Gee - Magnolia Kitchen: inspired baking with personality

Enjoy the taste sensations of Magnolia Kitchen at home. Bernadette Bets Gee shares her delicious recipes, clever tips and decorating inspiration.

Well known for her artistic cake designs, Bets of Magnolia Kitchen is a force to be reckoned with. From humble beginnings, she now runs a sweet cafe, wholesale distribution business and online shop delivering her retail products worldwide, while maintaining a strong following on Instagram.

As well as her amazingly creative custom cakes, Bets is celebrated for her macarons, doughnuts, brioche, gourmet smores and many more mouth-watering treats. In her first cookbook she shares her journey and her widely sought-after recipes so that you can enjoy the deliciousness at home. With step-by-step instructions for cake decorating and making macarons, and a full range of allergy-friendly recipes, this is a must-have book for anyone interested in baking and eating.

First published in 2019

Text Bernadette Gee, 2019

Photography Lottie Hedley, 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Allen & Unwin

Level 3, 228 Queen Street

Auckland 1010, New Zealand

Phone: (64 9) 377 3800

Email:

Web: www.allenandunwin.co.nz

83 Alexander Street

Crows Nest NSW 2065, Australia

Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.

ISBN 9781988547008

ISBN 9781760871055 (eBook)

Design by Megan van Staden
Set in Archer and Gotham

Bringing back memories through taste

CONTENTS

THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING MAGNOLIA KITCHEN

I love telling this story... it is so dear to my heart, and really encapsulates everything that Magnolia Kitchen stands for: memories and family.

Rewind 16 years and there I wasBernadette (Bets), teenage mum to baby Charlotte, planning a first birthday party. As a young single mum I had a complex. I felt like I was judged for being a teenage mum, for being a single mum, for how I parentedall of it. The reality was that while Im sure there was some judgement and some people who looked down their noses at me, I really judged myself the hardest.

I took the planning for Charlottes first birthday party as a way not only to celebrate the achievement of raising a one-year-old but also to show everyone how much of an awesome mum I was. I chose cake as my way to do this. I was dead set on creating something awesome , something that would be remembered forever as spectacular. All the mums would see the cake and be blown away by my talent as a mum and a cake maker (insert hysterical laughter here). Needless to say, the cake was a monstrosity, although I wouldnt realise this until years later when I made caking my career.

I made use of the officers galley where I was posted with the Navy to construct my masterpiece. Using bought sponge cake, I slathered it with apricot jam (I missed the part where the jam was supposed to be smooth, so mine had lumps of apricot in it) and then threw a whole lot of fondant at it. Add in a plastic crown and a tinfoil-covered chopping board, and I wasin my opinionready to show those mums.

Charlotte and I chose her cake from the old Womens Weekly cake book from the library; this would become our tradition for the next five years. We would go to the Navy library and sit down on the floor, and she would choose a cake (yall know thats a lie, I totally vetoed her choices and chose one I wanted to make). Over the years she had a frog, a whale, a pig, a Barbie mermaid and an ice-cream-cone castle...

Fast-forward to 2008. I had left the Navy, and Charlotte and I moved to the city where I worked as a payroll officer. Apartment living and city life was so much fun. I got the opportunity to walk Charlotte to school every day and we spent most weekends hanging out at Victoria Park, Charlotte playing on the playground and me reading a book or taking photos of magnolias, which I referred to as my muse. I would use the photos as inspiration for my paintings, which my family would be given as birthday and Christmas presents. Alongside these hand-painted canvases, my family and friends would usually get a selection of homemade sweet treats.

The sweet treats became a regular thing. My range consisted of Russian fudge, pecan Russian fudge, coconut ice, white chocolate rocky road and dark chocolate rocky road. Every Christmas I spent hours making these treats to give away as gifts. I started out packaging them in cellophane tied with a ribbon, then progressed to cellophane bags and then to noodle boxes. I used to sneakily use the colour printer at work to make a personalised label for each noodle box.

Then 2009 came, and with it a mysterious illness that turned my world upside downI was hospitalised for 10 days, unable to walk, and eventually received a likely diagnosis and rehab. A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis would not be confirmed until five years later. That same year also saw a man turn up on my doorstep from Canada. His name was Harley, and he was instantly my boyfriend and would later become my husband. To say this was a memorable year is a huge understatement! My little family of two became a family of three, we moved to the burbs and got ourselves a cat, and lived our happy little life.

I must have been unfulfilled in my office job, or I dont think that the seed of Magnolia Kitchen would have taken hold. Regardless, in September 2011 I remember watching a colleague trying to order a cake online to send to his boyfriend. I boldly stated that he shouldnt pay that for a cake, and that he should let me make my famous chocolate cake and I would charge him $20. He agreed, and the entrepreneur bug kicked in from therethe way I saw it, if he was so willing to pay me then maybe others would too!

I started brainstorming names for my business, knowing that it had to include magnolia but also needed to have a ring to it. After much input from friends and family, I settled on Magnolia Kitchen. I knew then and there that this would be my future, so I went balls to the wall, all in. I registered the business as a limited company, I reserved the magnoliakitchen.co.nz domain, I opened bank accounts and I set up a Facebook page. Next, I booked a stall at the Kumeu Christmas market with the intention of selling my sweet treats.