Traditional Australian Dessert Recipes

Enjoy a collection of traditional Australian dessert recipes from the Land Down Under. All dishes are easy to make and totally delicious. After all, Australians truly love their "sweets," and these homemade desserts will delight and please any sweet tooth.

Experience the Traditional Taste With Traditional Australian Dessert Recipes

The Art of Living in Australia (1893)

Australian Sponge Roll

3 tablespoonsful Flour
3 tablespoonsful Sugar
3 Eggs
2 teaspoonsful Baking Powder
3 teaspoonsful favorite Jam

To make the sponge cake, beat the eggs and sugar together for five minutes, mix the flour and baking powder together and stir them lightly in. Pour into a well-buttered tin and bake in a quick oven (425°F) for eight or ten minutes.

Turn onto a damp cloth and roll up directly; warm the jam in a saucepan while the roll is cooking, and if it is very stiff mix in a spoonful of water.

Take the roll out of the cloth and lay flat on a piece of sugared paper, spread the jam on quickly and roll up again; place on a sieve till cold. Dust with powdered icing sugar, if desired.

Banana Souffle

6 Bananas
2 ounces Sugar
1/2 pint Milk
2 Eggs

Choose ripe bananas, peel and slice them up, and lay them in a glass dish, sprinkle with sugar.

Make a custard with the milk and yolks of the eggs by directions for boiled custard, flavor with a pinch of ginger, and pour it over the bananas.

Let it stand till quite cold, then whip the whites to a very stiff froth and heap them on top; sprinkle with sugar, and serve.

Bachelor's Buttons Cookies

5 ounces Flour
2 ounces Sugar
1/2 teaspoonful Carbonate of Soda (Household Baking Soda)
1 ounce Butter
1 teaspoonful Cream of Tartar
6 drops Essence of Almonds

Rub the butter into the flour, stir in the sugar, carbonate of soda, and cream of tartar; mix into a stiff dough with the egg and flavoring.

Roll into small balls about the size of a marble; toss in coarse sugar, put on to a greased baking sheet, and bake from five to eight minutes (375°F).

Stanley Pudding

1 pint Milk
2 ounces Flour
1 ounce Sugar
2 Eggs
2 spoonfuls Jam

Put the milk into a saucepan, mix the flour with a little cold milk; and when the milk in the saucepan is nearly boiling, stir it in, and let it boil up.

Pour into a basin and beat in the yolks of the eggs and the sugar; turn into a pie dish and bake till firm (350°F).

Spread a spoonful of jam on the top; whip the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth and spread them over, sprinkle with sugar, and put back in the oven to set. Serve cold.

Traditional Tea Cake Recipe

1 pound Flour
1/2 pint Milk
2 ounces Butter
1 Egg
2 teaspoonsful Baking Powder
1 teaspoonful Sugar

Rub the butter into the flour, stir in the sugar and baking powder. Beat up the egg and milk, and mix the dry ingredients into a dough with them; divide into two pieces and form each into a flat cake.

Cut lightly across into four with a knife, put onto a buttered tin, and bake (300°F) twenty minutes. Cut open, butter, and serve. Delicious with jam.

Imitation Omelet Dessert

1 Egg
1/2 gill (1/4 cup) Milk
1 teaspoonful Sugar
1 teaspoonful Jam
1 teaspoonful Flour

Beat the yolk and white of egg separately; beat the flour and milk together, and mix in the sugar and yolk of egg. Stir in the white, butter a saucer, put the jam at the bottom.

Pour in the mixture, bake in the oven for five minutes (350°F), sprinkle with sugar, and serve.

Australian Baked Apples and Rice

3 Large Apples
2 ounces Rice
2 ounces Sugar
1 tablespoonful Jam
1 Egg
1/2 pint Milk

Peel the apples and scoop out the core and fill in with jam; put into a pie-dish and bake till the apples are soft.

While they are baking, boil the rice and milk together till the rice is soft and the milk absorbed.

Beat in the egg and sugar, pour over the apples; brush over with milk, and bake till a nice color. Serve either hot or cold.

Vintage Black Cap Pudding

1 pint Milk
2 Eggs
1 ounce Currants
1/2 pound Flour

Put the eggs into a basin, beat in the flour, and then the milk, pour into a battered basin. Clean the currents and drop them in; steam for one hour, turn out of the basin, sprinkle with sugar, and serve.

Rusk Pudding

1 slice of Dry Bread
2 Eggs
1 ounce Sugar
Half a Lemon
1-1/2 pints of Milk
1 tablespoonful Jam
1/2 tablespoonful Cornflour

Take a piece of very stale bread and cut it into small squares, bake it in the oven till a good color. Break the eggs into a pie-dish, beat in the sugar and grated rind of the lemon, pour in one pint of milk, and mix well.

Drop in the rusks and put into a cool oven (275°F) and bake till firm; then spread on the top a layer of jam.

Put half a pint of milk into a saucepan, and when it nearly boils, stir in the cornflour which has been mixed with a little lemon peel and sugar, and pour it on top of the pudding. Put it back in the oven for a few minutes, then stand away till cold for serving.

Traditional Australian Dessert Recipes

Mom's Recipe Scrapbooks (c. 1920s)

Australian Pudding

Ingredients: 6 ounces flour, 4 ounces suet chopped fine, 4 ounces sugar, 4 ounces sultanas, mixed peel and ginger to taste, 1 tablespoon baking soda, 1/2 pint warm milk.

Directions: Mix all dry ingredients together, except the soda which is dissolved in the milk. Add latter to the mixture. Steam two hours.

New Zealand Pudding

Mix 3 tablespoons flour, 3 dessertspoons sugar, 1 level dessertspoon baking powder, 2 well-beaten eggs.

Pour batter into greased cake tin and bake 10 minutes (350°F) until cooked. Spread with jam, roll up and serve with custard sauce.

About the Traditional Australian Dessert Recipes

Australia's traditional "sweets" were greatly influenced by British and Irish colonists in the 19th-century. Later, multiculturalism brought the world's favorite desserts to Australia's shores, but the older, fondly remembered desserts have survived.

These traditional Australian dessert recipes are certain to become family favorites. Be sure to try the old fashioned Bachelor's Button Cookies, Stanley pudding, Baked Apples and Rice, Black Cap Pudding, and the Banana Souffle that's to die for.

Your family will love them all, especially the delicious Australian Sponge Roll when it's generously spread with your favorite jam or homemade jelly. Enjoy a slice with a cuppa, mate. You'll be Happy as Larry!