Read an Excerpt
The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook
Stories, Recipes and Secret Tips from Prize-Winning Show Cooks
By Liz Harfull Allen & Unwin
Copyright © 2014 Liz Harfull
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-74343-317-1
CHAPTER 1
Afghan Biscuits
Edna O'Neill would never contemplate baking with anything but butter. Not only did she marry a dairy farmer and grow up on a dairy farm where they used to make their own, but she is firmly convinced, after more than 60 years of winning prizes at shows, that it produces the best results.
The fourth of ten children, Edna spent her childhood in the small rural community of Mondure, about 12 kilometres north-west of Murgon in the South Burnett region of Queensland. Her parents used to carry her down to the dairy as a baby and sit her in a box while they milked the cows. She was playing a far more active role on the farm by the time she joined the local Junior Farmers' Club and met her husband, Richie. From the other side of Murgon, he too came off a dairy farm, and after they married in 1954, they settled down to milking their own cows and raising a family of seven.
Throughout these busy years, Edna developed a reputation as a keen and competitive show cook. She started out baking cakes as part of special competitions run at the Murgon Show for Junior Farmers' Clubs, but she changed focus after one of the judges told her the cakes were so good they should be in the main pavilion. 'The first year I made two entries, then five, then sixteen and then twenty, and I went crazy after that and made everything in the schedule,' Edna confesses. She went on to compete at every show in the region, including Proston, Wondai, Goomeri, Kingaroy, Nanango and Blackbutt.
Things became truly serious in 1971 when Edna headed for the Royal Queensland Show, fondly known as the Ekka. Living four hours' drive from Brisbane means that it takes considerable effort and planning to get everything made and delivered on time. At the age of 82 she is still getting up at four o'clock in the morning to make her final preparations and then load the car with help from Richie, who has actively encouraged her from the beginning.
Richie is also very much involved. He has served as president of the Queensland Chamber of Agricultural Societies, the umbrella organisation for the state's country shows, and for eighteen years he was president of the Murgon Show Society, which held its first event in 1921. Edna has been chief steward of the cookery section at Murgon for about 40 years, and they both also serve on the committee responsible for organising the prestigious Dark Rich Fruit Cake Competition, contested by finalists from each of the eleven official show regions in Queensland. Edna has won it three times, and been placed on several other occasions.
Although she has claimed many prizes over the years for everything from jam to plum pudding, one of her family's favourites is Afghan biscuits. Edna learnt to bake them as a child. 'We cooked every weekend, of a Saturday, to fill all the tins with cakes and biscuits ready for school the next week,' she says. 'We were always happy to make them. Now my grandchildren love making them too.'
RECIPE
Makes about 24 biscuits.
Ingredients
185 g butter, softened
90 g castor sugar
60 g (2 cups) cornflakes, crushed
185 g (cups) plain flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Chocolate icing
185 g (1 cups) icing sugar mixture
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon butter, softened
2 tablespoons hot water
Method
1. Preheat the oven to moderate (180°C). Grease a baking tray or line it with baking paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl until light and fluffy and the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the crushed cornflakes.
3. Sift the flour and the cocoa together into the butter mixture and stir until combined.
4. Place heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture on the prepared trays, about 3 cm apart, and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until firm.
5. Place on a wire rack, covered with a clean tea towel, to cool before icing the biscuits using a knife.
6. To make the chocolate icing, sift the sugar and cocoa together into a small bowl. Add the butter and mix in the hot water, adding a little at a time until the icing is smooth and of spreading consistency.
CHAPTER 2
Almond and Hazelnut Slice
Working as an agricultural researcher in Melbourne hasn't stopped Carmel Ryan getting back to the family farm in the Goulburn Valley most weekends, and it certainly hasn't stopped her playing an active part in her local show.
Carmel comes from the small but vibrant rural community of Dookie in northern Victoria, well known for its agricultural college, now a campus of the University of Melbourne. She studied there after leaving high school, and ended up working with a private research company based in the city, but Dookie is still home for Carmel, who is very much a country girl at heart. 'There are a lot of people in our community who are really passionate about where they live,' she says. 'So many other small towns have almost disappeared ... but people don't want that to happen here.'
