A collection of recipes from New Zealand’s favourite bakers, Sweet Treats to Share is a beauty of a book. Those who lend their pen to this collection include Alexa Johnston, Allyson Gofton, Annabelle White, Dean Brettschneider and Kim Evans of Little and Friday. This list is a veritable smorgasbord of the nation’s most trusted bakers, making it easy for you to feel right at home with your bowl and whisk whenever the mood strikes you.
I’m liking
The soft-padded hardcover book calls to you of homeliness from the minute you pick it up. The cake on the front is nothing elaborate – it’s a simple chocolate cake, simply iced, sitting beside a cup of tea. That’s what you’ll find when you open the cover too: a book made up of four simple sections including buttered treats, biscuits and slices, cakes, and desserts. The recipes are just regular items that you can make in your kitchen at home. Nothing looks too hard; everything looks like it would be easy to eat.
Things that made me go hmmmm
I expect the recipes in the collection will have made appearances in the respective author’s individual works. So, if your collection of recipe books resembles a library, you might find that this book doubles up on recipes you already have.
I would guess that somewhere around 50% of these recipes have pictures. If you’re super visual when you cook, you will find yourself flicking through quite a few recipes that just don’t capture your mood the way a picture would.
The conclusion
The collection favours the classics, but the range of recipes and Jimmy Boswell’s expertise in the area of gluten free mean it’s a great all rounder. You’ll find yourself inserting the candy pink bookmark in a recipe to try within minutes of picking this title up.
Sweet Treats to Share is published by Penguin Group (NZ) and retails for $45.00.
