Picnic Dainties', anyone? Or how about a slice of 'Good Plain Cake'? New Zealanders with a taste for sweet treats from the past can now access the 1914 edition of the iconic Edmonds Cookery Book online, thanks to Victoria University's New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. Recipes include standard fare such as Rock Cakes and Christmas Cake, while more peculiar are Marmalade Cheese Cakes (which don't contain cheese) and Egg Drink (without eggs).Picnic Dainties', anyone? Or how about a slice of 'Good Plain Cake'? New Zealanders with a taste for sweet treats from the past can now access the 1914 edition of the iconic Edmonds Cookery Book online, thanks to Victoria University's New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. Recipes include standard fare such as Rock Cakes and Christmas Cake, while more peculiar are Marmalade Cheese Cakes (which don't contain cheese) and Egg Drink (without eggs).Alison Stevenson, Director of the Centre, says the project has been very exciting. "There aren't many families in New Zealand who have grown up without a copy of the Edmonds Cookery Book, so it's been great to see what it was like almost at the beginning."

The Edmonds Cookery Book started life in 1907 as a 50-page pamphlet of recipes promoting Thomas John Edmonds' baking powder and jellies. The marketing ploy proved so successful that the second edition, in 1910, had a print run of 150,000. It is not known if any first editions survive, however some second editions do. Today, more than three million copies of the book have been sold.

The Centre has scanned and digitised all 50 pages, including advertisements and testimonials for the baking powder from happy housewives, for example Mrs A.T. Phillips of Taranaki, who wrote: "I use 1 ½ tins a month, and always refuse any other offered to me."

The Centre, which is part of the University Library, hosts an ever-expanding free internet archive of New Zealand and Pacific Island texts and materials at www.nzetc.org. In addition to its own digitisation of important New Zealand history and literature, the NZETC provides digitisation and consultancy services to other cultural heritage institutions in New Zealand.

5/2/07