts of contests, and is taken behind the scenes of a television program.  The writing is excellent.  The characters come alive and Tuffy, the standard poodle, is a loveable addition.

This is a must read for mystery lovers but is also for anyone who loves to cook. There is much throughout the book about the art of cooking, with the added bonus of a number of a number of delicious recipes included.