cakes and biscuits and scones oh my!

last week while looking for an 'expert' to appear in the article i was writing, i had the privilege of chatting to the lovely Belinda Jeffery. Belinda is one of those quiet achievers in the culinary world and thank god for that! i really have had enough of Jamie and Nigella swatting around talking about twinings tea or whatever their publicist has convinced them to represent. 

anyway. although she's worked in restaurants and on tv etc, Belinda is a baker at heart and her new book (Mix and Bake) is full of sweet and simple recipes -- orange and almond cake, lemonade scones, gooey chocolate brownies. delish! it makes me want to slap on an apron and stick my hands into a mixing bowl.

although i was supposed to be talking to her about ovens, we got into a conversation about baking and food and childhood. so much of what she cooks and writes about has been influenced by her childhood, the places she grew up in and, of course, her mother. 

as a tiny ness, i can remember my mum in the kitchen, shouting at us to get out but always letting us sneak back in for a lick of the beaters. her speciality, and always requested by my friends, was her mars bar slice. it really is as simple as melting butter + mars bars together, adding some rice bubbles and slathering chocolate on top (yes, it is as good as it sounds!) but no matter how many times i try and replicate that recipe in my own kitchen, it just doesn't taste right. the same goes for her deliciously moist chocolate and apple cake, her tangy salmon dip and those banana and chocolate muffins she would serve warm with lashings of butter. 

It made me wonder whether it's just the taste we crave or that insatiable desire to recapture a certain time and place. maybe it's also the need to recreate a moment in time when everything was 'just as'. perhaps on the weekend i shall set about creating some recipes that will always remind me of being terribly poor and living in a tiny studio apartment in sydney :)