IT’S Australia Day and that means people will gather with their friends and family to celebrate our great country.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In celebration of the day and the festivities, we have brought back some of the more “authentic Australian” Reader Recipes.
Whether you like these foods – or whether they’re known for being Australian – we have compiled a list of foods you can cook for your Australian Day celebrations.
If you have a recipe that is “Australian” and you think it should be on this list, email us at: addynews@fairfaxmedia.com.au or phone us 5434 4470.
A TASTE OF THE 1950s
SPONGE CAKE
- One cup sugar
- One cup plain flour
- One teaspoon cream of tartar
- One teaspoon (level) carbonate of soda
- Four eggs
- Seven tablespoons milk
- One tablespoon butter
Beat eggs and sugar until thick. Add flour (sifted) with cream of tartar.
Heat milk and add butter.
When butter is dissolved, stir in carbonate of soda until it froths up. Add to mixture.
Place in prepared cake tin (7in diameter) and bake for half an hour in moderate oven. Ice with passionfruit icing.
The cake is particularly soft and can be baked in two sandwich tins for 20 to 25 minutes, if preferred.
- Mrs. W. Hillier, Quarry Hill
PAVLOVA
- Whites of four eggs
- One cup of white sugar
- One and a half teaspoons vinegar
- Vanilla flavouring if desired
Beat egg whites very stiffly, add sugar gradually, beating all the time. Lastly, add the vinegar. Beat a little longer until vinegar is completely absorbed.
If you like a slightly creamier mixture, do not beat until the mixture clings to a basin upside down. Cooking is all-important.
Use a sandwich tin, turned upside-down and greased on the bottom with butter.
Cut strips of white kitchen paper about five inches wide, grease and place round the outside of the tin. Secure firmly with string.
This provides the shell in which the meringue is baked. Pile in the mixture lightly, level top and bake very slowly in a fairly warm oven (usual meringue heat).
Cook meringue on a tray placed about four inches from the bottom of the oven, for about three-quarters to one hour, according to heat.
To remove the Pavlova from the tin, tip it upside-down onto a plate and slip off the tin with a knife.
The crusty part is now underneath and the slightly moist section becomes the top, which is decorated with whipped cream, bananas, passionfruit, cherries or other fruit to taste.
- Mrs Don Kerr, Bendigo
SHORTBREAD
- Ten oz butter
- Four oz castor sugar
- One lb plain flour
- Pinch salt
- Little essence of lemon
Beat butter and sugar together well then work in flour, salt and essence.
Roll out fairly thick and cut into fancy shapes. Bake in a very moderate oven.
- Mrs. E. Harvey, Long Gully
- Related: Flashback | Reader Recipes 8.11.14
LEMON MERINGUE PIE
- Half lb. pastry
- One lemon
- One tablespoon butter
- Six tablespoons water
- Four tablespoons sugar
- One tablespoon cornflour
- Two eggs
- Two tablespoons castor sugar
Melt butter in water.
Add grated rind and juice of lemon, mix cornflour with a little cold water and when contents of saucepan are hot, add cornflour, sugar and well beaten yolks of eggs.
Stir well and bring to the boil, stirring all the time. Roll out pastry mixture and bake in moderate oven.
Beat castor sugar and white of eggs together stiffly.
Spread on pie and return to oven for a few minutes until golden brown.
- Mrs. C Neivandt, Bendigo
BROWNIE
- Two cups self-raising flour
- One cup brown sugar
- One tablespoon butter or margarine
- One cup fruit (sultanas, dates, raisins)
- One teaspoon spice
- One tablespoon cocoa
- One cup milk
- A good pinch of salt
Sift together flour, spice, cocoa and salt. Rub in butter or margarine with fingertips.
Add fruit and sugar and mix into a moist dough with the milk.
Bake in a greased bar tin in a moderate oven (375 deg. electric) for about three quarters of an hour to one hour.
When cold, slice and butter. The brownie is best cut the day after baking.
- Mrs. J H O’Beine, Bendigo
SCONES
- Three cups self-raising flour
- Small pinch salt
- Piece of butter the size of a walnut
- Enough milk to mix to make a stiff dough
Sift flour and salt, then rub butter into flour lightly with the tips of the fingers. Mix with the milk to a nice smooth dough.
