Can you remember when cake was in huge slabs & you bought the quanity you wanted by showing how much or by weight. There was a factory shop in Tuam Street where factory seconds were sold.
vintagekitty,
Mar 24, 1:22am
No, im not that old!. But I did read about the granddaughter/great granddaughter relaunching the brand as a small boutique family company again.
bedazzledjewels,
Mar 24, 3:58am
I remember the Ernest Adams shops well. Not in Chch though, I lived elsewhere. As a child, when we went into 'town', we had an icecream sundae at Ernest Adams. I can remember their delicious lemon icecream and my Mum used to buy some of those slabs of cake sometimes. Their madeira cake used to have a really strong flavour, but I bet it wasn't real madeira!
davidt4,
Mar 24, 4:03am
Lemon essence was the thing then I recall.Even though we all had flourishing lemon trees in our back yards.
elliehen,
Mar 24, 4:10am
Was it the Ernest Adams shops that sold individual Queen Anne chocolates?
vintagekitty,
Mar 24, 4:11am
yep, ellie. She is relaunching those as well
bedazzledjewels,
Mar 24, 4:39am
The new company has been going for a few years now. They have some Easter stuff and they made the pastry again too I think. Their puff pastry was legendary.
cgvl,
Mar 24, 4:42am
mmm I remember the shops too and the choclates. Only went in them when Mum wanted Queen Anne chocolate for a special occasion
I thought Ernest Adams were now run by Goodman Fielder....
jessie981,
Mar 24, 5:06am
In ChCh Queen Anne shop was in Colombo Street approx where McDonalds are now. They sold icecream too & had seating for enjoying ice cream sundaes etc.
pogram0,
Mar 24, 5:32am
Oh, was it the Queen Anne shop that had those ice cream sundaes with divine caramel sauce?They had long narrow dishes with two or three scoops of ice cream and you could have your choice of a lot of different flavours of lovely thick sauces.
jessie981,
Mar 24, 5:35am
Can't remember the caramel suace, but did have the raspberry & don't forget the pink wafer cut in half & stuck in the ice cream. Not sure but think tick whipped cream was 'extra'.
bedazzledjewels,
Mar 24, 5:59am
Ooo the caramel sauce!
jessie981,
Mar 24, 6:24am
They baked yummy Raspberry Sponge RollsOthers I remember are Seed Cake, Marble Cake, 3 layer cake like Rainbow? chocolate, pink then plain & had a mock cream filing in between each layer, Unfilled Sponge, Madeira, Sultana & their Fruit Cake was a great fav for Wedding Cakes. Any more? Shop in ChCh was on the Colombo St crn of the Square.
elliehen,
Mar 24, 6:27am
Stop!Now!..before I remember the 'turtles'.
kay141,
Mar 24, 6:31am
I remember the Queen Anne shop in Dunedin. Scrumptious marshmallow Easter Eggs and individual chocolates if I was very good. I don't remember ice-cream, which is surprising because I never went out with my Nana without getting an ice-cream. But I only liked proper cone ones and still do.
jessie981,
Mar 24, 7:12am
And they had Iced Easter Eggs with a gift inside. Elliehen, better to remember the Ninjis rather than the Wombles!
pickles7,
Mar 24, 9:16am
My Nana would buy me an ice cream, herself some chocolates, and a slab of cake for Grandad. nicest ice cream ever.
willman,
Mar 24, 10:16pm
I well remember their shop in New Brighton,lovely ' butter gold '? Madera Cake.Also the beaut Easter Eggs.( marshmellow ).
celtiana,
Mar 25, 1:09am
They were called Adams Bruce in Ponsonby.Their ice-cream was a legend and i still buy the chocolates.
jessie981,
Mar 25, 1:46am
Think they may have gone from Ernest Adams to Adams Bruce
bedazzledjewels,
Mar 25, 2:04am
There's a book - "A Baker's Tale; a Life & Times of Ernest Adams" by Hugh Adams.
Might try to hunt it down.
keirra,
Mar 25, 2:17am
many years ago i worked after school at one of their shops in the Hutt Valley. i worked from 5pm to 9pm on a Friday night. Got paid 10shillings and was allowed to take a milk shake container of icecream home for the rest of my family. Also had to DUST the chocolates in the cabnet. all cake crumbshad tobe swept up andput in a box to go back to the factory for the steamed puddings. Loved making the Banana Split dishes.
elliehen,
Mar 25, 2:24am
I guess anything like 'milkshake' with a 'shake' in it might be off the menu for a while in Christchurch ;)
pge,
Mar 25, 2:30am
I left school (Riccarton High) in Dec1961, and my first fulltime job was at Caqroline Cake Kitchen, in Armagh St. January 1962, I started work at Ernest Adams, in Tuam St, Chch, and worked there till Jan1966, when I went to London, to the Borough Polytechnic (now South Bank Uni), to qualify as a Baker and Confectioner.
Ernest was still alive, and was often seen in the bakehouse.
If I remember correctly, Adams Bruce was a partnership, but Ernest went to Chch and started-up on his own.
The staff was very large and varied, we had a great time.
E.A. were great employers, and the staff-facilities were lavish. If you started before 6am, you got a subsidised breakfast, morning tea, lunch and a/noon tea were all heavilysubsidised, and I still have a picture of a Xmas lunch in the factory. Hugh Adams was the general Manager, Laurie Beardsley was the Production Manager, Charlie Deibert was the foreman.
There were four girls either side of the "sponge bench", where the sheets of sponge was spread with respberry-jam, (artificial)creamed, dusted and cut, then put into the E.A. cartons.
My profile quote says it all: "Memories beat the shit out of Wishes"
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