NZ baking at its best

A Treasury of New Zealand Baking

Ladies a Plate

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It's a fair bet that New Zealand has more dedicated home bakers per square kilometre than any other country on the planet.

Two recent books not only enhance that reputation but ensure that, come Christmas morning, the hearts of Kiwi mums (and a few dads) will skip a beat as they unwrap one or other of these mouth-watering collections.

A Treasury of New Zealand Baking
Edited by Lauraine Jacobs (Random House NZ, RRP $55)
The Treasury of New Zealand Baking is the triumph, and no wonder.

Take the best recipes from our best cooks and food writers, ask baking guru Dean Brettschneider to test and bake them, then add superb photographs by Aaron McLean. Combine in a professionally designed hardback printed on quality paper (with a handy ribbon marker), and there you have it: a copper-bottomed recipe for success.

Cakes, loaves, slices, scones, tarts, muffins, friends – they're all there, whether for neighbourly morning coffees or glam afternoon teas, contributed by 47 of the stars that light up our baking firmament: think Ray, Lois, Peta, Jo, the two Julies, Tui, Alison, Annabelle, Allyson, Lauraine, Catherine, Kate, Brett, Judith, Martin, Simon et al. My test-recipe of choice was Catherine Bell's Lemon, Lime and Poppyseed Syrup Cake; I'm still swooning. Tui Flower contributes a separate chapter of invaluable baking advice, and the index includes both the cooks and their recipes.

A Second Helping: More From Ladies, A Plate
By Alexa Johnston (Penguin Group NZ, RRP $45)
Still ticking the boxes is A Second Helping: More from Ladies, a Plate by Alexa Johnston, also a contributor to the treasury. First time around (with Ladies, a Plate) she gambled on the public's appetite for nostalgia baking and, good for her, hit the jackpot. Now the art historian turned cookery author continues the theme with another tempting selection of old favourites such as Sponge Kisses, Melting Moments, Tan Squares, Russian Fudge and Coconut Ice. Yum and yet more yum.

Her recipes work – no question – and each includes a thumbnail history. On the minus side, however, and this really matters in a cookbook, many of her otherwise imaginative photos are blurry or too dark, the effect made worse by the publisher's choice of paper. Good lighting is the food photographer's best friend.

- © Fairfax NZ News