Cinnamon oysters: a staple of music festival

Otago Daily Times

21-05-2025

Ensign reporter Ella Scott-Fleming gets a preview of the cinnamon oysters masterclass — an event next Tuesday, as part of the Bayleys Tussock Country music festival.
I first caught wind of cinnamon oysters when I was in Gore, as a newly arrived and ever-hungry Aucklander.
I was intrigued and a bit unsure, as it sounded to my untrained ears like raw Bluff oysters with an interesting choice of spice sprinkled on top.
I was relieved to learn they are actually mollusc-shaped, cream filled little sponges which are easy to make and even easier to eat several of, fast.
Eager to try this mysterious treat, I enlisted only the best, seasoned professional Coral McCauley, to show me how it's done.
Mrs McCauley's masterclass on making the bite-sized delights is returning to Tussock Country this year, where you, too, can bake — and taste — a cinnamon oyster.
Making them takes no time at all, I learned, as Mrs McCauley uses a simple yet effective recipe adapted from the Edmonds Cookery Book , but with a slight twist.
Her secret is she bakes them for less time than the old recipe says, making for softer, fluffier cakes — to which I can attest.
Mrs McCauley, said she has been working at Gore's Gold Guitar Awards since its beginning in 1974 and this year will be her 28th on its committee.
Her cinnamon oysters have been fuelling the country competition's judges for about that long, with Mrs McCauley turning the preparation and delivery of the delicacies into a fine art.
She freezes batches of them pre-filled with whipped cream, she said, so they can be defrosted, creating an efficient and steady flow of baked goods for the judges all festival long.
She said entries for the Gold Guitars used to come in cassettes that she would organise alphabetically.
Now that everything was digitised, she was a bit left behind, she said, with the awards no longer needing her organisational skills.
Nevertheless, working for the Gold Guitars for so long taught her the basics such as email, which she said she would never have learned had it not been for the ever-growing country competition.
She was nervous to do her class on the oysters the first time, but now she said it was a piece of cake.
In her special Tussock Country apron she removed the cakes from their brief time in the oven.
I sliced the sweets with her electric bread knife as Mrs McCauley's husband, Gore country legend Max McCauley reminded me not to hurt myself.
As I left their comfortable Gore home, the couple warned me I would not be able to eat just one and they were right.
"One of my nieces eats about five at once," Mrs McCauley said.