Roll out, cut into shapes and bake in a hot oven for about seven minutes.
Place scones on the highest tray under the browner.
- Mrs. J Smeille, Bendigo
A TASTE OF 2010 ONWARDS
MARSHMALLOW PAVLOVA
- 1 tablespoon gelatine
- ½ cup orange juice
- ½ cup boiling water
- 3 egg whites
- ¾ cup caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Cream and strawberries for topping
Soak gelatine in orange juice for 10 minutes. Add boiling water.
Beat egg whites and vanilla until frothy then add sugar and gelatine mixture and beat until thick.
Pour into a greased pie dish and chill until set. Top with cream and strawberries.
- Raeleen Stuart, Heathcote
- Related: Tips for kitchen renos in 2019
CONTINENTAL POTATO SALAD
- 1 kilogram desire potatoes
- 1 small red onion chopped
- 3 cups warm prepared chicken stock
- 6 large eggs
- ¾ cup whole-egg mayonnaise
- 7 sweet gherkins chopped
- 1 bunch parsley chopped
Boil potatoes in salted water with the skins on until just cooked, drain well and peel.
Cut in 1/2cm thick slices and place into a bowl with onion. Pour over the warm chicken stock and steep for 2 hours.
Cook 4 eggs until soft boiled (about 6 minutes) and then cook remaining eggs for 8 minutes until hard boiled.
Peel all the eggs, mash the soft boiled eggs and chop the hard boiled ones. Drain potatoes in a colander for 5 minutes and then transfer to a bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients, mix well.
Season to taste and chill until required.
- Rosalyn Griffin, Eaglehawk
GINGER ANZAC BISCUITS
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¾ cup coconut
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 cup glazed ginger chopped
- 125g butter melted with 1 tablespoon golden syrup.
- 2 tablespoons boiling water
- 1 teaspoon bi-carb soda.
Combine ingredients. Mix well. Drop in dessert spoonfuls onto a tray lined with baking paper.
Bake at 180c for 15 minutes.
- Patricia Boyer, Castlemaine
CARAMEL SLICE
- Base: 1 cup SR flour sifted
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 cup coconut
- 1 25g butter melted
- Filling: 395 gr can condensed milk
- 30 g butter melted (extra)
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup
- Topping: 20g copha, melted
- 150g Nestle dark choc melts, melted
Preheat oven 180 degrees C. Lightly grease 28cm x 18cm lamington tray.
Combine flour, brown sugar and coconut and butter in a large bowl, mix well.
Press into prepared tray. Bake 10 minutes.
Combine milk, extra butter and golden syrup in a saucepan. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon until mixture comes to boil.
Reduce heat to low, stir constantly for 5 minutes. Spread over the base and bake a further 10 minutes.
Set aside 1 hour.
Combine copha and melts in a bowl, mix well.
Spread over the caramel. Put in the fridge for hours.
- Dot Dole, Bendigo
LAMINGTON CHEESECAKE
- 18 lamington fingers
- 250g white chocolate
- 300ml thickened cream
- 2 teaspoons gelatine
- 3 teaspoons hot water
- 125g cream cheese
- 1/2 cup castor sugar
- 250g mascarpone cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 250g dark chocolate
- 1/2 cup cream (extra)
Line a slice tin with baking paper and lay lamingtons side by side in the tin.
Melt white chocolate and 150ml cream, stirring until chocolate is melted mand cream is completely mixed into the chocolate.
Mix mgelatine and water stirring until dissolved, mix gelatine into chocolate mixture. Beat the cream cheese, mascarpone, msugar and vanilla until nice and creamy then beat in the chocolate mixture.
In a separate bowl beat remaining cream until soft peaks form. Then fold through the mixture.
Pour over the lamingtons and place in the fridge overnight.
Melt the dark chocolate and the extra cream and leave to cool to a spreading consistency.
Spreadover cheesecake, sprinkle with coconut and place in fridge until the topping sets. Enjoy.
- Virginia Jeffrey, Eaglehawk
Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.