This month’s selection for Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club is an Australian evergreen full of the most reliable, delicious bakes you’ll find – “Mix & Bake” by Belinda Jeffrey.
Wow – here we are in month two of my new Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club and I just can’t tell you how thrilled I am with your response. The group has grown so quickly, far beyond my expectations, and participation has been through the roof! It’s pretty clear everyone is in love with Yotam Ottolenghi, and it seems that his cookbook “Simple” was a great selection for our first book.
This month I’ve selected an Australian cookbook that will have the bakers in our group racing to whip out their stand mixers (but don’t panic if you don’t have one – the author caters to everyone in this cookbook), and which is something of an evergreen. It was first published back in 2007, the anniversary edition was published in 2017 and it’s still in print.
Without any further faffing around, let me introduce you to the Lamb’s Ears Cookbook Club April selection – Belinda Jeffrey’s fabulous “Mix & Bake” (RRP $39.99, but only $30.95 here).
Belinda has long been a quiet achiever on the culinary scene in Australia, going from her early days in her own cafe and working in restaurants, cooking on television, becoming an award-winning cookbook author to now hosting enormously popular cooking classes and workshops near her home, not far from Byron Bay.
Cake – my favourite food group.
Belinda has won a host of national and international awards for her cookbooks, including two for Mix & Bake, our April Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club book. A versatile cook, Belinda’s first love is baking – but not the elaborate, fancy cakes and pastries we often see on television these days. Her passion lies in the kind of baking many grew up enjoying (or wish they did) – the treasured family cakes and baked goods that still, in our oh-so-sophisticated times, are the first to be snapped up at school fund-raisers, and that many of us turn to for comfort. This is the kind of food that comes with stories, and also creates them.
“Mix & Bake” is full of bakes that are accessible, both in process and ingredients, and that work – you won’t find any poorly tested recipes here. Belinda offers loads of suggestions, tips and hints in the book – even a total newcomer to baking will find the success and joy in baking that those of us with a history of cakes under our belts (along with the calories that come with that) enjoy.
New bakers looking for guidance might also want to check out a couple of baking tips posts I wrote last year, here and here. They contain much of what you’ll need to know to get started with this month’s Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club book.
As I said, this book has been around for a long time and, if buying it is not an option, you’ll find it in your local library. There are also quite a few of the recipes online. So get your sifters out (or not, see my baking tips posts) and start baking for Aprils Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club.
We’ll be sharing the images on our Facebook group, Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club, from Thursday 1 April. You can also post on Instagram using the hashtag #lambsearscookbookclub after April 1.
Please feel free to share the love – we’d love to have more join our group, so spread the word, and share this post with all your friends!
You can buy Belinda Jeffrey’s “Mix & Bake” at good bookstores, or online at Booktopia. (If purchased via the link on this page I receive a small percentage of the price.)
We’re going to enjoy this. We’re travelling at present, so I won’t get cooking until after the 8th, but looking forward to some baking. Yum, yum!
I’m a baker and not the fancy Nancy highly decorated cake type baker but the really tasty delicious cake baker, so this book resonates with me! I think I have cooked the whole book (except any of the recipes with chocolate in it)
Like you, I’m more of a home-style baker – which is why I love this book and Belinda’s warm, approachable style in general!