Dairy farmer’s grief turned to unexpected award-winning talent

The Ekka is a special time for the Beattie family who have spent more than three decades honouring their beloved mum and wife at the annual show.

The memory of Elaine always returns with the Ekka, and the Beattie family know there’s simply no better way of honouring their beloved wife and mum than with a prize-winning fruit cake.

Geoff Beattie, cake maker and Glamorgan Vale dairy farmer, summoned up the courage to ask Elaine out on a date in 1969, squiring her to the local “Queen of the Vale” ball.

They married in 1970, had four kids – Jason, Shane, Fiona and Grant – and built a life in what Jason still calls “God’s Country”, Glamorgan Vale in the Lockyer Valley, about 60km west of Brisbane.

Geoff Beattie with his grandson Hayden Beattie at the Ekka Showgrounds. Picture: Richard Walker

On September 12, 1987, aged 38, Elaine died after a 21-month battle with leukaemia.

As is normal in such situations, each member of the family coped with their grief in their own way.

“We (the four kids) would be out in the paddock doing some work, and Dad would be inside the house baking a cake,” recalls Jason with a laugh.

“It’s true,” Geoff says.

To cope with his grief, he began baking. Sponges, fruit cakes, plum puddings, preserves, marmalades – pretty much the full gamut of country cooking.

By 1990, he was persuaded to enter a creation in the Marburg Show and so began a career which, in the subculture of show cookery, is now legendary.

Geoff and Elaine Beattie on their wedding day.

Geoff has won, quite literally, thousands of cooking awards, his name is known across the state and, in 2002, he reached a landmark in his career.

Much as Captain Ahab became fixated by his white whale, talented Queensland cake makers can become obsessive about the “Florence Morgan Memorial Prize for Rich Dark Fruit Cake”.

The Florence Morgan carries with it a three-figure prize, admittedly in the low three figures, yet the prestige it confers upon the winner is beyond any monetary value.

Geoff has won it more than five times.

Geoff Beattie at home making a sponge cake in 2007. Picture: Mark Calleja

He reveals that a fierce, talented and respected female competitor, who hails from Yeppoon, once sat down with him for a coffee after a successful season.

She ended up extracting some of his fruit cake secrets and went on to edge him out of the comp, bagging a Florence Morgan for herself.

She has recently asked for some guidance on the preparation of the light fruit cake, but Geoff has told her, unequivocally: “You’ve got all the secrets you are ever going to get out of me.”

It’s all in good fun, as indeed is the Ekka.

Geoff Beattie, from Glamorgan Vale, in his home kitchen preparing some marmalade.

The Beattie family have been there most of this week, with Geoff’s grandson, Hayden Beattie, 19, of JDH Fitting Service, claiming a swag of prizes in the livestock arena, where he has been displaying his talent as a handler since his early teens.

The Beatties love the Ekka, with its old dependable rhythms and traditions, which they are now part of.

And they know Elaine would be proud of them.

Geoff Beattie’s grief turned to an amazing cooking talent. Picture: Richard Walker