Oceania desserts
The desserts of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific combine a British baking inheritance with tropical fruit, coconut and the tastes of more recent migration. This guide gathers every Oceania dessert on DessertCat, from lamingtons to Anzac biscuits.
All 4 Oceania desserts
ii. The Oceania dessert tradition
On the Australian and New Zealand mainland, home baking grew directly out of British practice: sponges, slices, biscuits and puddings made in tins and trays for morning tea, church fêtes and school fundraisers. What makes the tradition distinct is how quickly it adopted its own shortcuts and ingredients — desiccated coconut, golden syrup, rolled oats and condensed milk — and how firmly certain sweets became national symbols.
Key ingredients
Golden syrup binds Anzac biscuits and gives them their chew; desiccated coconut coats lamingtons; passionfruit, pineapple and mango top cakes and pavlovas; and malted chocolate powder turns up in drinks such as the Milo dinosaur. In the Pacific Islands the older larder is coconut, banana, taro, breadfruit and cassava, often wrapped in leaves and baked or steamed.
Techniques
Australian and New Zealand sweets favour the tray bake and the dipped sponge. A lamington is cubed butter sponge, rolled in a thin chocolate icing and then coconut; the trick is a day-old cake that holds its shape. Anzac biscuits are made without eggs, using bicarbonate of soda fizzed in hot syrup and butter. Fairy bread, buttered white bread showered with hundreds and thousands, needs no technique at all, which is exactly why it rules children's parties.
Regional styles
Australia and New Zealand share most of their classics and argue cheerfully about who invented several of them, the pavlova above all. New Zealand adds hokey pokey (honeycomb) ice cream and the afghan biscuit; Australia claims the lamington and the caramel slice. Pacific Island desserts, such as the Pacific-style pineapple cake in this collection, lean towards fruit and coconut and have closer cousins in Southeast Asia than in Britain.
Occasions
Anzac biscuits are baked around Anzac Day on 25 April, which commemorates Australian and New Zealand forces. Lamingtons are a fundraising staple, sold in their thousands at "lamington drives", and fairy bread is almost obligatory at birthday parties.
iii. Common questions
What are the most famous Australian desserts?
Lamingtons, pavlova, Anzac biscuits, fairy bread, caramel slice and Tim Tam biscuits are the desserts most associated with Australia. Several of them, including the pavlova and Anzac biscuits, are claimed by New Zealand as well.
Why are they called Anzac biscuits?
ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps of the First World War. The oat-and-golden-syrup biscuits became linked with the troops and with Anzac Day, and the egg-free recipe keeps well, which is often given as the reason they were sent or sold during the war years.
What is a lamington?
A lamington is a square of butter or sponge cake dipped in thin chocolate icing and rolled in desiccated coconut, sometimes split and filled with jam or cream. It is considered a national dessert in Australia and is a classic of bake sales and morning tea.
Is fairy bread a dessert?
Fairy bread — white bread spread with butter and covered in hundreds and thousands — is more a party snack than a plated dessert. It is a fixture of Australian and New Zealand children's birthday parties and is served cut into triangles.
Is a Milo dinosaur from Australia?
Milo itself was developed in Australia, but the Milo dinosaur — iced Milo topped with a heap of undissolved Milo powder — is a drink from the hawker stalls and mamak shops of Singapore and Malaysia. It is included here because of the drink's Australian roots.