The Golden Spoon

As the site of the competition, Grafton Manor and the baking tent provide the backdrop against which the novel unfolds. Although it is located in Vermont, the Manor evokes the kind of country houses associated with the Great British Bake Off, with labyrinthine corridors, heavily-used fireplaces, and furnishings that, as Pradyumna suggests, belong on the set of a “BBC minidrama.”

Large and mysterious, Grafton Manor intrigues the contestants as they enter the ancestral home and begin to explore its various wings. Stella remarks on how “the house gazes down on me” with “uniform and opaque” windows that disguise the inside (118). Through Stella’s description, Maxwell personifies Grafton Manor as it looks down over Stella while shielding what lies indoors through dark windows. The darkness of the windows and the hidden nature of certain wings and stairs highlight the mystery that encompasses Grafton Manor. The entrance to the old servants’ quarters, which hold clues to Lottie’s mother’s disappearance, remains hidden inside a wardrobe that Pradyumna discovers only with the limited guidance of Peter. As the contestants explore more of the Manor, they discover more about the secrets held by its inhabitants of the past and present.

Thus, on the one hand, Grafton Manor is a gathering place, where Betsy welcomes Bake Week contestants to her home each year.