Donna Hay has fond childhood memories of learning to bake. “My grandmother loved to bake, too – she’d fix an apron around my waist and let me help her in the kitchen, teaching me her secret recipes for cakes, cookies and puddings,” she says. “Together we made lots of traditional things from scratch, like lemon curd, jams and cakes – I still use her recipe for my Christmas pudding every year.”

Donna Hay has compiled more than 250 of her own favourite recipes for cakes, cookies, slices, pies, desserts and icy sweets in her latest cookbook Modern Baking