The most charming is Hazel's Home Baking by Hazel Taylor of Gore and her daughters, Jude, a chef, and Marie, a photojournalist.
By all accounts Hazel was an excellent baker, and her daughters decided to collect her recipes for posterity, converting them to metric measurements and modern ovens. The cookbook contains 50 recipes, many of which come from her friends and her mother; and tips for baking success.
Many made my mouth water nostalgically - cheese puffs, Milo biscuits, custard creams, ginger crunch, Churchill square and cream sponge. This is genuine, old-fashioned southern country baking, tested for modern kitchens and presented well but without fuss. It is available from www.hazelshomebaking.co.nz.
• A grander publication is Gran's Family Table (HarperCollins) by Natalie Oldfield of Dulcie May Kitchen in Auckland. It celebrates the author's inspirational grandmother, Dulcie May Booker; her cooking and the wonderful family meals of childhood that I can't help thinking might be nostalgically seen through rose-tinted spectacles.
Most of the recipes are old New Zealand favourites, but some have been interpreted with a modern twist - grilled grapefruit with maple syrup and cinnamon, macaroni cheese with a crisp crumb topping, mayonnaise made with sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate sauce pudding.
I doubt if spelt flour was available in the 1950s or '60s, or green chilli and coriander aioli, but then Dulcie May, who lived until 95, was always interested in trying something new, according to Oldfield.
• Aunt Daisy, a New Zealand radio host and cookbook writer from the 1930s to the 1960s, has become a legend. Her late daughter, Barbara Basham, has compiled The Aunt Daisy Baking Book (Hachette), selecting recipes from The Aunt Daisy Cookbook.
They have been updated with metric measurements and baking temperatures, although the instructions are minimal, as they were in the days when it was assumed all women learnt to cook with their mothers.
• Another book of nostalgic baking, from The Hummingbird Bakery in London, specialises in American cakes, rich cupcakes, cream pies, whoopie pies, thickly frosted layer cakes, and other mouthwatering goodies.
Following the publication of its cookbook a couple of years ago is Cake Days: Recipes to make every day special (Collins) by Tarek Malouf. The recipes are divided into themes - Valentine's Day, birthdays, summer afternoon tea, rainy day treats and so on. Very tempting, but I can almost feel the weight going on just looking at the luscious photographs, let along reading the amounts of butter and sugar in the ingredients.
