Book Tour: The Viking Who Liked Icing

We’re taking part in another book tour this week. The Viking Who Liked Icing, written by Lu Fraser and illustrated by Mark McKinley, was published yesterday and is a fun Viking themed story about being true to yourself – which is just the kind of message we love in a book!

Along with the book we were sent for review, we also received a packet of icing and a cupcake recipe, so we have those to share with you too. AND illustrator Mark McKinley has created a drawing tutorial, which I’m pleased to be able to share with you. So today’s post really is packed full of goodies. Read on, to find out more!

The Viking Who Liked Icing is about siblings Leafling and her brother Nut. While brave Leafling is great at sword fighting and amazing at archery, little Nut prefers baking. He dreams all day and night of cream buns, and feels happiest when he’s mixing and whisking up biscuits and cakes. When the Viking Sports Day comes around, Nut completely fails at running, rowing and swimming, and his attempts at archery are disastrous when he hits poor Erikson’s bottom instead (one of the boys’ favourite parts of the book!)

All seems lost when he hurls a pink cake at Chief Olaf’s head during the Great Horn-Throwing Race. But after Chief Olaf tastes the icing, he declares Nut the chef for the next Viking banquet and Nut finally learns…

“That you don’t need to be like anyone else.

For happiness comes when you just be yourself.”

I love the sentiment of this book, and it also had my boys laughing out loud at Nut’s silly antics. The story is told in rhyming verse which flows really well, and the colourful and quirky illustrations are gorgeous too with lots of details for kids to look at and explore. You can have a go at creating your own illustrations too, with the help of this step-by-step tutorial from illustrator Mark McKinley:

With a thumbs up from both mummy and the kids, The Viking Who Liked Icing is a definitely a book we would recommend. Lu Fraser’s earlier book The Littlest Yak, which my youngest got for Christmas last year and we equally love, has a similar theme about being yourself and finding greatness within. So if this is a message that appeals you, then you might want to check out both books. They are available to buy or order from most book stores.

Last but not least, I promised you some cupcakes! As mentioned above, our book arrived with a recipe and a packet of icing. My boys have been at a summer theatre workshop all week, so while they were busy I whipped up some cupcakes following the recipe (though with some minor modifications since I need to bake gluten free) and when the boys came home from their workshop they helped to decorate them with the icing we had been sent.

If you want to have a go yourself at making the cupcakes, you’re invited to share pictures of them on Twitter using the hashtag #TheVikingWhoLikedIcing and tag in @KidsBloomsbury. And don’t forget to tag me in too at @BearAndFoxBlog!

Disclosure: We were gifted a free copy of The Viking Who Liked Icing in return for an honest review. All opinions are our own. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for inviting us to be part of this book tour.