anzac pear crunch cake

anzac pear crunch cake

20 Apr 2026

Each year I like to bake something in honour of ANZAC Day but this year ANZAC Day kind of rushed up on me. I needed 2 days to bake what I'd planned and with only 1 day at my disposal I had to pivot. I found this lovely looking Anzac apple crunch cake on the New Zealand Woman's Weekly website and decided to make a pear version.

The cake is made from pantry items, so all I needed to buy were the pears.

I followed the recipe faithfully but came a bit unstuck when I topped the cake with the ANZAC biscuit topping. The cake sank as soon as I took it from the oven, meaning it was underbaked. Next time I'd bake it for a bit longer but I also find cakes made with bicarbonate of soda as the rising agent often sink so I'd ditch the bicarb soda and just use self raising flour instead.

Here's the recipe for you adapted from here, which makes a 17-cm cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make a larger cake, refer to the linked recipe which makes a 21-cm cake.

Anzac pear crunch cake

Ingredients

115g unsalted room temperature butter

½ cup (125g) caster sugar

¼ cup (50g) brown sugar 
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind
1 egg
1 cup (150g) plain flour

½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarb soda
¼ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground ginger
pinch sea salt flakes
1 apple or pear, peeled and diced
30mls milk

Topping
25g unsalted butter
40mls/g golden syrup
1 tbs (20mls) milk
⅓ cup (40g) rolled oats
⅓ cup (25g) shredded coconut
pinch sea salt flakes

Method
Preheat the oven to 175°C, conventional. Grease and line the base of a 17-cm round cake tin with baking paper.

Using an electric beater, cream the butter, sugars and lemon rind for 6-8 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until incorporated.

Sift over the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, spices and the salt, then fold together with the diced pear or apple and milk. Spoon into the cake tin and smooth the top. 

Bake for 40 minutes at 175°C, conventional. While the cake is in the oven, combine the butter, golden syrup and milk in a small pan and heat until the butter has melted. Place the oats, coconut, salt in a small bowl, pour over the butter mixture, and mix to combine. Take the cake from the oven and quickly spoon the topping over the par-cooked cake and return it to the oven. (The cake sank when I took it out of the oven at the 40 minute mark so I would increase the bake time to 50 minutes).

Bake for a further 15-20 minutes or until the cake is cooked in the centre when tested with a skewer and the topping is golden. Place on a wire rack to cool before unmoulding.

While it may not have been a perfect bake, you just knew that the cake was going to be delicious. Just a note that the cake isn't particularly sweet. If you'd like a sweeter cake, you could increase the sugar to a full cup.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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anzac biscuit tart

anzac biscuit tart

21 Apr 2025

In Australia and New Zealand we commemorate ANZAC Day on April 25. Rather than baking a batch of Anzac biscuits I thought I'd try my hand at making the Anzac Biscuit Tart from Tarts Anon.

The original recipe makes a 25cm tart so I needed to tweak the proportions to make a 16cm tart. I'd love to say that it all went smoothly, but it didn't and if/when I remake the tart I will make some key changes. 

The tart has many components - a pastry shell/a coconut caramel/an Anzac biscuit and a coconut and almond frangipane. I used my own shortcrust pastry recipe, and it was the only element that worked as it should.

The coconut caramel seized. The Anzac biscuit doubled in size and was way too thick. Because ithe biscuit was so thick, it prevented the heat getting to the coconut frangipane so even after 40 minutes, the filling wasn't completely cooked. The 40 minute bake time ensured the biscuit was so well cooked, that it was almost impossible to cut!

Plans for the future. Make the biscuit layer much, much thinner and sandwich the biscuit to the almost completely cooked tart with a thin layer of the coconut dulce de leche and bake it for another 5 minutes to fuse the 2 layers. Despite all the problems, the tart tasted absolutely amazing.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 16cm tart. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20-ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Anzac Biscuit Tart 
Shortcrust pastry
120g plain flour
Pinch salt
60g cold unsalted butter, diced
2-3 tbs cold water

Coconut caramel 
40g coconut cream
100g caster sugar
5g salt
50 g milk
45 g butter
approx 50 g Dulce de Leche

 
Anzac biscuit 
35 g butter
6 g water
16 g golden syrup
40 g plain flour
25 g quick oats
40 g soft brown sugar
27 g desiccated coconut
pinch salt
1 tsp grated lemon rind 
1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Coconut cake batter 
100 g butter 
30 g natural almond meal
40 g desiccated coconut
50 g plain flour
¼  tsp baking powder
pinch salt 
90 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
80g eggs (1 and 1/2)

To finish 
Icing sugar, for dusting

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. You’ll only need about 2/3 of the pastry dough to make a 16cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. 

