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FAIRY BREAD - A Cultural DELICACY???

September 19th 2007 10:14
OK, so here's the story..... something that I, like may other Aussies have grown up with is the simple idea of taking buttered bread and sprinkling it with either multi-coloured Hundreds & Thousands, or multi-coloured Sprinkles.

So we move to the UK, are in temporary accommodation and Miss 5-almost-6 is about to have a birthday. Hmmm, we need something simple and easy for her classmates to share with her on this auspicious occasion that requires no cooking due to lack of cooking equipment, and won't cost a fortune, especially with the conversion rate.
fairybread

AH-HA! She cries, 'fairy bread will cover the situation nicely!"

But being a new school and culture will they allow treats to be brought in. So the teacher is approached with the simple request of bringing in fairy bread. "Fairy bread???", "Never heard of it!"

I, thinking as with so many other things, imagine that the brits must just have another name for it, just like how OMO is called Persil, Kleenex toilet paper is Andrex and set-top boxes are called digi-boxes, and begin to explain.......
"I know what 100's & 1000's are......but as to the rest...? But it sounds yummy, so go right ahead!"

So I prepare for the miraculous miracle of making fairy bread, thinking to myself the teacher will either be disappointed in the results having imagined something much more creative, or will simply turn around with "Oh THAT - We call that xxxx here!"

Finally 3 grocery shops later I find 100's & 1000's and "sugar strands" (sprinkles for us Aussies) and the rest takes it's natural course with a nice, freshly cleansed kitchen becoming a field of minute, sugary land mines, but then voila, the finished result, all laid out on a nice foil dish (something I would surely have forgotten if I hadn't accidentally seen one).

So off we trot to school, fairybread in hand, and to my amazement the teacher is impressed and has never seen anything like it. "But it's such a simple idea....!" I stammer, thinking she's having me on, or as my husband thinks, pitying to poor, demented Australian girl, but no, she genuinely hasn't ever come across it before. "It must be a cultural dish" she says.
"Well, it might be..." I reply, "..but no-one's ever pointed that out to me before...."

So the humble fairy bread, a 'cultural' Australian delicacy? Who would have thought it!

Does this mean that if any multicultural days are held at school where you bring in your national dish, I can get away with a loaf of pre-sliced bread and some prettiliy coloured balls of sugar???

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36 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Anonymous

September 19th 2007 11:57
Can you please tell me how to make it? Email it to me at ivegtaluckystar1@yahoo.com. I can see you have the sprinkles on it but there is something else on the bread as well. I would love to make this for my neices.

Thanks,
Lori

Comment by MelissaA

September 19th 2007 12:03
No worries Lori -it's just butter/margarine.

All you do is butter the bread, not too thinly as the butter makes the sprinkles stick, and then sprinkle away.

So whereabouts do you hail from Lori - not Australia obviously.

Comment by Mrs M

September 19th 2007 13:33
Hi Melissa,

They're easy to please the poms Cultural dish indeed LOL!!! You'll kill them with a pav.

Can you imagine the conversations these kids had with their mums when they got home?

"Fairy bread? And they make it how?"

Off the topic, how have the kids found the move?

Love & stuff
Mrs M

Comment by MelissaA

September 19th 2007 13:55
LOL, I knew you'd appreciate this one Mrs M!

I've been having the same thoughts actually - "the Australian girl had her birthday today, and her mum knows how to make FAIRY bread! Can you make me some fairy bread too! Please, please please! Ohh, but her mum can make it!"

LOL I could be a big hit with the kids, just not with the parents.

On the side note, we're having our ups and downs at the moment, especially with Miss-now-6, but her big sister seems to be coping alright, at least I hope so - you know how much these kids tell you about school etc.....!

Comment by Anonymous

September 19th 2007 16:43
Hi MelissaA... I don't have an Orble account (my hubby does a blog here, so I occasionally peruse the site) but couldn't resist commenting on this...

Being from the US, I can honestly say I have NEVER heard of this before, and people certainly do not do this here. Sounds like a great idea for kids, though! Also, we don't have "100s & 1000s"... we simply call them sprinkles or jimmies (which I believe might be considered racial slang to the over-sensitive).

So, in answer to your question, yes it most certainly sounds fairy bread is a cultural delicacy.

Comment by Michaelie

September 19th 2007 16:46
FAIRY BREAD!!! Haven't had it in at least 15 years (I don't have ankle-biters, you see). Had no idea it was 'cultural'. What a revelation!

