A Bit of Baking Nostalgia to Celebrate 150 Years of John Lewis – Guest Post

As today I’m celebrating John Lewis and their 150 year anniversary, I’m also guest hosting the lovely Iona from Redpeffer and her reflections and musings on baking over the years…

I’m a child of the 1970’s. I know, I know, you would never have imagined in a million years that I’m of the flares generation would you?! In comparison to the age of John Lewis at 150 years this makes me feel positively toddler like. Which is good to be honest. It stops me focussing on my aches and pains and allows me to come over all nostalgic instead.

I remember Pyrex dishes, the rise of prawn cocktail as a ‘posh’ starter. I remember flowery patterns on everything in the kitchen. Brown was a popular colour in the kitchen I seem to recall too, or is that just me? The gadgets were large and not insignificant. Our kitchen work tops were remarkably clear of electronic items for this very reason. When Sodastream came along though we thought this was possibly the most amazing invention ever. Our very own fizzy drinks!

Do you remember the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook? That was our cooking bible-I learnt to cook from that. Although perhaps I should qualify this by saying I learnt to bake with this book. I loved the cake recipes. Basically I love cake and biscuits and it started with this book.

Fast forward a ‘cough’ few years and I find John Lewis are celebrating 150 years in the retail business, making me feel positively youthful. As a fully fledged member of the grown up community now, many of my baking accoutrements have been sourced from there. And my kitchen is so very different from that of my childhood. It’s got rather a lot of gadgets in it for a start, from spaghetti measurers to cake pop makers. What John Lewis sells today in it’s stores is almost unbelievably different to what it stocked in my childhood.

Even the everyday useful items like kitchen timers are now stylish in their own right. You have the likes of Alessi and Cath Kidston specialising in kitchen ware that stands out on it’s own. The kitchen is as much a stylish room as the living room or bedroom today. My husband’s favourite kitchen gadget is his lemon squeezer made by Alessi. He likes it because of how it looks (which is handy as I don’t find it terribly useful as a lemon squeezer if I’m honest!)

I’ve been browsing the gorgeousness that is John Lewis’ baking range today and thought I’d share with you just some of the beautiful items that you can buy for your kitchen. My particular favourites are the kitchen tinker duck-how cool is he?! And those beautiful baking tins. They have the capacity to make even the most ‘rustic’ of cakes look amazing, believe me.

Do you remember the kitchen baking gadgets of your childhood? Or do you have a favourite baking gadget that you couldn’t possibly live with out today? And more importantly, do you remember the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook?!

Thanks, Iona! I do not remember that cookbook, so feel like I’ve missed out now!

I also have £50 John Lewis vouchers to give-away and I’ve been looking back on the move from letters to tweets, including a peek at some of my stationery favourites from John Lewis.

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