Refrigerate the pastry for an hour and then roll out thinly - 4mm thick. Line a greased 16 cm flan tin with the pastry then return to the fridge for another 30 minutes.

Coconut caramel
In a saucepan, bring the coconut cream to a simmer and set aside. Add the sugar, salt, milk and butter to another saucepan bring to gentle simmer over medium heat. Continue to cook while whisking, to ensure it doesn't burn, and reduce the liquid until the mixture becomes thick and caramelised. At this point, remove the caramel from the stove, add the coconut cream and whisk to combine. Give it a quick blitz with a hand-held blender until shiny, then allow to cool. Once set, weigh this mixture and mix with an equal weight of dulce de leche and store in a container.

Anzac biscuit
Preheat your oven to 150°C fan forced/170°C conventional. Line a tray with baking paper.

Place the butter, golden syrup and water in a saucepan and warm gently. Mix all of the dry ingredients, except the bicarbonate of soda, with the lemon rind in a bowl and set aside. Once the butter and syrup mixture has fully dissolved, bring to a simmer and whisk in the bicarbonate of soda. As soon as the syrup foams and expands, pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well. 

Once a dough has formed, spoon it onto the lined baking tray, then spread thinly into a circle the same size as the base of your tart tin. Bake this mixture for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 120°C fan forced/140°C conventional and bake for a further 10 minutes. Then, while the biscuit is still hot, place the base of the tart tin on top and cut around it to get a clean circle.

Allow this to cool and set aside for later. Increase your oven temperature to 165°C, fan forced/185°C, conventional to preheat for baking the tart and place a baking tray on the middle shelf.

Coconut cake batter
Firstly, brown the butter. Place the 100g butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook gently until it turns a foamy tan brown and smells nutty. Remove the pan from the heat and pour into a heatproof bowl. Weigh the brown butter and if it’s less than 75g, just top it up with water. Place the bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Weigh the dry ingredients, except the sugar, into a bowl and stir them together. 

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together in a large bowl until pale. Gradually add the eggs and mix until well combined.  Finally, mix in the dry ingredients, making sure that there are no lumps suspended throughout the batter.

To assemble and bake
To assemble the tart, spread 100 g of the coconut caramel over the base of the tart, then pour 325 g of the coconut batter on top. Place the biscuit circle on top, then transfer the tart into the preheated 165°C fan forced/185°C conventional oven to bake for approximately 30 minutes ( my filling wasn't cooked through after 40 minutes, so maybe 50 minutes to 1 hour) or until the crust is an even colour and the centre of the tart is firm. If the biscuit is getting too brown, cover with foil. Remove from the oven and allow to cool inside the tin.

Once cool, remove the tart from the tin and portion into slices. Finish each slice with a dusting of icing sugar.

It's always a pity when after so much hard work you can't cut a clean slice but not so bad when the tart tastes so delicious.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate caramel anzac slice

chocolate caramel anzac slice

25 Apr 2022

In honour of Anzac Day I decided to bake a batch of Chocolate Caramel Anzac slice. One of my workmates declared the slice the best thing that had ever happened to an Anzac biscuit. How does this differ from regular caramel slice, I hear you ask? By the addition of oats and golden syrup to the base of course, otherwise it's a classic chocolate caramel slice in every other way.

Making the slice is a 3 step process - the base, the caramel and the chocolate topping. Once the slice is assembled it needs about 3 hours in the fridge for all the layers to set before slicing.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes 16 squares depending how large you like your piece of caramel slice. If you'd like to make a larger batch in an 8 x 12 inch tin, just double all the ingredients and bake for the same length of time. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate Caramel Anzac Slice

Base

1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar

1/3 cup (50g) plain flour

1/3 cup (35g) rolled oats

¼ cup (20g) shredded or desiccated coconut

Pinch salt

45g unsalted butter, melted

1 tbs golden syrup

Caramel

1 x 375 gm tin condensed milk

2 tbs (55g) golden syrup

30 gm unsalted butter, chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

15 g unsalted butter, chopped

112g dark chocolate, chopped

Sea salt flakes

Base

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F, conventional. Line the base and sides of a 17x17cm (7 x 7 inch) tin with baking paper.

