Here are a few things that are the icing on my cake

A whole cake would go to waste. A batch of biscuits would be eaten too quickly.

I'm over the whole "am I worth all the effort" thing that sometimes runs through the back of the heads of solo cooks (and eaters). I know I am. Which is why I eat well.

But when it comes to baking, I hate to admit that I'm thinking about calories. A whole cake is a whole lot of steps.

So I've been thinking a lot about small batch baking. Which happens to be the title of a great book by Edd Kimber, the winner of the first season of Great British Bake Off, way back in 2010. Small Batch Bakes: Baking cakes, cookies, bars and buns for one to six people (Kyle Books, $45) has become my new bible. Biscoff-stuffed brownies (which can be frozen), cinnamon bun slices, a one-egg pavlova and a date-night creme brulee for two. I'd cook it for you, you know that.

And for days where I'm feeling completely lazy, I stumbled across these in the supermarket the other day. A while back I tested out some readily available ready-to-bake cookie doughs and this range from McKenzie's Foods rates among the best of them.

The Ready to Bake Cookie Line is available in three flavours - chocolate chip, triple chocolate and white chocolate macadamia - and you'll find them in the freezer section, with the pre-sliced cookies ready to pop in the oven or air fryer. Ten cookies in the packet, retailing for about $10.

Turn the oven on, pop some in and you've got a tasty bikkie on the plate in the same time it takes you to boil the jug.

If I'm going to channel my inner influencer (and I hate that word for all sorts of reasons, like who cares what I think) I'm also going to recommend a pair of shoes, of all things.

When you get to a certain age, you start to think about footwear in a completely different way than you did when you were young and squeezed your feet into stilettos and the like.

I remember, as a teenager, being disgusted by my mother's penchant for Homypeds, but she worked as a hairdresser and was on her feet all day. Comfort was king. I understand it now.

These FitFlop sneakers are a little funkier than the old tan brown flats she wore. The Rally Evo Leather Sneaker elevates the traditional white sneaker and throws in plenty of comfort thanks to the rebound sole which really does give you plenty of bounce. Available in three different colour combos, white/sagebrush, white/coral and white/wild lilac.

I'm always on the lookout for a good white sneaker and these ones have moved straight to the top of my list. $219.95.

Oh, look, while I've got you, and while I can prattle on more about cooking before I hand over the reigns of Food and Wine to my delicious colleague Amy Martin, I'll recommend this cookbook too.

Anna Jones is one of my favourite cooks and Easy Wins is her latest book (Fourth Estate, $55). The joy here comes from the idea of 12 flavour hits, 125 delicious recipes and ideas for 365 days of good eating. It's so simple. Lemons, olive oil, vinegar, mustard, tomatoes, capers, chilli, tahini, garlic, onions, miso and peanuts. I bet you have most of those in your kitchen right now. But it's about more than recipes. There are ideas for vegetarian flavour swaps, learn about layering flavour and texture, how to cook with flexibility and with the planet in mind. I also recommend her book One Pot, Pan Planet which is all about cooking quickly, sustainably and stylishly.

London based, she was travelling to work one day and read an article about how you could determine your passion from whichever part of the newspaper you turned to first.

Which is a good way to tell you I'm heading back to where it all started, the sports department, for a while. I'll still be here on a Sunday. And probably prattling on about cooking every now and again. Come and join me on the sidelines.