Bringing baking back: Let us eat cake

Cookbook author Alexa Johnston in the family-friendly kitchen of her Grey Lynn home. Photo / Martin Sykes

The 50s were an era of emancipation when the advent of "Mother's Little Helpers" freed women from the shackles of the domestic grind. But not everyone saw it that way.

Spare a thought for those for whom the machine meant their manual labour was no longer required. Like three-year-old Alexa Johnston.

"My aunt gave my mother a Kenwood Chef mixer for her 30th birthday and, when I learnt what it was, I just burst into tears."

Even then Alexa treasured the time she spent in the kitchen of their Mt Roskill home, devotedly mixing ingredients with a wooden spoon.

"My mother put a Crown Lynn bowl on top of a Wettex in the sink so it wouldn't slip," she remembers.

"I loved to help - and the chance to lick the bowl!"

Ever since, cooking has been a thread that has drawn the phases of her life together.

Like a childhood friendship, for decades it remained in the background, ready and able to be rekindled in an instant.

Although Alexa studied art history and worked for 19 years as a curator at the Auckland Art Gallery, her culinary calling was destined to surface.

Fate works in mysterious ways.

Having put together the 50th anniversary exhibition of Sir Edmund Hillary's conquest of Everest for the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Alexa became a trusted confidante of the Hillary family.

She went on to compile Hillary's biography with Penguin publisher Geoff Walker.

It was Geoff who suggested she move from mountains to molehills - those small occasions made special with the addition of home-baked goodies.

"I'd made him an Opera Gateau for his 60th birthday," laughs Alexa.

"It's quite a complicated recipe with four layers of almond sponge filled with coffee butter cream and chocolate ganache, so Geoff knew I could bake."

But an avid baker doth not a cookbook writer make.

"My friends knew I cooked but I was no columnist so I initially turned him down."

Like all good publishers, Geoff let the idea sit and take root in Alexa's mind.

"I began to realise that many friends asked me for baking recipes, ones I'd gleaned from old cookbooks."

That lightbulb moment mushroomed into the popular Ladies, a Plate; and its sister in nostalgic treats, A Second Helping, has just hit the bookshelves.

It's given Alexa the opportunity to scour her collection for more classic recipes from "ladies" around the country who gave of their knowledge freely, often to raise funds for community projects.

That's the difference between Alexa and other food writers. She sees these recipes from an historical perspective.

"They're like little essays about women in New Zealand society."

Her generous Grey Lynn villa kitchen is a microcosm of this history.

Pots, pans, bakeware, crockery and tray cloths from decades of diligent scouting in second-hand shops make it a cornucopia of culinary memorabilia. And there are shelves groaning with cookery books that she'll never part with.

"I particularly love Elizabeth David - she writes brilliantly about food," says Alexa. "She gives the background stories."

Sussex-born David's A Book of Mediterranean Food, published in 1949, is said to have been the inspiration for later writers such as Julia Child.

Jane Grigson, too, is a name that comes up frequently in Alexa's collection. The paperback books of these two celebrated cooks feature illustrations and clever cover designs.

Titles include The Mushroom Feast, Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery and French Country Cooking of which Alexa has three copies.

Her oldest cookbook was published in Edinburgh in 1804 and was given to her by novelist Peter Wells.

Its introduction states: "A few women are born good cooks, others, through modern cooking tuition, become accomplished."

Alexa loves the use of more formal language and the different ways of describing methods and measurements.

Volumes such as "a mutchkin of water", baking aids such as "grey paper", actions such "prickle it with a dabber" and even incongruities such as "divide into 8 quarters" all lend personality to the reading.

Though these overseas stars of their time feature prominently on the shelves above the dining table, it's the unsung local heroes Alexa seeks to champion.

In scouring old books for recipes, she noticed the same names again and again. Some were so prolific that she was inspired to look them up.

"A friend lent me a cookbook from Tokoroa and I became obsessed by the name 'S Dunphy' who contributed 16 recipes," explains Alexa.

"I put her chocolate caramel fingers in the first book and Sister Blake's date cake in the second."

Google White Pages managed to come up trumps with an S Dunphy in Tokoroa so, one day, Alexa dialled the number.

"A lady answered the phone and when I explained what I was doing, she said 'ooh yes, that'll be me dear'."

The pair struck up a friendship and Alexa even enjoyed some of Shirley Dunphy's home baking when she visited her in Tokoroa.

Other people who have contributed have been friends or family members.

Apart from her mother Paula, who kick-started her passion, Alexa names her ex-landlady Myra Lawrie as a baking mentor.

Yet until recently she assumed that everyone had similar exposure to kitchen skills as she did.

"What I learnt from doing the books was that I thought a lot more baking was going on nowadays - but that is not the case. I've had so many letters saying the books have triggered a return to baking and I'm delighted."

Of course, not everyone will have the equipment that Alexa has amassed. Items such as a solid old biscuit cutter, she found in a junk shop.

"It's deeply indented, unlike the modern ones, and the other side cuts as well," she explains. Or the loaf tin with a humpy-back top so once you remove the fresh bread, you can see where to slice it.

The line-up also includes an Indian bread pricker that releases oxygen to stop dough from rising and some Japanese brushes made from soft plant fibre that she uses to clean her baking trays.

"My old trays are almost non-stick from never being washed with detergent. I simply clean them with the brush - the bristles never fall out, they just get shorter."

Alexa takes all her own photographs for the books - "I wanted them to look exactly like the finished result" - so her plate and embroidery cloth collection has burgeoned.

A tin featuring kowhai and other New Zealand flowers is from Agnes Curran in Ponsonby but she admits to buying some of the more brightly coloured cloths from Hungary through eBay.

"Unfortunately, though the embroidery is good, they are often done on synthetic fabrics - not cottons and linens."

Other cloths are the handiwork of New Zealanders, including one done by her mother's friend Joan Anderson (now 88) when she was just 19.

"As a former art curator I not only appreciate the manual skill involved in the embroidery but the eye these women had, their subtle choice of colour - it's often not predictable stuff."

What Alexa has found is the joy in the everyday task - and she hopes it will catch on with others because she believes sharing food is part of how human beings get on.

"I'm always amazed that people think you can achieve family love instantly by simply popping a par-baked loaf in the oven. If we all cooked or baked and made a mess in the kitchen together, then even invited the neighbours over to help eat the result, the world would be a better place."

* A Second Helping: More from Ladies, a Plate by Alexa Johnston (Penguin, $45) is a tempting selection of traditional recipes for the home baker. Try treats such as delicious Lemon Bars, Melting Moments and Hokey Pokey - then teach your kids how to make them too.