Australia Day

Australia Day is the official national day of Australia.  Celebrated annually on 26 January, which marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, and raising of the Flag of Great Britain at the site by Governor Arthur Philip.  In contemporary Australia, celebrations reflect the diverse society and landscape of the nation and are marked by community and family events, reflections on Australian history, official community awards, and citizenship ceremonies welcoming new immigrants into the Australian community.

In contemporary Australia, the holiday is marked by the presentation of the Australian of the Year Awards on Australia Day Eve, the announcement of the Australia Day  Honours list and addresses from the Governor-General and Prime Minister.  It is an official public holiday in every state and territory of Australia unless it falls on a weekend in which case the following Monday is a public holiday instead.  With community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies, the day is celebrated in large and small communities and cities around the nation.  Australia day has become the biggest annual civic even in Australia. (Wikip)


Food and dishes which are served for Australia Day celebration can be varied, BBQ is very popular, from sausages, lamb chops to the whole leg of lamb, the best Australian meat. The classic sweets such as lamington, pavlova and damper the traditional Australian bread, and of course the delicious contemporary Australian dishes. 

Lamington and Damper for Australia Day

Recipes

Damper Deluxe
Damper with the nuts and herbs.  Delicious savoury bread is perfect to go with BBQ and also excellent to be served warm and buttered.

My family loves the traditional Australian bread 'Damper',  I cooked the damper with a difference, I added some Australian native macadamia nuts.

Ingredients:

2 cups self-rising flour

2 tablespoons butter

¼ teaspoon salt

1cup milk
mixed fresh chopped herbs

50gr macadamia nuts-chopped or mixed nuts

flour,  extra for dusting/kneading

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C

Rub butter with the flour to resemble breadcrumbs

Add in milk, salt, herbs and the nuts, mix quickly into a soft dough

Knead it lightly on a floured kneading board

Shape the dough into roundish-flat (2 cm thickness, 8 cm diameter)

Bake in the preheated oven for 16 minutes, lower the heat to 175 degrees C

Continue cooking for 8 minutes until the damper is golden brown.

To serve

Sliced and buttered.  Enjoy with tea or coffee.  Or as a garnish for salads and BBQ

Lamington
I baked a lamington with a twist, instead of the traditional chocolate square lamington, I did lamington rolls with green and yellow colour, it represents the Australian flag for sports

I will share the recipe, It is my own recipe, a contribution for cooking to celebrate Australia Day.

The Recipe  

Yellow and Green Lamington Roll
Makes 2 Rolls

Ingredients

Dry ingredients: sift together properly

dry ingredients

½ cup heap full self - raising flour

½ cup level, tapioca flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 large eggs

¾ cup castor sugar

1 tablespoon melted butter

Green colouring or Pandanus essence 

Extra butter

2 cups desiccated coconut and yellow colouring

(add some icing sugar).
- Mix a drop yellow colouring with water, add in
the desiccated coconut, mix them well, then add the icing sugar
- Mix together to combine.

Whip Cream-300 mil with 1 tablespoon sugar

2 tins for baking - square 25x25 cm

Baking paper

Method

Line the tins with baking paper

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C for the convection

Sift the dry ingredients thoroughly

Beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy (11 minutes)

Add in the dry element little by little, mix and fold them gently

Pour in the melted butter and mix  the batter through gently

Pour onto the prepared lined tin and bake for 11-12 minutes

Take it out, turn it out and place it on buttered baking paper.

Peel the paper off the cake, then roll it and wrap, keep aside to cool

When it is cold, unroll, spread the jam and cream, roll it gently

Spread more cream on the roll and turn it onto the yellow desiccated coconuts

Slice up to 10-12

 Preparation

sift the dry ingredients three times

beat the eggs + sugar until light and fluffy

put the cake batter on a lined tray

freshly baked cake on a baking paper

roll the cake and keep it cold

unroll the cake, spread jam on top

spread whipped cream over the jam,
and roll it gently but not loosely

spread the cream on the roll and top it
with desiccated yellow coconuts.

The Green and Yellow Lamington Roll

Beautiful green and yellow lamington roll, a yummy cake
to celebrate  Australian Day

I wish you all to have a fun Australia Day.  If you want to bake the damper and the yellow and green lamington roll cake, it is now to do the shopping, have fun and happy baking.

We will enjoy the Australia Day Long Weekend.

We had a lovely time, and we enjoyed the final of the Australian Open Tennis.  I am glad that the new champion Wawrinka is a true champion with a good personality.   He is a great player and very respectable.

Monday the 27th of January, we had a good day at the table tennis and enjoyed the morning tea with Anzac biscuits, lamington, mini pavlova,  herbs and cheese damper, and a lot more. It's Celebration of The Australia Day.

Freshly Baked Herbs and Cheese Damper

Herbs and Cheese Damper and Sweet Mini Pavlova that I baked were acceptable, even though the damper was not very traditional, it has cheese and herbs.  Home cooking is always good or even better.

The Damper and Mini Pavlova

There is no recipe for those two dishes, maybe I could share the recipes other time.

Until Next Post

Thanks for Visiting

Susy