Many of you will remember the days of fawning over the coveted designs of the Australian Woman’s Weekly Kids Birthday Cake Book many moons before the big day. The heavily earmarked volume still resides in many cookbook collections, passed down to the next generation since its original publication in 1980. But now there’s a new tome on the block — a freshly devised, modernised volume of 80 “memory-making cakes” entitled The Great New Zealand Birthday Cake Book.

Incorporating the perfect amount of kitsch into the various cakes within, the talented Jazmine Nixon has been charged with the task of designing and decorating every celebratory creation with the responsibility of creating them left up to acclaimed baker and patissier, Dean Brettschneider. Meanwhile, the task of naming the cakes was given to the enthusiastic children from Room 10 at Churchill Park School, who came up with such gems as ‘Swan Lake & The Dancing Tutus’ and ‘Spike the Sprinkly Kiwi’.

So whether you are a parent or just a big kid at heart, we can guarantee you’ll get great pleasure out of pouring over the cakes within. At least we did when we had the chance to preview it. With two laminated A1 template sheets tucked into the back cover that will help the owner by providing the perfect template, and a bookmark reading ‘This one please, Mum!’ (or Dad, for that matter), we’re quite sure this almost released cookbook will be one to treasure for years to come.