I remember as a child pouring over my mother’s copy of this recipe book – hoping to one day be able to replicate her amazing creations – mouth-watering scones with jam and cream or a sponge cake as like as air that melted in your mouth when you savoured it!

More copies of this book, published by the makers of Edmonds ‘Sure to Rise’ Baking Powder, have been sold than any other book in New Zealand. Few New Zealand children would leave home without buying or borrowing their mother’s copy of this Kiwi culinary bible.

The first Edmonds Cookery Book was published in 1908 to give thanks for the support given to Edmonds products. Housewives could receive a free copy by written request and young couples were sent a complimentary copy on announcement of their engagement. It contained 50 pages of ‘economical everyday recipes and cooking hints’.

Some pages are forever crinkled from a spilled dash of milk; others sheer from splashes of melted butter or dusty with flour. Somewhere on the cover will be the words SURE TO RISE, and unless your copy of Edmonds Cookery Book is a pre-1950s edition (which it could be if it’s been passed down), there’s probably an image of the famous Edmonds factory in Christchurch, South Island of New Zealand too.

Easily amongst the most iconic books ever published in New Zealand, the Edmonds cookbook has endured since its first edition in 1908 and sold over 3 million copies.