Cake!

Our new edition takes the cake! To celebrate our big 28th birthday we chart the historical rise and rise of everybody’s favourite celebration treat: cake! As celebrity baker Ann Reardon says: “It’s never been birthday brownie or birthday pie.” She’s right, But why? And what does “having your cake and eating it too” even mean, anyway? So get the candles out – we’re about to uncover why it just isn’t a party without cake.

• Writer Clem Bastow takes on the competition baking circuit, while baker Nat Paull of Beatrix Bakes remembers the cakes that made her.
• Teen punk, pop star, actor, podcaster: in his Letter to My Younger Self, Ben Lee looks back on a career that he likens to mingling at a party.
• In The Big Picture, Kiwi photographer Henry Hargreaves gets his just desserts – by photographing personalised cakes for kids whose first names have been banned by the NZ government.
• We talk to the forces behind The Acolyte – the latest Star Wars series bringing a galaxy far, far away into unchartered territory.
• With a self-described framework of chaos and doubt, US indie stalwarts Deerhoof can hardly believe they’re celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band, with a tour and new album.
• With the release of his latest novel Imperial Harvest, Bruce Pascoe reflects on Yuin culture’s philosophy of custodianship, kindness and care.
• They’ve never met a cake they couldn’t master, but there’s a helluva lot more to the Country Women’s Association than baking. In Ozzities, we share a slice of CWA history.
• In Tastes Like Home, cook Cherie Hausler shares her recipe for Whole Mandarin Cake With Poppy Seed Icing, a plant-based take on a cake from her childhood.