Containing more than a dozen eggs, about 600g of butter and "a lot of fruit", it was a cake that honoured the recipe of a long and happy marriage, Murray Michelle, of Lawrence said.
He and his wife Noeline celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at home on Thursday with "a quiet day of reflection" and then had a function with family and friends yesterday at the restored Millers Flat Bakehouse.
It had a special significance and took them back to their early days, they said.
Mr and Mrs Michelle met when they both worked at Alexander’s Cake Shop, in Dunedin, where he was a baker and she a shop assistant and "finisher" of cakes.
She thought he was handsome, he thought she was "very sweet", and they married in 1957 when she was 21 and he 27.
They have had a happy marriage and said their advice to other couples was to "respect and keep talking to each other".
The fruit cake he made yesterday for their wedding anniversary followed the same recipe as one he made for their wedding 60 years ago, he said.
A dozen family and friends — including the "flowergirl" from their wedding party — gathered at the Millers Flat Bakehouse celebration, which was the first function to be hosted at the restored building, trustee Betty Adams said.
A $235,000 restoration of the 1907 building was completed about two months ago and trustees went to "a little bit of extra effort" to host the Michelles’ afternoon tea anniversary celebrations, bakehouse trustee Allan Ashworth said.
Complete with early 1900s furniture and donated china, the bakehouse features a restored kitchen as well as the tearoom area. The kitchen may eventually be run as a co-operative or leased to a commercial artisan baker, and the tearoom will house a small information area.