The same spirit is helping to keep the November show going, preserving almost 140 years of tradition that began with events held at Cashel before moving to more convenient grounds at Dookie in 1889. Competitions designed to encourage excellence and show off the region's produce have been a feature from the beginning, although the classes have changed considerably over the years. In the late 1800s, £5 went to the best threshing machine and steam engine, and in the early 1900s farmers earned serious money displaying the most sparrow and starling heads – a class that was introduced in an effort to control birds that were destroying wheat stacks. A hint of future cookery classes emerged in 1887 with a prize for the best homemade soup, while in 1909 a class was dedicated to the best bread made from local flour.
Flour is no longer made in Dookie, and there is no soup class, but the cookery section remains one of the most popular at the show. Carmel has been entering since she was a child. A prize-winning biscuit she decorated at the age of 10 is still tucked away in a cupboard at home, saved by her very proud mother. 'It was a rectangular biscuit and I made it look like a keyboard,' she says. 'At the time I was learning piano, and Mum was making me practice.'
Carmel and her sister Lisa were encouraged to take an active part in the show by their parents, Pauline and Ray, who also exhibit – Pauline with her garden produce, and Ray with his vintage engines and spanner collection. Pauline and Lisa also enter cooking, and even Ray has been known to whip up an entry for the men's chocolate cake class. 'He is very embarrassed about it and only does it because we make him,' jokes Carmel. 'Normally he tries to steer away from cooking.'
Even though she spends considerable time in Melbourne, Carmel volunteers on the show society committee. She takes a few days of annual leave just before the event to help set things up and prepare her entries. A self-confessed chocoholic who grew up on a farm with two almond trees, one of her favourite recipes is this almond and hazelnut slice, which has won several prizes. 'I shell the almonds, then blanch them and remove the skins, then chop them. It takes longer, but it's silly buying almonds when we have our own,' she says.
RECIPE
Ingredients
250 g Marie biscuits
125 g blanched almonds, finely chopped
125 g butter
200 g sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons golden syrup
200 g milk chocolate
30 g Copha vegetable shortening, chopped
50 g hazelnuts, finely chopped
Method
1. Line a slice pan (approximately 26 × 19 cm) with foil.
2. Crush the biscuits to form reasonably small crumbs. Put them in a medium-sized mixing bowl and add the chopped almonds.
3. Put the butter, condensed milk and golden syrup in a small saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until the butter is melted. Continue to cook gently for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Pour the butter mixture onto the biscuits and almonds and stir until combined. Press the mixture firmly and evenly into the prepared pan and put it in the fridge to set.
5. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Melt the Copha in a small bowl in the microwave, or in a saucepan, slowly over a low heat. Add the chocolate while the Copha is still hot, stirring until the chocolate melts. Add the hazelnuts and stir until well combined.
6. Pour the chocolate mixture over the slice, working quickly to spread it as evenly as possible. Return the slice to the fridge for a few minutes. Once the chocolate topping starts to set, lift the slice out of the pan and cut it into squares.
7. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.
CHAPTER 3
Anniversary Fruit Cake
Rosemary Brown didn't expect to learn quite so much when she took on making the special anniversary cake class at Castlemaine. She was attracted to it because the set recipe was so unusual, but when she started exploring the ingredients and method involved, there were more than a few challenges for a modern-day Australian cook.
Dubbed the 'Anniversary Cake', it was introduced to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the show, which started as a modest affair in July 1855, offering £20 for the best pail of milk, and £10 for the best goose. Such lucrative prizes may have been a reflection of the times – it was a period of rapid development for the central Victorian town, which sprang into life after gold was discovered in 1851.
The anniversary cake is based on a heritage fruit cake recipe from California, where a gold rush was experienced at about the same time. The exact period the original recipe comes from is unknown, but it uses white raisins, also known as golden raisins, which are a pale green-gold in colour. Unusually, it is also made in a Bundt pan. The society provided the recipe unaltered and challenged show cooks to make it 'in true colonial style' for a first prize of $30 – a substantial sum in show cooking. The class proved so popular it remains on the schedule eight years later.
Competitive by nature, Rosemary couldn't resist. She was introduced to shows as a child, when her grandparents bought her parents a family ticket every year to the Bendigo Agricultural Show. But she didn't start competing until she was an adult with her own children, trying her hand first at flowers. A keen gardener, she drives as far as Ballarat and Boort to enter blooms from her large garden at Campbells Creek, on the outskirts of Castlemaine, where she and her partner, Maurice Holden, have a Belgian Blue cattle stud. Rosemary became serious about the cookery side of shows about fifteen years ago, and has entered Maldon and Castlemaine off and on since then, winning the aggregate trophy at Maldon on more than a few occasions. 'It's very rewarding, and it's fun, although it's a lot of work,' she says.
