Ladies, a Plate - Traditional Home Baking

There is a good chance you can remember a time when the family cake tins were always full of biscuits, slices, fruit loaves and cakes baked by mothers, aunts and grandmothers. And, of course, home-made sponges, ginger loaves, lamingtons, custard squares were an integral part of all special occasions whether it was a birthday, a christening, a wedding or a wake. In Ladies, A Plate, Alexa Johnston looks back to this gentler time and shares her favourite traditional New Zealand recipes. An avid collector of community cookbooks, Alexa also writes about the history of some New Zealand baking classics, showing how our favourite recipes evolved over time. This gorgeous book contains over ninety recipes and will be treasured by every kitchen enthusiast, whether in your twenties or your nineties.

Alexa Johnston works as a freelance art curator and writer. Her definitive biography of the iconic New Zealand hero, Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life, was a finalist in the Montana Awards. An enthusiastic and accomplished baker from a young age, Alexa has an impressive collection of both cooking utensils and Kiwiana cookbooks.