Time to get out that rolling pin

by Nicola Shepherd

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One of the best-selling cookery books at the moment is Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess

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In it she describes not only the joys of eating warm, freshly-baked scones, muffins, biscuits and cakes straight from the oven, but of the pleasure of actually making them, too.

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Rubbing butter into flour, playing with dough in your fingers, watching something slowly rise and then smelling it, is not only a sensual experience but a sexual one too, apparently.

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Critics have said that such exhortations to don�the gingham pinny and flour-up the arms, undermine the attempts women have made for half a century to shake of such domestic slavery.

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But surely taking time out at the weekend to raise a game pie and whisk up a fatless sponge can't compromise your feminist credentials that much. Can it

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Nigella's idea is to take the anxiety out of baking and to put� the warm heart back into kitchens, which have become temples to briskness and robotic efficiency.

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According to Nigella, the effort required to make a cake is so much less than the gratitude conferred and baking is chemistry first and poetry second.

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Are you with Nigella or do you feel that good ol' fashioned home-baking�should be consigned to history Share your thoughts by visiting The AnswerBank message boards now.