Collective Isolation Project, week 11: Kitchen fads & fails
Whether it’s Anzac cookies, banana bread, whipped coffee or sourdough, it’s safe to say these past few months in isolation have seen a range of baking fads fill our social feeds.
So much so, standard baking staples like sugar, flour and yeast that once filled the shelves of our local supermarkets became highly coveted, almost impossible-to-find ingredients. Iconic brands like Arnott’s started sharing their recipes for the first time, and some of our top chefs were sending out DIY kits and making online tutorials for home-made five-star meals.
While some of us have flourished into at-home chefs and bakers, there have no doubt been some baking fails along the way too.
We’re not here to judge though, so whether you’re a budding Masterchef or realised it’s best left to the professionals, we want to see your kitchen fads and fails! Share your pictures, videos, recipes or cook books and let us know how your iso-baking skills are going.
Share your response at our Facebook Memory Bank group and tag us with #SLVMemoryBank.
About this collection item
In 1968 the firm of Troedel & Cooper donated its archive to the Library. It is the most significant printer's archive to survive in a public collection.
Charles Troedel (1835–1906) arrived in Australia from Germany in 1860. His early work includes The Melbourne album and Chevalier's Album of chromolithographs. These chromolithographs were the first colour lithographs published in Australia, which is why Troedel is referred to as the 'father of colour lithography in Australia'.
You can see the use of colour in this advertisement for Fountain brand self-raising flour with the tag line ‘Make your baking a pleasure’ which would have been advertising to the ‘housewife’ of the 1910-30s.
The archive is vast and varied, and provides a wealth of information for social historians, art historians and art students.
How to respond
Please feel welcome to respond as creatively or literally as you wish.
We collect all kinds of materials including photos, diary entries, letters, written lists, oral histories, poems and objects ... our collection policy covers almost everything you could imagine, so try us!
If you contribute, we may contact you to discuss collecting and using your images, stories, objects and experiences. We may not be able to accept everything, but we will endeavour to do so!
With your permission, your contributions may be added to the State Collection or used in future Library programs.
About The Collective Isolation Project
The Collective Isolation Project aims to cement this current moment in history, and is our inaugural Memory Bank campaign.
Find out more about Memory Bank, including details about how to contribute each week.