Café Te Horo

You know you’ve stumbled across quite a special café when customers regularly call in with pre-orders a 45 min drive away. This is nothing unusual for the family behind Café Te Horo, who are surely committed to the tradition of great Kiwi home baking. Opened ten years ago by Jackie Wood and now carefully nurtured by her daughter Amanda Corrigan, the cabinets are brimming with savoury and sweet baked delights, and both mother and daughter say it is much inspired by the early days of baking with their treasured copies of the Edmonds Cookery Book. “We make everything ourselves, all our own relish, jams, everything. It’s the Kiwi way!”

Amanda and Jackie's favourite Edmonds recipe

“There are two," says Jackie, "the melting moments and the afghans”. A well-worn Edmonds Cookery Book shows just how often they make them!
“My favourite would have to be the ginger kisses” said Amanda. “With Edmonds you know the recipe will work and we have been making them for years!”

At the café, a young girl, Rhienna Bevan, leads a terrific team and also loves baking. When she goes home she works with her daughter Keeana (6) in the kitchen baking from her treasured grandmother’s Edmonds cookbook, that is very old (7th edition circa 1966) and kept safe. “It’s quite emotional for me as my Granny would cook with me with this book and now I’m cooking with my daughter with the same book and I hope she passes it on to her family in the years ahead. Granny’s book was quite old and much treasured when we baked together – now it’s going to the next generation with all those special memories.”

Amanda and Jackie's Baking Tips

• A spot of marmite in mince or gravy adds extra easy umami/depth of flavour.
• Always have your eggs at room temperature – the mix will be much lighter.
• If you over-whip cream, add some runny cream to restore it.
• Always sift flour. If you don't have a sifter, an old baker’s tip is to stir all the dry ingredients well in the bowl before adding to the creamed mix.
• Poach an egg low and slow for the best results.
• Always cream butter and sugar thoroughly, whip until fluff,y and little longer than you think. You can tell when it is perfectly creamed as there is no grainy sugar feel to the mix and it has turned quite white in colour.
• Make everything with love.