Baking for a cause!

Today Extra co-host Sylvia Jeffreys turns to The Weekly’s fabled children’s birthday cake book to raise money for Youngcare.

- TIFFANY DUNK

Like many Australians, some of Sylvia Jeffreys’ favorite childhood memories are punctuated by the scent of freshly baked goods. They reside fondly alongside the sensation of licking a wooden spoon and the joy of running a finger greedily around the bowl of leftover cake batter. And in each of them, sitting on a floury bench is a well-thumbed copy of The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book.

Her mother Janine may not have been the most accomplished baker, laughs Sylvia today, but she was certainly enthusiastic when it came to nailing the perfect birthday cake for each of her three children.

“I had the telephone cake, plus I had the swimming pool cake when I was a teenager,” she recalls with a smile. “Mum says she made the pool because I was a good swimmer and the phone because I loved a chat, and neither of those things has changed! My sister Claire had a telephone cake and she also had the sweet shop. My brother Aaron had a cricket pitch and I think the racetrack. It was a well-used book in my household.”