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix in the butter and golden syrup then gently press the mix into the prepared tin. Place in the 180°C oven for 15 minutes or until lightly coloured.

Caramel

Place the condensed milk in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for 7 minutes or until slightly thickened and lightly coloured. You can also microwave the condensed milk in a large bowl on high for 7 minutes, stirring every minute. Add the remaining ingredients to the condensed milk and stir thoroughly until well combined.

Pour the caramel over the cooked base and using a knife spread it evenly over the base. Return the slice to the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes or until the caramel is golden brown and set. Remove the slice from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes.

Topping

Place butter and chocolate into a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until melted. Pour over the cooled caramel layer, spreading evenly with a palette knife or offset spatula then sprinkle with some sea salt flakes.

Refrigerate until set, about 3-4 hours, before cutting into squares or bars. I use a hot knife to cut the slice, wiping the blade with kitchen paper between each cut. Store the slice in a sealed container in the fridge. Bring the slice to room temperature before serving. 

 

 

Just perfect served with a cup of tea.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon iced anzac biscuits

lemon iced anzac biscuits

13 Apr 2015

With the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing just around the corner I thought it was time to make some Anzac biscuits.



I love Anzac biscuits, but I wanted to jazz them up a little bit but not too much. Using a Belinda Jeffrey recipe as my base, I added a little lemon rind to the mix then drizzled the biscuits with a simple lemon icing.



When I was growing up, I think Anzac biscuits were the first biscuit I ever made. It's such a simple mix and melt recipe that you really can't go wrong. The lemon rind is a very gentle addition to the recipe and one I don't think the original Anzac's would have minded.



Here's the original recipe for you. I halved the ingredients and made a batch of 16 biscuits. Four were consumed for quality control reasons and the rest I took into work. There are only 3 left in the bickie tin so I think that means they're not bad at all. This recipe makes chewy biscuits and Belinda suggests ways to make a crunchy version.


For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. My oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Anzac Biscuits - make 16

Ingredients
½ cup regular rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats)
⅓ cup shredded or desiccated coconut 
½ cup plain flour 
⅓ cup golden caster sugar
½ tsp grated lemon rind
60g (2 oz) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 tablespoon boiling water 
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Lemon Icing
25g (scant 1 oz) unsalted butter
½ cup sifted icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice 

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set them aside.

In a large bowl, thoroughly mix together the oats, coconut, flour, caster sugar and grated lemon rind. Put the chopped butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan over low heat (or you can do this step in the microwave) and stir occasionally until the butter has melted. Remove the pan from the heat. Mix the boiling water and bicarb soda in a cup and add to the butter mixture. Pour the butter mix into the oat mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. 

Scoop out tablespoons of the mixture onto the lined oven trays, leaving about 2 inches as the mixture spreads. Flatten the biscuits a little.  

Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 14-18 minutes, or until they're a deep golden brown but still soft. I always rotate the biscuit tray halfway through the cooking time so the biscuits cook evenly. Leave the biscuits to cool on the trays for a few minutes, then carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. If desired, you can ice these with lemon icing. The uniced biscuits keep well in an airtight container for up to a week.

Lemon Icing
For the icing, melt 25g of unsalted butter in a small bowl. Add ½ cup of sifted icing sugar. Gradually add a tablespoon or 2 of lemon juice to form a thick icing. Beat for 1-2 minutes over hot water until shiny and runny. Drizzle the icing over the cooled biscuits. Allow the icing to set before serving the biscuits. You may have some leftover icing.



I hope you all had a great weekend. I did a bit of shopping for my trip to Singapore and Japan, which is now less than 3 weeks away. How did that happen?

See you all next week with a new Plate 2 Plate post.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate caramel anzac day slice

chocolate caramel anzac day slice

28 Apr 2014

Last Friday, April 25, was ANZAC Day which is Australia and New Zealand's version of Remembrance Day. I was up really early so I listened to the dawn service from Canberra. I had a full day of chores planned which included making this slice, finishing off an album and putting together the IKEA PS cabinet that's been sitting in the sunroom for close to 3 months now. My only excuse - I've been really busy and didn't have 3 hours at my disposal, because that's how long it took me to finally make the left side door stop falling off. Long story short, by the time I'd put the cabinet together, I'd run out of time to make these on Friday.



I made these on Sunday and it's a slight riff on my usual caramel slice recipe. So what makes this version of caramel slice into an ANZAC Day version? 



