food

O Tama Carey Plump, ripe, fresh-picked berries, still warm with the heat of the sun, are true summer bliss. These fruits have a delicate nature, and are small and vulnerable, needing to be handled with care. I don’t think there are any berries I don’t like,...

David Moyle A good meringue is cooking sorcery. To those who have watched a soufflé go from a fluffy success in the oven to a deflated plate of sadness when served, I offer my sympathy. To achieve perfection in cooking, we sometimes need to cheat. The addition...

David Moyle In the northern rivers district of New South Wales at this time of year, ash regularly falls from the sky. It’s the result of burning sugarcane – a crop that is fairly prolific in this area but perhaps not as much as it used to be. Burning sugarcane...

Annie Smithers A bee sting cake is a staple of the German cake stand. It is usually baked in a cake tin and then split and filled with a vanilla pastry cream. It’s not a cake, though; it’s actually a bread. In my version here I like to make oversized individual...

Annie Smithers Nothing says “I love you” more to my mother than a bit of pastry frippery for afternoon tea on Mother’s Day. And what could be better than a slightly more modern take on the vanilla slice? A lovely pistachio and raspberry mille-feuille. While the...

David Moyle Stone fruit generally arrives at the beginning of summer, whereas in a shaded corner, at altitude, in a southern orchard, those last remnants of ripe fruit can appear as late as the beginning of autumn. Previously, I have written about how fickle...