Weekend Cooking: National Fairy Bread Day

Today I am going to be posting about an Australlian culinary classic that doesn't necessarily make much sense to other nationalities (except maybe Dutch people, but more on that lately). The reason for posting about this today.....Tuesday is National Fairy Bread day.

In my last job I was known as the queen of fairy bread, a title which came about because of a joke. One of the things that I miss about working at home is the opportunity for shared morning teas, or taking your baking treats into work, so you don't have to eat at all. It was something that we definitely loved at my old job. And it wasn't only the actual morning tea to look forward to, there was also the pre morning tea conversation where we all talk about what we might make!

During one of these pre-event conversations, we were all talking about what we would bring, and I jokingly suggested I would bring fairy bread, which once upon a time was staple of an Australian kids party. Once we had explained to the people who didn't grow up here and then reassured them that it is actually really good, the idea took hold and I decided to actually do it.

What I didn't expect was the reaction from people when they saw it on the table. There were several IT guys who were VERY excited that there was fairy bread on the table, and it made lots of people smile, to the point that I ended up taking it for shared morning teas several times (hence my honorary title) and then felt the need to say, you know I can actually cook right?

So, what actually is fairy bread? Firstly let me be very clear here - there is little to no nutritional goodness in this! 

Fairy bread is very easy to make, but you can still get it wrong.

Firstly, you start with the freshest sliced white bread you can find. If you are making it for yourself at home it's fine to use supermarket sliced bread, but if you are taking it to a special occasion then it involves a trip to the local bakery to buy a freshly baked loaf.

Secondly, you spread a nice even layer of margarine on those bread slices - not butter because you don't want to tear those nice soft slices of bread.

Then you take hundreds and thousands and generously shake them all over the bread. The challenge is to get it mostly on the bread and not all over your bench tops, floor etc, because you can still be finding those suckers a week later if you aren't careful. 

Now, for some people you can apparently put sprinkles on but for me it has to be hundreds and thousands. Also, save your fancy sprinkles for cupcakes because this is not the time for them. Just your run of the mill store bought do the job. 

What's the difference between sprinkles and hundreds and thousands? The picture below are sprinkles, and the picture above is fairy bread with hundreds and thousands on - so the difference is one is lines and the other is balls.

The final step is to cut the bread into quarters - triangles only. Never squares. Squares just don't look right, or taste right for that matter.

I mentioned that the Dutch might understand fairy bread a bit more than other nationalities. This is because they have something that is kind of next level sprinkles, called vruchten hagel. Vruchten hagel are sprinkles that come in a variety of flavours including milk and dark chocolate, fruits of the forest and aniseed. There could be other flavours but those are the ones that I know of.

My husband, who is really my Dutch boy as both of his parents emigrated to South Africa from the Netherlands, before he, in turn emigrated to Australia (luckily for me!), buys a box of these whenever he can. 

He often has these on toast for breakfast - sacrilege - see the first step above!!

Happy National Fairy Bread day on Tuesday!

Weekly dinners:

Saturday: Eggplant Moussake
Sunday: Porchetta, Fennel, Rachicchio and Orange Salad
Monday: Steak,mushrooms, peas, broccoli
Tuesday: Cauliflower Fried Rice with Chicken
Wednesday: Pasta Carbonara
Thursday: Chicken stir fry
Friday: Roast beef and gravy rolls

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.