May 05, 2025
This Mother’s Day, we’re bundling our 6-month gift subscription with the beautiful Baker's Book that celebrates some of Australia’s most passionate bakers.
Among them is Alice Bennett — Baker, decorator and all around cake goddess has given us some insight about growing up in a foodie household, and how that's shaped her baking.
The Interview
So where did your love of baking come from?
The love of baking came from my mum.
I grew up in a really food-focused family — food was literally at the centre of every celebration.
My mum worked in hospitality — she had her own deli when she was my age, then later worked at William Angliss and did lots of teaching around food safety, food handling, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, my love for food definitely came from her.
Was your mum a big baker?
Well, she wasn’t a baker per se.
She just moved into the world of food — she didn't formally train as a chef but trained enough, if that makes sense. She was mostly self-taught, but very skilled.
Later, she worked in hospo training and then food safety education.
She just loved food, and she was very, very good at cooking.
And I know when you were younger you liked to bake cakes and show them off to your family?
Yeah, yeah — oh my God, she loved food. She was super encouraging — nothing was ever off-limits. She was always happy for us to be in the kitchen making a mess; she never discouraged it. We'd be under her feet while she was making lasagna, bolognese, all those staples. Even though she had a sweet tooth, I had it even more — tenfold so she let me do all the sweet baking back in the day because that was just my vibe.
Honestly, I used to make my own pretend TV shows about baking.
And was she someone you turned to for trying your recipes?
100%. Even now, I get her to test and trial recipes. Literally yesterday, I called her like, "How do I poach an apple? What spices do I add?"
She's very intuitive with food. She makes these amazing coronation chicken sandwiches.
Honestly, we think she lies about the recipe because she just tweaks things instinctively.
Friends have asked for her sandwich recipe, but when they make it themselves, it's just not the same. And it’s the same thing with my favourite dish of all time which is my mum’s lasagna — it’s not just the food. It's nostalgia. The feeling and the love that’s put into it.
That’s what makes it special.
So if she wasn’t much of a baker, she probably didn’t pass down any baking recipes?
Not too many, no. She used to joke that she was the worst sweet cook, but it was only because she felt couldn't decorate cakes properly, but she was very rustic — just throw it all together kind of vibe. Yeah, she had a really rustic style, she wasn't into perfect-looking cakes, but everything she made tasted amazing.
I have memories of my first birthday cake — well, I think I remember it, at least through all the pictures. She made the sheep cake from the Women’s Weekly book. And the pool cake — that was my favourite. I loved it because you got two desserts in one: cake and pool!
Getting back to the book, What made you choose these recipes?
So, you've got the chocolate cake, buttercream. Well, it proved itself on the weekend at the sale — people just love a good chocolate cake.
Personally, I don't love a mud cake, and I’m not into chocolate butter cakes either — I don't think they taste rich enough. Somewhere nicely in the middle is where a good chocolate cake should sit. That's why I wanted a recipe where people would go, "That's the chocolate cake I’ll turn back to." We love making salted vanilla buttercream too — we make it all the time at home.
Adding salt just brings out the flavours — it's a natural flavour enhancer.
And then the Honey Joy Slice… It came about because, growing up in Australia, you always had chocolate crackles or honey joys at parties. As a kid, I was a chocolate crackle girl. But as I got older, my palate changed, and I was like, "Honey joys actually taste better!" So I thought, "F*ck it, it’ll be fun to make something more amplified." And that’s what we did, we turned the honey joy into a slice — and honestly, it’s amazing.