[Disclaimer: Miss Sweet was provided with a review copy from the Australian Women's Weekly publishers.]
When I was a girl I used to love to read Mama Sweet’s cookbooks. I would curl up on the floor with a big pile of books and drool over the photos, imagining making each recipe step-by-step.
Mama Sweet had A LOT of the Australian Women’s Weekly cookbooks, but the one that I remember loving the most was The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits.
All of the family’s favourite biscuits and slices started with this cookbook – Melting Moments, Pecan Biscuits, Lemon Coconut Squares, Chocolate Coconut Bars and many more.
After moving out of the family home I was really missing these recipes that reminded me of home.The beautiful biscuits pictured here are The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuit‘s original recipe for Gingernuts.
Mama Sweet LOVES a gingernut biscuit. I remember thinking Mum had lost her mind for willingly sitting outside on the balcony on a 40+ degree day drinking piping hot tea and dunking her gingernut biscuits. This totally bamboozled me, why on earth would you want to drink hot tea and soggy biscuits in Summer?! Mama Sweet assured me that when I grew up, I would do the same thing.
Well, I’m a big girl now and although it wasn’t 40+ degrees I was all for dunking my Gingernuts into my latte.
The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits was first published back in 1982 and it has been a best-seller ever since. Mama Sweet still has her 1980s copy, albeit with a few stained pages. The AWW cookbook has been reprinted for many years and now you can get your hands on the 2013 version special edition. It still has all the old recipes with very, very 80s-style food styling. It’s amazing how much the standard of cookbook styling has changed in 30+ years. It’s not often these days that cookbooks have potted ferns featured in the background!
The cookbook’s styling used Chinese plates and fabrics for this page… not really sure why? I had to bring the spirit of the 80s into my plating too with blue and white china plate.
Although the photos are showing their age, the recipes have stood the test of time. If The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits is not in your collection, you must make it one of your family favourites too.
The Australian Women’s Weekly, Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits, RRP $14.95, available where all good books are sold and online at awwcookbooks.com
[Disclaimer: Miss Sweet was provided with a review copy from the Australian Women's Weekly publishers.]