Great post, Melissa,

Michaelie

Comment by Cibbuano

September 19th 2007 21:45
Never heard of it, never seen it.

thought, I must admit, I could go for some right now!


Comment by D. Armenta

September 19th 2007 21:47

Comment by JoH

September 19th 2007 22:02
Fairybread is magic!

I have seen kids eat 20 slices of the stuff and still go back for me! (not my kids of course!) I can't stand the stuff personally. Definitely a taste for little buds!

Comment by AmyHuang

September 19th 2007 23:21

Comment by Anonymous

September 20th 2007 02:45
OMG!!!!

I love fairy bread!!!! I didnt know it was so unkown around the place i just thought everyone knew what it was. Was always a MUST HAVE for Bday parties as a kid. That and those butterfly cupcakes and cornflakes and honey in a paper cup cake.

I must admit im 25 and i always have a container of 100s and 1000s in my cupboard and i dont have kids (except for my husband that is).

Love it!!!

Shanny

Comment by Anonymous

September 20th 2007 02:46
Hi there,

Sadly, I must say that Fairy Bread isn't cultural. I'm from Canada and we make that here all the time. But we canucks don't call it Fairy Bread. We usually call it Sparkle and Shine Slices. Although I must say that Fairy Bread sounds much better, especially considering it is usually being eaten by children!! Great read! The name Fairy Bread is now in Canada and thanks to you Australians it's here to stay!!! Take care, eh? (Sorry... I had to add that!!) Cheers!

Comment by KylieW

September 20th 2007 06:43
I think it is a uniquely australian thing.

I love fairy bread!!!!! Mind you, I know people who use condensed milk instead of butter on the bread. Me, I like plain old butter

Comment by --[[Kayla]]--

September 20th 2007 15:09
I think it's a cultural dish too. I've never even heard of the concept of fairy bread. Sounds interesting!

I thought the same for Ponis too, a breakfast dish made by true German families. But imagine my suprise when I learned not only was it a cultural dish, it was also an aquired taste! No one likes my yummy Ponis...

I can't even describe it. It's like...bacon/hashbrown/thin pastry junk.

Very GOOD junk.


--[[Kayla]]--

Comment by Miss Nomer

September 21st 2007 04:46
Fairy bread..Cultural Dish...great...sounds like a conspiracy to wipe out the next generation...
Kylie...condensed milk sound too bad....but i have great memories of boiling tins of it to make caramel sauce..

No wonder Australia has the highest per capita autisim spectrum syndrome statistics in the world..gluten, dairy and food colouring in one tasty little treat.....

Bring it on......we will be overtaken by humans who eat rice and fish and fresh fruit....

I'm going now before I go out of control on this x
Miss Nomer

Comment by Anonymous

September 25th 2007 16:38
A cultural dish indeed. I have lived in California my whole life and haven't seen anything like this...

There's one thing my 100% Dutch mother and grandparents make... called "hagelslag" (That's pronounced with an awful lot of phlegm), but they use dark chocolate sprinkles instead of colored ones.

Very very very good... one of my favorite treats growing up.

Comment by Lilla

September 26th 2007 10:41
Way to go MelissaA ... you pioneer you.

Comment by lucas 17 aussie

October 14th 2007 21:55
haha after reading this im about to go and make a whole loaf of bread of fairy bread....

i love the stuff... almost drive's me to turn up at random little kids functions lol

great fact

Comment by Anonymous

November 10th 2007 04:29
Never heard of this dish till now. Being a college student in the US i guess sprinkles would be the equal to 100's and 1000's.. i hope... ill have to give this a try one night for a study snack or something.

Comment by Ninjap00

November 14th 2007 00:53
Um... WTF IS FAIRY BREAD?! Heh... Delish sounding.

Comment by Kattie

February 7th 2008 12:15
I honestly can't believe that other countries haven't heard about fairy bread...what kind of world are we living in??? lol.

Keep up the good work melissa.

Comment by Sara Dobson

March 14th 2008 06:14
Fairy bread yum. We had it at birthday parties in NZ all the time.

Comment by floridagirlinsydney

April 27th 2008 02:42
Hi, was just blogging about Fairy Bread-- I'm an American living in Australia for the next few years and am in love with fairy bread-- cannot believe it is not known internationally!
I just put a link to your blog onto mine-- cause I loved your fairy bread post.

