Time Out's Mother's Day gift guide

This cookbook will take your mum right back to her youth. Sectioned into chapters titled things like ‘Milkbar’, ‘Lolly Counter’, ‘Fish’n’Chip Shop’ and ‘Corner Store’, Jane Lawson gives you all the recipes you could ever need to take you back to 1970s Australia. Think monochrome Neenish tarts, pastel musk sticks, salted caramel cobbers, fizzy sherbet, the best banana split and cinnamon-dusted doughnuts hot from the fryer. But it’s not all sweet stuff – there are recipes for Aussie meat pies and potato scallops, there’s even a recipe for seafood sticks. And once she’s a’cooking, who says it’s a crime if you get a share of the wares? It’ll be the best present you ever bought. $40. www.gleebooks.com.au.

Don’t have time to go out and pick up a gift? Do not fear, because the Gourmet can deliver a box of Kakawa chocolates (one of Sydney’s finest chocolatiers) to your door. Make sure to include the luscious sea salted caramels, creamy, boozy Champagne truffles, and go off piste with their tonka bean and vanilla truffle – its filling is smooth as silk, with an almond, herbal flavour. Surely she’ll offer you a taste. From $5, plus delivery. thegourmet.com.au.

Now that we are all adults, spending time with your mum is something you look forward to – not something we avoid like when we were awkward teenagers. And we all know the best catch-ups include wine and cheese, which is why you should buy your mum a Stinking Bishops voucher ($50-$200) and make a date to spend it on a cheeseboard, cured meats and a top notch glass of wine. www.thestinkingbishops.com.

Spend time with mum – the best gift, let’s face it – and a line-up of top flight singers, in a program of celebrated arias and duets that is sure to have at least one of her favourites. Reserve tickets are $199 and the event takes place on Sunday June 26 at the Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au.

MakerSpace’s ceramic technician Xavier Modoux runs wheel-throwing classes for $45 per person. But that’s not all they offer at the Marrickville makerspace; mum can improve her welding skills, fine tune her photography chops, impress her friends with floristry talents or learn to make a cheese board. $45-$100. makerspace.org.au.

At this point it’s very likely your mum already has most of the things she needs, but who amongst us doesn’t want another bottle of wine? It gives you an excuse to pop round for a drink and a chat and it elevates a midweek meal to something a bit special when there’s ace plonk on the table. Our friends at Sydney’s specialty bottleshop, the Oak Barrel, reckon mum would love a bottle of the Good Intentions Gris Diddly Dee ($39.95), a pinot gris made with skin contact down in Mt Gambier. Or maybe a South Australian chenin blanc is more her style, like the Jauma Sand On Schist ($36.95), which is made from 1940s era vines. www.oakbarrel.com.au.