When it came to Castlemaine's anniversary cake, there was the added pressure of trying to find the ingredients and interpret the method — the original version was a little sparse compared with modern recipe-writing standards. She couldn't find white raisins at the time, so she used ordinary raisins. But the end result was obviously pleasing because her first attempt in 2012 was awarded the blue ribbon. 'When I looked at the recipe, I wondered how you would be able to taste the fruit without it being overpowered by the amount of lemon and orange rind, but the peel doesn't take over. It's a very nice cake, moist and not too heavy,' she says.
At least Rosemary and Maurice got to taste it. In 1955, a German shepherd dog owned by one of the sideshow operators caused mayhem at Castlemaine when it stole the prize-winning sponge from under the judges' noses and raced with it out to the oval, scattering pieces behind him.
RECIPE
Ingredients
185 g butter, softened
275 g (1 cups) white sugar
2 eggs
185 ml (cup) evaporated milk
teaspoon white vinegar
375 g (2 cups) plain flour
90 g (1 cup) fine desiccated coconut
teaspoon vanilla essence
teaspoon orange extract
450 g white or golden raisins, chopped
225 g (2 cups) mixed peel, chopped
65 g (1 cup) chopped dried apricots
80 g (1 cup) fresh diced orange peel
teaspoon baking powder
teaspoon salt
brandy or bourbon
Method
1. Preheat the oven to slow (150°C). Grease well and lightly flour a tube or Bundt pan (25 × 10 cm).
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Cream until light and fluffy and the sugar is dissolved. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until just combined.
3. Sour the evaporated milk by stirring in the vinegar. Stir the soured milk into the butter mixture, together with 225 g (1½ cups) of the flour, the coconut, vanilla and orange extract.
4. Place the raisins, mixed peel, dried apricots and fresh orange peel in another large bowl. Sift the remaining cup of flour, the baking powder and salt over the fruit. Toss until the fruit is well coated.
5. Stir together the butter and fruit mixtures, making sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about 90 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan and then turn out.
7. When the cake is cold, wrap it in a light cloth that has been soaked in the brandy or bourbon. Wrap it in foil and store in an airtight container for at least several days to allow the flavours to develop. Check the cloth regularly, keeping it moist with more brandy or bourbon.
CHAPTER 4
Apple, Raisin and Walnut Cake
For more than 170 years, the main focus of attention at the annual Campbell Town Show was wool and the superfine Merino sheep that produced it. Then along came the Man Cake Competition.
The Campbell Town Show is believed to be the oldest continuously held show in the British Commonwealth. The Midland Agricultural Society that runs it was formed in 1838, and the following year held its first exhibition. According to The Hobart Town Courier and Van Dieman's Land Gazette, despite 'unpropitious' spring weather, the mid-week event drew a 'large concourse of the surrounding gentry and landholders' and splendid displays. Over a celebration dinner that evening, the society was praised for the permanent benefits it would bring to the country, not only by encouraging excellence in livestock breeding but 'above all the cultivation of an amicable feeling which such meetings tend to diffuse among the members of a scattered community'.
The show has been held every year since. Unlike most other shows in Australia, it even continued during both world wars, when funds raised were usually put towards the Red Cross and enlisted men were made honorary members of the society. Catalogues marked with the results were posted to them so they did not have to miss out completely on the excitement.
Held in a district that produces some of the best fine wool in the world, the show has built a reputation as one of the best sheep exhibitions in the country. This element is so important that the event is held at the beginning of winter, in often freezing conditions, because the timing best suits the sheep. To compensate, patrons dress head to toe in wool, the most popular bar has a huge open fire, and there is underfloor heating in the exhibition hall.
Despite the extra warmth, in recent years convenors of the indoor classes were struggling to attract entries. Then the committee in charge decided to hold a special cookery competition just for blokes. While quite a few other shows hold something similar, at Campbell Town they ramped up the testosterone appeal by calling it a Man Cake Competition, and then they brought in celebrity judges.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook by Liz Harfull. Copyright © 2014 Liz Harfull. Excerpted by permission of Allen & Unwin.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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