I admit to having more cookbooks than I have time or make the time to cook and bake, but just like that slice of chocolate cake, I have a hard time saying no to collections of beautiful images and recipes.

My latest shelf addition is GEM, which was sent to me as it’s such a great family cookbook, with lots of recipes that are probably similar to the ones your granny or mom used or passed down.

GEM is the second beautiful book from Maria Findt and Sarah de Lange  after their first one, The Cookbook for Families.

Here you won’t find anything sophisticated or difficult to make, or needing hard-to-find ingredients. Rather, there are simple favourites that are “gems” from the authors themselves, or from others who have shared theirs, along with anecdotes. Some of the recipes date back to 1888 and Maria and Sarah have tried each one.

My bookmarked recipes include those for Brussels waffles, buttermilk pancakes, the “never-fail” cheese souffle and “Great Granny T’s asparagus tart”. Something I can recommend are the fairy cakes (see the recipe below), which I baked on the weekend, with the help of my five-year-old “sous chef”, and which were divine (they reminded me of the fairy cakes I used to bake when I was a kid too). You’ll find that many of the recipes, especially the baking ones, can involve children.

The book is available form bookstores for R225. For more information, you can head to their Facebook page.