In Australia the only public holiday that we have every year to commemorate a war is Anzac day.  Our other public holidays are because of important dates on the christian calendar or the Queen’s birthday and there is Labour Day. Other countries have more than one occasion to mark the significance of  war during their history. Traditionally we bake Anzac biscuits on the 25th of April. A biscuit recipe that was written so that women worried about their loved ones, could send something for the soldiers to eat. It had to be something that could last the long trip by boat and would still be delicious.

I thought I would take the Anzac Biscuit and modify the recipe to make an Anzac Cake this year. I added a hint of rosemary to the ingredients as it signifies remembrance. As I have grown older I have realised that these things that Australians do are important. It is what makes us all Australians. The game of two up at the pub, the dawn service, the baking of Anzac biscuits, the parade. I don’t want all these things to be lost. These are the things that people travel from other countries to see. I don’t want the whole world to be the same, so I would encourage everyone to think about what they adopt when they try something new. If you decide to start saying “Oh My God!” instead of “Struth!” just remember that the saying is straight from America. Let’s cherish the things that identify Australia.

Here is the recipe if you feel like trying my variation on the Anzac theme.

Ingredients

Serves: 10

• 125g unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup Australian honey
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup SR flour
• 125g (11/3 cups) rolled oats
• 150g (1 2/3 cups) desiccated coconut
• 60g brown sugar
• Zest of two lemons and juice of one
• 1 Sprig of rosemary

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees and grease and line an average round cake tin.

2. Melt the butter and Australian honey in a medium pot then remove from the heat.

3.Mix together the flour, rolled oats coconut and sugar.

4. Add zest of lemons and lemon juice and chop leaves from one small sprig of rosemary and add

5. When the butter/honey mix has cooled beat in the eggs. Then mix this all in together with the dry ingredients.

6. Pour it into the cake tin and cook in the preheated oven for 35 minutes – but check at 30 with a skewer to see if its done.

 

In: Cakes | | #