The base. Classic ANZAC biscuits are made from butter, sugar, flour, coconut and rolled oats flavoured with golden syrup. I made the base using all those ingredients bar the golden syrup which I used in the caramel layer.



I found a recipe which simplified the chocolate layer so I gave that a go. These are really popular at work, which is why I used a bigger tin than usual. It meant the chocolate layer was a bit meagre so next time I use this size tin, I think I'll use another 100g of chocolate. 

Here's the recipe for you.

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL ANZAC SLICE
Base
⅓ cup caster sugar
½ cup plain flour
½ cup rolled oats
⅓ cup shredded coconut
90 gm unsalted butter, melted

Caramel
2 x 375 gm tins condensed milk
60 gm melted unsalted butter
⅓ cup golden syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping
250 gm dark chocolate, grated or finely chopped

Base
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Line the base and sides of a 21 x 32 cm (8 x 12 inch) tin with baking paper.
Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix in the butter and gently press the mix into the prepared tin.
Place in the 180°C oven for 10 – 15 minutes or until lightly coloured.

Caramel
Place the condensed milk in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for 7-8 minutes or until slightly thickened and lightly coloured. You can also microwave the condensed milk in a large bowl on high for about 7 minutes, stirring every minute. Add the remaining ingredients to the condensed milk and stir thoroughly until well combined.

Pour the caramel over the cooked base and using a knife, spread it evenly over the base. Return the slice to the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes or until the caramel is golden brown and set. Remove the slice from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes.

Topping
Scatter the chopped chocolate over the top of the hot caramel slice and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Remove the caramel slice from the oven and using a knife or the back of a spoon, gently smooth the melted chocolate over the slice.

Allow the topping to set before marking the chocolate into bars or squares. Place in the fridge and allow the slice to completely set before cutting into pieces. I used a hot knife to cut the slice, wiping the blade with kitchen paper between each cut.

Store the slice in a sealed container in the fridge but bring the slice to room temperature before serving. Makes 24 1½ inch squares



Less than 2 weeks now until I fly out. I can't believe it!!!! I still have heaps of things that need doing so I might not have time to bake anything for you next weekend. If not, I'll drop by to say goodbye.

See you all then,

Jillian

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anzac day 2011 - part 2

anzac day 2011 - part 2

27 Apr 2011

I began my Anzac Day post with this image as I felt it best represented Anzac Day - a chest full of medals with a sprig of rosemary for remembrance.

It's been years since I last attended an Anzac Day march so I thought I'd combine a visit to Farmer Andrew with the Anzac Day commemoration. Just about the whole of Dungog came out to watch the parade.

Both the young and the old came to watch



and to march.



The march made it's way along Dowling Street then headed up the hill to the RSL for the service.

I took a few moments to look at the wreaths that had been laid at the memorial. I spoke to the lady who made this one from flowers she'd gathered from the garden earlier that morning.

Maybe next year I'll finally make it to the Anzac Day Dawn Service.

I just survived my first day back at work - now just 2 more to go until the weekend and this event.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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anzac day 2011

anzac day 2011

25 Apr 2011

We've had an extra long Easter break here due to the Anzac Day holiday coinciding with Easter. Today was Anzac Day, which commemorates the landing of Australian troops at Gallipoli during the first World War. For my overseas readers, Anzac Day is the Australian and New Zealand version of Remembrance Day.

We like to claim Gallipoli as own own but many troops from many nations died there. I watched the parade in Dungog, a tiny little place but one which would have seen many of it's young men leaving to serve in the War. I took quite a few photos but the 4 hour drive back to Sydney in pouring rain has tired me out a bit, so I'll post the images later in the week.

I hope you enjoyed your Easter break. I'll be back tomorrow with some baking so I'll see you all then,

Jillian

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Anzac Day - Anzac Biscuits

Anzac Day - Anzac Biscuits

25 Apr 2009

April 25 is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand, a day which commemorates the landing of Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915 and those soldiers who fought in the battles of the Somme. So what else could I bake today but Anzac biscuits?



I think this is one of the first recipes I ever made. Anzac Biscuits are an Australian tradition, which began during the first World War. Australian women would send parcels of Anzac biscuits to their sons, brothers, sweethearts and husbands serving overseas.



The biscuit recipe doesn't contain any eggs so could survive the long sea journey from home in Australia to the battlefields in Europe.



Hard as I try, I can never make it out of my warm bed to photograph the Dawn Service so baking a batch of Anzac Biscuits is my tribute to the day.



See you all again soon,

Jillian

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