This funny whodunnit by Ellie Patterson, with vibrant illustrations from debut illustrator Gabriela Gil, is a story about right and wrong and the joy that comes from making amends.

Who ate the bunnies’ birthday cake?

Was it Tiger? Or Rhino? Or maybe that flamingo covered in icing?!

Follow eight unhappy bunnies on an adventure to find the culprit behind their birthday cake heist.

Children will love this cake-filled caper that explores an important message about owning up to your mistakes and coming clean when you’ve done something wrong. Just like Press Here by Hervé Tullet, Bunny Slopes by Claudia Rueda and Don’t Wake the Dragon by Bianca Schulze and Samara Hardy, this interactive picture book will engage children long beyond story time.

It’s the bunnies’ birthday but someone has eaten their cakes. First, they approach Tiger but he tells them Rhino did it, who then tells them that Flamingo ate all the cakes. In the end, the culprit(s) see the error of their cake-eating without permission and apologises.

Cake! is a simple, young children’s picture book that has been written to teach children that if they do something wrong they should take responsibility for their actions, admit they were wrong, and apologise.

The author has created a story in which sibling bunnies have had all their cake eaten and they set out to find the culprit(s). The book is sweet and it is illustrated highly with bright colours and large drawings. The text is kept to a minimum with no hard-to-decipher words. I personally didn’t find the book amusing but a 4 year old may just giggle along with the plot.

Overall, Cake! is a book that has been written to teach children how to take ownership of their actions, it does achieve this but in a very mild way that I’m not sure very little ones will understand without this being explained to them. A good book for a starter conversation with youngsters.

Ellie lives in Brighton and has been penning children’s books since her early twenties (which is quite a long time ago). She works as a senior editor and loves to hang out in coffee shops, sipping oat milk cappuccinos and soaking up inspiration with her beloved Mac laptop. Her dog Daisy, a goldendoodle, is usually to be found asleep at her feet.