Australia has a number of dessert cakes, tarts and jellies that are unusual but somehow still familiar with biscuits, custard and chocolate cakes wrapped in coconut flakes. If you have a sweet tooth you need to try them all, make sure you take breaks between them otherwise there sweetness can overwhelm you. The familiar element comes from the common dessert elements like the British sponge cakes, chocolate, jam, cream, caramel and tarts and pastries borrowed from the French.
Perhaps the most popular famous Australian dessert is Lamingtons that also comes in the jam and cream variant and other fusion versions that are chocolate sandwiches. But the OG one is a sponge cake that is dipped in chocolate and covered in coconut flakes. It was an accident that happened when a clumsy maid dropped Lord Lamington’s favourite cake into melted chocolate. He was the one who proposed the addition of coconut to make the cake less messier. It's easy to store and doesn't spoil as easily as a huge cake because it's cut into bite-sized pieces. The cake is also popular in New Zealand and many European countries. The cake today uses chocolate icing so it's not as messy and the jam and cream ones are traditionally chilled before serving. There's also a cake version of this called Pink Lamington Jelly cake that is larger in size and tastes of chocolate, jam and coconut. There's also a mousse version and trifle version of this popular dessert.
This one's Australia's national dessert that is a delicious and glorious mess. The dessert was named after the ballerina Anna Pavlova in the 1920s. She was touring Australia and New Zealand. Pavlova also bears close resemblance to the German torte. The dessert is made with whipped cream, something lemon curd, covering a meringue core that is topped with tart and colourful fruits. It is a popular choice during summers in Australia and also pops up during Christmas oftentimes.
An Australian spin on the French Mille-feuielle, or the European Cremeschnitte, the Australian vanilla slice has a thick vanilla custard center cradled by thin layers of phyllo dough and a thin layer of frosting on top. The frosting is made of either vanilla, strawberry, raspberry, chocolate or passion fruit. Because custards are wobbly, the vanilla slice is wobbly too which is why it's also called a snot block. The dessert is made whole but cut into slices and served, hence the name. This dessert is so popular that there is an annual competition of a bake off called the Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph.
Another famed Australian dessert that is also popular in New Zealand, that has a custard filling inside a tart shell with a thin layer of icing on top that comes in twin colours. The colours are either pink and white, brown and pink or brown and white. The ancestors of this tart are highly likely to be Europeans and the first printed recipe for the Neenish tarts popped up in 1913 in The Bunbury Herald in the country.
Another custard dessert, the jelly slice has a crumbly biscuit base with the sugary custard in the centre with the jelly on top. The jellies are made with natural fruit extract and the colours depend on the fruit, ranging from mangoes to strawberries. These are no bake slices and make the best use of the local ingredients including the crust, filling and topping. They are available year round but are more popular during Easter and Christmas.
This one's a biscuit that looks like ham was frosted on a biscuit. It's made with a biscuit as the base, made from wheat and a topping of raspberry jam and two strips of pink fondant. They are sprinkled with coconut flakes for the frosted look and have belonged to the Arnott’s biscuit company since 1906. They are popular tea biscuits and. Kids love them which is why you'll find them at Australian birthday parties.
Another one that's popular at kid’s birthday parties and loved by them for their colourful appearance, these are just slices of white bread smeared with butter and topped with something called “hundreds and thousands”. These are what the rest of the world call sprinkles that are made with sugar. The origin of this dessert is a little muddled and it's closest cousin is the Dutch hagelslag, which is a sprinkle that is comes in chocolate.