Mention the Dutch Cake Shop to anyone in Maitland and they’ll tell you about the couple who made and sold delectable coffee caramels and strawberry creams.
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Then they’ll reminisce about the Easter egg range and the detailed chocolate moulds that featured rabbits on motorcycles and ducks with umbrellas.
It’s been 31 years since Ton and Ann Ruygrok closed the doors of their High Street shop to retire in Yamba, but their impact on Maitland tastebuds lives on.
“It had such a big following, I still have people stop me about it,” daughter Marguerite Jenkins, who now lives in Hallidays Point, said.
“Dad was gifted at making things delicious and i’ll never forget his chocolates.
“Remember the cherrie liquors? When you bit into it all of the liquor would come into your mouth.”
The Ruygrok’s left Holland in 1951 and spent three years in Indonesia before they came to Australia.
They began their new lives in the coalfields and started a small shop in Weston to support their family.
Mr Ruygrok had trained with some of the best cooks in Holland and he applied the elite skills in the business.
He made a range of Dutch cakes and chocolates as well as sweet and savoury Australian favourites.
He used 450 different imported moulds to make his creations, as well as Dutch ovens and equipment.
When Mr Ruygrok’s products gained popularity he expanded the business in Abermain and Kurri Kurri, before making the move to High Street, Maitland, in 1960.
“The success of the business in Kurri Kurri and Abermain meant they could afford to set up in Maitland,” Mrs Jenkins said.
Mr Ruygrok started preparing his Easter range six weeks in advance and worked long hours to create top quality products.
“He would work all day and all night for six weeks and only have one, two of three hours sleep to get ready for Easter,” Mrs Jenkins said.
“When Easter came early he couldn’t make the production line as fast because the weather was still a bit too hot for the chocolate.”
Mrs Jenkins remembers the beautifully laid table with decorated chocolate and money treats that the family came home to after church on Easter Sunday. She said it was better than Christmas.
“Dad made everything with top ingredients. He never thought anything of hard work and when sales kept going up he had to work even harder to meet the demand.”
Mrs Jenkins said other cake shop owners came to sample the range and tried to copy it, but they never succeeded.
“They could never master what he had done, but he mastered what they did,” she said.
“He’d never seen lamingtons, vanilla slices and Christmas cakes before he came to Australia but that didn’t stop him from making them.
“He also made pies and pasties with golden fluffy pastry and they were very popular.”
“People would come from far and wide to see it, they couldn’t find anything like it anywhere else.”
