RISE AND SHINE
The bakers of Cradock wake up first.
Way before dawn, kitchens all over this Eastern Cape frontier settlement of about 35 000 souls are on the buzz, catering to a collective sweet tooth that knows no bounds.
Ellen Taks of Impala Street, Michausdal has been busy for more than an hour. In her oven is a fresh batch of cupcakes. Meanwhile, sheʼs mixing cinnamon-flavoured dough for the Malay-style koesisters (different in spelling, shape and flavour from the plaited koeksisters) that have made her a minor celebrity in town. Taste one and youʼll know why.
Down in Beeren Street near the Great Fish River, Rika and husband Francois “Vossie” de Vos are prepping the mini quiches, chicken pies, sausage rolls, worsie-in-n-doek (pastry around a small cheese griller) and other savouries to be dropped off at the townʼs beloved home industries shop, Dit en Dat, on Adderley Street.
Other Cradock ovens are producing Lamington pastries, death by chocolate cakes, milk tarts, pies and steaming loaves of ciabatta bread. Known regionally as the “koeksister
