The rise of Australia's birthday-cake making

Carissa Cake
My aunt bought me beautiful Japanese anime cakes at Daimaru, Melbourne's former Japanese department store. Australia's diverse birthday cake selection is a recent development. According to food historians, fruitcakes were the main birthday cake of several decades ago. Dr Samuelsson says, "It's surprising that birthday cakes in Australia were very different before 1970." Dr Samuelsson's PhD thesis is about the influence of Australian Women's Weekly and AWW magazines. She found that the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book had a significant impact on birthday cakes in the past several decades. She says that books like the Children's Birthday Cake Book have a large variety of cakes and [show] how anyone, from a beginner to a pro, can bake and decorate a cake.
From Australia's BIRTHDAY Bible
She says that it has resonance for a large part of the Australian populace. "A lot of it, especially recently, is a result of nostalgia. In my research, I spoke to many people who remembered the cakes they had made or eaten. Of course, these cakes were associated with lovely memories of childhood and parties.
The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book is in many households across the nation. Source: Supplied
Her research shows that it is also a book many people buy or pass down to their family members. Phillippa Grogan, a bakery owner from
Phillippa's Bakery, Armadale
Birthday cakes are usually a traditional strawberry sponge cake. She says that "although mum was a good baker, she would usually buy one or two sponges at Keith's Cakes, in Brighton [in Victoria]," Grogan served these with strawberry halves, sweetened whipped crème, and candles on top. "Mum didn't like to make special shapes, but she would sometimes bake a pavlova. She was an expert in making it and used strawberries or passion fruit, depending on the season. She was also exposed to fruit cakes from the 1970s. "I remember Dundee Cake as an alternative to my father's afternoon tea celebration." This simple, yellow fruit cake is buttery and studded with juicy fruit. Natalie Paull, a Melbourne baker, has a recipe for a Melbourne bakery.
Beatrix Bakes
She holds birthday cakes close to her heart, and she remembers them. AWW As a child, she remembers cakes being the star of most birthday parties. The Hickory Dickory Watch on page 6 of the Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Cookbook (original 1980s edition) is my favorite cake. The cake had a mouse that was made of a plump, ripe prune with a licorice tail. It also had musk lollies as eyes. "I loved the cake, and (surprisingly), I didn't need to fight my friends over the prune!" Paul says.
The Hickory Dickory Watch cake on page 6 of Birthday Cake Bible was my favourite.
We all have experienced an episode of anxiety. AWW Birthday cake. I can remember flipping through the book to choose the cake I wanted and then asking my mother to ask my aunt, who decorated cakes, to make it for me. This cake featured a Barbie with a fluffy pink dress surrounding it.
A home baker recreates a cake from Australia's favorite birthday cake cookbook. Source: Getty Images
Dr Samuelsson recalls her fondness for the swimming pool cake. "My mother worked full-time, so she didn't have much time to bake, but she made birthday cakes." It was incredible. I remember the year she made a swimming pool-shaped cake. "A pool of green jelly surrounded by chocolate finger biscuits." This recipe book is still relevant today, decades after it was first published. Australians share their recipes on social media. Even New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Dr Samuelsson states, "Given that the birthday book is so popular, I am sure people are baking a Dolly Varden, a train, or even a tip truck for their children right now."

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