I adore this pair of cookbooks, 'Ladies a Plate', by Alexa Johnston. You can learn more about the books and sign up for recipe-emails at the website. The title is taken from an old-fashioned New Zealand custom of women bringing plates of baking to social events such as dances and meetings. I heard a great story from a Danish friend of mine from the days that she was a new immigrant in NZ. She received an invitation to a party with 'Ladies, please bring a plate' inscribed at the bottom. It wasn't until she arrived at the event that she realised that the plate needed to be holding some food.
Alexa Johnston's books are beautifully designed and written. There are recipes for many traditional baked goods that I remember my Nana making for us, such as yo-yos, raspberry slice, eclairs, lamingtons, afghans, and miracles. Each recipe is illustrated with traditional china and embroidered linens. And lots of references to the original community cookbooks in which they were found.
Over the weekend I made the 'Fudge Cake' (lovingly referred to as the 'People's Fudgecake') and was thrilled to see it was the same recipe as the one in my hand-written book. It's the recipe I've been making since childhood. You can find it here on my blog. I left it uniced, so it was slightly less sweet. Thank you, Ladies a Plate, for the inspiration.
tiny happy 
Leave a reply to Marine Cancel reply