My Edmonds Book of Recipes

by Lynda Bellaney

Hi Annabelle and Louise,

I have loved doing this, it has been great to look through the old recipe books again.

Over the years I have upgraded my Edmonds book, but when I look through the older books you can easily see how well used they were. I still have my Nana’s and have taken some photos and scans of some of the pages. 

To answer your questions:

  1. The go-to Edmonds recipe in our house was (and still is) ginger crunch. I cooked with my Mum, from a young age and the Edmonds cook book was the only recipe book we had, I can still remember looking through the pages and wanting to make ginger crunch, banana cake, fudge and toffee. Other recipes we had were hand written and shared.
  2. We never changed the recipe, except to occasionally add some crystallised ginger. We always needed to double the recipe though, especially the topping, as one batch was never enough! When I asked others about what recipe was there go to in the Edmonds book, they all said Mustard Sauce for corned beef. This would have been my second choice!
  3. I started using the Edmonds cook book around primary school age in the kitchen with my Mum and on holidays in Wellington when we visited my Nana and Great Aunty Billie. They have been my teachers and inspiration and I still ask my Mum for cooking advice… yesterday when we were making quiche! Mum was a great baker and cook. She always cooked enough to feed extras as there always seemed to be at our house. I would help her cater at Weddings and 21st Parties. Food was a huge part of my younger days. My Nana and Aunty Billie used to help run a boarding house with their Mum in Hukarere on the West Coast of the South Island, so food was 2nd nature and passed on through generations. 
  4. The simple recipe I would like to share with you is my Aunty Billie’s Chocolate cake, it is incredibly easy and always gets rave reviews! 
  5. This recipe really is easy but there are a few wee tricks and twists that you can try out to suit your needs
      1. I have used buttermilk or raspberry/strawberry yoghurt instead of the soured milk. 
      2. I put everything in at once in the order it is written and mix… super simple!
      3. I use a 25 cm round tin and shorten the cooking time to around 40mins.
      4. You can easily double the recipe – Aunty Billie used to double the recipe and cook it in a roasting pan. This way she could cut it into 4 and share is with everyone… you never left her house empty handed. 
      5. To make a mud cake, double the recipe and place in a large wooden tin, cook it low and slow to make it fudgy and delicious. 
  6. I have included a page of cooking tips and tricks that I have picked up over the years that I hand out to people when I run my baking class, feel free to pick your favourites!

Thank you again for this opportunity. I had Aunty Billies daughters, who I hadn’t seen for years, come for lunch this week. I made the chocolate cake and sent them home with a jar of her cucumber pickle. I had their Mum’s handwritten cook book out and it created quite the excitement!

See you at the Food Show.

Lynda xx

 

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