"The Australians have long claimed the light and fluffy meringue dessert as their own - based on a cake Bert Sachse baked at Perth's Esplanade Hotel in 1935. New Zealanders say no - their grandparents were scoffing pavlovas much earlier."
Read the rest of this article here .
No, this photo is not a meringue, it is a lamington....and Australians can claim to have been the originators of this cake. The other great New Zealand/ Australia debate - the Anzac Biscuit gets joint custody.
Thanks to research by Professor Helen Leach of Otago Universities Anthropology Department and the Australian Food Historian Michael Symons this arguement can now be laid to rest. As an Australian living in New Zealand, this debate always comes up whenever a pavlova appears on the table.
Actually I've known New Zealanders are the true originators of the pavlova for most of my life - because I can't make a pavlova. Every New Zealand woman (and a few New Zealand men) I've met, can make a pavlova. A high white, crisp on the outside, meltingly soft on the inside, pavlova. Me -it doesn't matter which recipe I us or, how long or slow I cook it, it is always a disaster. Too dark on the outside with undissolved sugar weeping through the sides and the base superglued to the baking paper.
As a well brought up Australian girl, I can make lamingtons. Airy, light sponge, dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in coconut, lamingtons.
Are these debates unique to New Zealand and Australia or do other neighbouring countries have similar "food fights"?
Go here for a recipe.
