Helen Peacocke speaks to the foodie who has unveiled her first cookery book

There was a time when cake-making only took place when times were good and ingredients plentiful, or there was something special to celebrate such as birthdays, weddings, christenings and Christmas. Times have changed. Baking is now a creative hobby. We bake cakes for fun or because we have been influenced by television and talented cooks such as Mary Berry.

Cakes are frequently baked, too, to raise funds for charities such as Macmillan Cancer. Macmillan holds the world’s biggest coffee mornings on an annual basis, and last year the charity raised more than £20m by people like us baking cakes and serving them with coffee to our friends. This year the event takes place on September 26. If you want to know more or would like a starter kit for all you need, visit macmillan.org.uk/coffee

An enthusiastic Oxford cake-maker has just brought out a book which she hopes will inspire us all to go beyond the boundaries of the UK for unusual cakes to bake.

Anna Weston works for New Interna-tionalist Publications in Cowley Road and The Global Bakery — Amazing Cakes from the World’s Kitchens, is Anna’s first book, though she is confident more will follow.

She stresses that baking is different from cooking. With cooking you can stir in a little more onion, or add another pinch of salt to achieve flavour. Baking, however, calls for precision. A pair of scales is important kitchen equipment when baking: you can’t make things up and hope everything will be all right.

Anna says: “Thank goodness for the Internet, it took me round the world and introduced me to all manner of cakes families would enjoy.”

Anna was certain she didn’t want to produce what she calls a “fancy pants book”, full of complicated recipes. Her aim was to compile a book of homely recipes that could be cooked by anybody, even children. She wanted to ensure we do not panic when baking something new, though many of her recipes ask us to expect the unexpected. The Jugu cake from East Africa, for example, calls for baking soda to be added to simmering milk. Anna warns her readers to expect this mix to froth in the most alarming way: with this mix it’s about holding your nerve and using a large bowl.

Although much of Anna’s book inspiration came from the Internet, she has baked every cake several times and laughs at how she would bake three or four at home, then take them into work for her colleagues who ate their way through 64, offering opinions on them all. As her first book takes cooks and tasters out of their comfort zones with flavours it was an experience.

She admits she’s lucky as she is surrounded by a rich diversity of ingredients in East Oxford which caters for many different communities. Ingredients for some of the cakes call for semolina, rice, ground almond or corn flours, which means they can be enjoyed by those with gluten intolerance. The book also includes recipes made with oil rather than butter to suit cake-lovers with a dairy intolerance.

The cakes are not all the same shape. The Louise Cake from New Zealand, for example, (see below) is flat and the Pruimen cake from the Netherlands, finished off with a delicious thick syrup, is flat and made in a square cake tin, others are cooked in bread tins.

If you are looking for an unusual cake, flavoured with caramel balanced by the warmth of brandy, the Torta de Hojas from Chile will appeal. The Torta Negra Galesa (Black Welsh Cake) first cooked in the 19th century by the Welsh people who settle in the Chubut Valley in the Argentine region of Patagonia is fascinating, evolving out of an attempt to protect their language and culture. The flavour of this cake deepens the longer it’s kept.

To purchase The Global Bakery (£20), visit shop.newint.org.uk