Comment by Ruth Moratz

September 25th 2008 10:13
I had never heard of this until today. The closest thing to it I've heard of here in the US is cinnamon toast. With cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top of buttered toast.

Thanks for mentioning it. This is going to come in handy.

Comment by Anonymous

October 3rd 2008 04:20

I just made fairy bread as a snack, and I was bored, you see, so I decided to look up fairy bread on the internet while eating it...

I went to the wikipedia article Really Long Link
at first and I read "Fairy bread is served at children's parties, almost exclusively in Australia and New Zealand."
I LITERALLY choked on my fairy bread.
I cannot believe this! I know now it must be true, but honestly?
Fairy bread has gotta be the best thing since sliced bread! (it's so simple, and tastes so great!)

I grew up mainly in New Zealand.
(I'm not originally from New Zealand) Sometimes I think 'damn you New Zealand... there is nothing to do here.... the cities are sooooooooo damn small.... we only have 4 million people.... we dont have twinkies or twizzlers' etc etc...

But now I can proudly say that I am SO glad that I grew up in New Zealand (for if I didn't..(which was a possibility)... then I wouldn't have known about Fairy Bread!
I think it's fair to say, that when the creator was giving out stuff, we really did beat the rest of the world! 1. with pineapple lumps and WITH FAIRY BREAD!

Comment by Anonymous

December 7th 2008 20:05
I live in the US, and I eat fairy bread. Also, when I went to Holland for a year they had fairy bread. They used chocolate sprinkles, though.

And fairy bread is NOT just for children.

Comment by Connie

January 23rd 2009 12:22
I'm an American and had never heard of fairy bread either. Fortunately, we're overseas and my kids are in an international school. A classmate from Australia brought fairy bread to a class party and I'm hooked. Can't eat much, but they are so tasty! And simple If I were you I would definitely take it to cultural day!

Comment by hthr

February 20th 2009 21:12
my cousin married an oz and made fairy bread for us when they moved back here to canada! however, I thought they put sweet and condensed milk on it too....I could be wrong.
i think us canadians only know it here because we have a lot of you australians here!! which is great...considering I am getting hitched to one too. I'm am sure, I will have to master the recipe for my kids!!!

Comment by Anonymous

April 20th 2009 03:33
Fairy bread and cheerio's with tomato sauce are pretty much a tradition in New Zealand, as far as kids birthday parties go. Goes as far back as when my mother was a child!!

Comment by Anonymous

May 25th 2009 12:58
I was just trying to find something for my daughter to take to school for culture day on thursday. Until doing a web search I had no idea fairy bread was an aussie icon. So cheap and easy to make, guess what My Miss 5yr is taking to school? Yeap good old aussie fairy bread!! Thanks!

Comment by Anonymous

June 1st 2009 03:27
Fairy Bread makes memories. Even now (I'm 21), if I make Fairy Bread, I get this warm wave of nostalgia that throws right back to the absolute joy of being a carefree kid at a birthday party. So, despite the gluten, dairy AND sugar, I think Fairy Bread is wonderful for children.

Comment by Anonymous

December 4th 2009 05:45
You can also substitute Butter for Nutella (hazelnut spread) really yum for chocoholics.

Comment by Loreli

December 10th 2009 21:27
I'm pretty sure fairy bread is uniquely aussie.
I'm from the US and when I was in australia I was just as confused by this childhood staple as my aussie friends were by my peanut butter and jam sandwiches!

Comment by Larissa

December 14th 2009 05:30
I'm 32 and I love Fairy Bread. I'm actually thinking about making some when I get home now. My daughter will probably thank you for giving me the idea.

I remember a few years back, some company had made a spread that already has the 100's & 1000's mixed into it. Saved me a lot of mess.

Think I'll stop in the supermarket on the way home and see if they still make it...

Comment by Anonymous

February 20th 2010 07:02
We are making this for Thinking Day with our Girl Scout Troop. I'm sure it will be a hit. They sound almost sickening. Makes me wonder if my Norwegian grandma's snack of buttered tortillas with sugar(no idea what they are called) is a culteral thing?

Comment by Anonymous

February 22nd 2010 05:14
I am sure that your Norweigan grandma was not buttering and sugaring tortillas, but lefse.

Bening an American I had never heard of Fairy Bread before until my AussieFella told me about it, but it does remind me of our cinnamon toast.

Sounds yummy, and I will be sure to have my kids make some!

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