ANZAC Day 2014

ANZAC Day. Let us reflect and remember. Wherever we live, whatever we do, ANZAC Day has significance for all of us.

Every day we enjoy freedom to do the things we love because of sacrifices made by our soldiers.

Symbols from our Little Birdie kitchens and gardens are ANZAC Biscuits, freshly baked, and aromatic sprigs of rosemary.

Today we are reminded that rosemary is significant for Australians and New Zealanders as it is found growing wild on the Gallipoli peninsula.

The ANZAC Biscuit was first known as the Soldiers' Biscuit. When friends and families sent food to their soldiers in World War One it had to remain edible and retain nutritional value without refrigeration for long periods of time. The ANZAC Biscuit met this need...

... plus, they are delicious!

Check out previous blog post for our favourite ANZAC Biscuit recipe.

Carole & Gerri

Australia Day 2014 Wrap-Up

We always enjoy celebrating Australia Day with our little family.

This year Carole (a.k.a. Nana) had fun making what we feel is an old-school-cool recipe with Gerri's kiddies, Archie & Lulu - Mars Bar Slice.

We're not sure what the origin is (or whether it is even originally Australian!), but it brings back memories of sugar-fuelled birthday parties, school fetes, and experimenting in the kitchen - a quintessentially Australian childhood!

Check out some of our happy snaps of the day, and the recipe so you too can enjoy the finger-licking sweet-caramelly-chocolatey-gooey goodness for yourself!

Yum, yum - Mars Bar Slice! Check out the recipe below...

No Australia Day is complete without a homemade hamburger with pineapple and beetroot!

There are so many variations of the Mars Bar Slice recipe, each one positively delish. Here is our tried and true version ---

Mars Bars Slice

2 standard-sized Mars Bars

60g unsalted butter

1 tablespoon golden syrup

3 cups Rice Bubbles

220g block of milk chocolate

Melt the Mars Bars, butter and syrup over a double boiler.

Mix the Mars Bar mixture with the Rice Bubbles.

Press mixture into a slice tin and chill in the fridge.

Melt the chocolate and spread over the set mixture.

Chill in the fridge until set, then cut into squares.

Happy baking!

Carole & Gerri 

A Treat for Mum

The Little Birdie girls recently made a delicious Turkish Delight cheesecake set into mini glass jars for Gerri's baby Lulu's Christening celebration. It was a much sought after recipe by our guests. Considering Mother's Day is tomorrow, and Mums deserve a treat, we thought we would share it with you all.

Turkish Delight Cheesecake made by Little Birdie Events, set in mini glass jars from The Little Big Company, and decorated with "Ella" poms made by Dunne With Style. Photography by Little Birdie Events.

The decadent recipe was penned by one our favourite chefs and food stylists, Julie Le Clerc, and was originally published in a Cuisine magazine, which was given to Carole by her Mum almost 10 years ago.

Graphic design - "Oh, the Places You'll Go" stationery suite by Little Birdie Events

For a special Mother's Day treat for Mum, why not set the cheesecake in individual jars and adorn the lids with something pretty, as we did for Lulu's Christening celebration.

Turkish Delight Cheesecake made by Little Birdie Events, set in mini glass jars from The Little Big Company, and decorated with "Ella" poms made by Dunne With Style. Stationery and photography by Little Birdie Events.

Stay tuned for more details from Lulu's Christening celebration in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, the Little Birdie girls wish all Mummies and Mummies-to-be (as Gerri was this last year - see here) a blissfully happy Mother's Day tomorrow.

Carole & Gerri

Anzac Biscuit Caramel Sandwich

It's been a couple of weeks since our last post. We've been very busy at Little Birdie Events planning a Girls Afternoon Tea Party, which we hosted on Sunday afternoon. We will post more on this splendid occasion soon! We can't wait to show you the gorgeous photos that Little Birdie's photographer, Emma (of E. V. O'Neill Photography), took for us.

In the meantime, as promised in our last post, here is the easy and delicious dessert we made with our left-over Anzac biscuits - Anzac Biscuit Caramel Sandwich.

Simply sandwich two Anzac Biscuits (or two halves) together with caramel {you can either make it from scratch or do what we did and use the tinned caramel you can buy from the supermarket!} and serve with some delicious ice cream. We served it with Movenpick Maple Walnut ice cream... Yum!

Carole & Gerri

The Champion Anzac Biscuit Baker!

The day has finally arrived.


We are to announce the winner the Annual Awesome Anzac Cookie/Biscuit Cook-Off held at Pat's work! See this post for the background to this story.


Competition was fierce. The judging panel took their privileges as biscuit tasters very seriously in the blind taste test. Apparently all biscuits presented were delicious; however there can only be one true champion Anzac Biscuit Baker for 2012.

And the winner was...

PAT!

Here are Pat's winning biscuits as they were presented to the panel on the day of judging.

It was a unanimous decision by the esteemed judging panel. One comment was that these were possibly the best Anzac biscuits ever tasted!

Second place went to Sam, and third place to last year's champion, Jemma.

We are so proud (and lucky!) to have the Champion Anzac Biscuit Baker in our family. Since being crowned Champion, we have had Pat baking several batches of the winning recipe. They are so delicious!

Archie has given his tick of approval too!

Now, as promised, here is the winning recipe! It is the original Australian Women's Weekly Anzac Biscuit recipe. Carole has made this recipe almost every Anzac Day for as long as Gerri can remember. You can't beat tradition!

Champion Anzac Biscuits

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup coconut

125g butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon boiling water

Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut.

Combine butter and golden syrup, stir over gentle heat until melted.

Mix soda with boiling water, add to melted butter mixture, stir into dry ingredients.

Place tablespoons of mixture on lightly greased oven trays; allow room for spreading.

Book in slow oven (150deg C) for 20 minutes.

Loosen while warm, then cool on trays.

Makes 35 biscuits.

Pat used a "generous" tablespoon when putting the mixture onto the trays, so his batches made 20 biscuits each time.

The recipe is from "The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits" by The Australian Women's Weekly. This is the third cookbook Carole ever bought! It's now known as a "vintage" cookbook!

Stop by soon to check out the delicious dessert that Pat created out of his other batches of Anzac biscuits. Yum!

Happy Anzac biscuit baking!

Carole & Gerri