Annabel Bower celebrates the King's Birthday Long Weekend with delicious recipes inspired by royalty

7NEWS

10-06-2025

Annabel Bower is an Australian chef and food stylist that lives in Adelaide.
She trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School which is a famous cooking school in Ireland.
Today, she is going to showcase three delicious royal desserts:
Classic Eton Mess
Treacle tart (made from breadcrumbs and golden syrup – it was a family favourite for the Mancroft family)
Buttermilk chocolate cake
Recipe below:
Classic Eton Mess by Annabel Bower @foodbyannabel
Said to have originated at the famously proper Eton College and traditionally served at their annual cricket match against Harrow, this glorious jumble of berries, cream and crumbled meringue is as posh as it is imperfect—like many a British institution, really.
And let's be honest, it's the perfect dessert for an Aussie gathering too—if your pavlova takes a tumble, don't panic. Just call it Eton Mess and carry on like royalty.
Ingredients
For the meringues
3 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
Raspberry Coulis
300gm frozen raspberries, defrosted.
1 tablespoon icing sugar
1 tablespoon Cointreau
To assemble
500gm fresh strawberries, sliced thinly
200gms fresh raspberries - or any other fruit in season i.e. pomegranate, cherries.
200ml thickened cream
1tsp pure vanilla bean paste
1Tbs castor sugar
150gm Sour cream/ crème fraiche or mascarpone
Equipment
Stand or hand-held beater/mixer
2 flat baking trays lined with baking paper
Metal ice-cream scoop
Glass trifle bowl
Method
Preheat oven to 120 degrees (not fan forced, use the bake or top/bottom heat setting).
Line 2 flat trays with baking paper.
Using a stand mixer or hand-held electric beater, whisk egg whites until they become thick and opaque. When they start to form stiff peaks whisk in castor sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue until all the sugar has dissolved.
Whisk for a further 30 seconds on high until thick and creamy. Using an old-fashioned ice-cream scoop, place golf ball – or tennis ball size dollops of meringue mixture onto the lined baking trays, evenly spaced.
For individual desserts make smaller meringues, for a shared dessert make the bigger ones. Bake for 1 hour at 120 degrees, shutting the oven door carefully so as not to knock any air out of the meringues.
After an hour, do not open the oven door, just turn off the oven and leave the meringues to cool in the oven over night or for the rest of the day. When cool remove from oven and gently transfer to an airtight container until day of serving. The meringues can be made 1-2 weeks ahead if stored in a cool dark spot.
Just before serving whip the thickened cream until soft peaks form, stir in sugar and vanilla. Mix through sour cream/crème fraiche or mascarpone until smooth.
Push the defrosted raspberries through a fine sieve to remove the seeds, stir through icing sugar and Cointreau to create a coulis.
Slice the strawberries – you can add an extra dash of Cointreau to these if you like.
To serve, layer a trifle dish or individual glass cups of bowls with all the elements, crushing the meringue as you go. Swirl to mix and eat as soon as possible.
Annabel's Favorite Chocolate Cake by Annabel Bower @foodbyannabel
This is my never-fail, always-devoured, 'can I lick the bowl?' chocolate cake. It made its first appearance in an English country house kitchen, baked for the three mischievous little ones I nannied, and has since become the star of every birthday bash for my own four children back home in Australia.
Rich, fudgy, and impossibly moreish, it walks the line between classic English high-tea and Aussie backyard BBQ.
It's the kind of cake that disappears before the candles have cooled—and honestly, it's so good you might find yourself baking it for no reason at all... and that's entirely encouraged.
Ingredients
125gms butter, softened
1 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbs vanilla bean paste
2/3 cup cocoa, sifted
1 cup milk + 2tsp balsamic vinegar* OR 1 cup + 2tsp buttermilk
1 ½ cups self-raising flour, sifted
½ cup hot water or hot coffee
*The milk will curdle when you add the vinegar – this is supposed to happen!
Icing
200gms Milk or dark chocolate (or a mix of both)
75gms butter
To decorate – fresh berries and flowers or chocolates and sprinkles.
This recipe is perfect for doubling – just make sure you've got a big enough bowl!
Equipment
1 x 24cm springform cake tin, greased and base lined with baking paper
Stand or hand-held beater/mixer.
Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Add the vinegar to the milk and set aside.
In a large bowl beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs, one at a time making sure the first is fully incorporated before adding the second.
Next add the vanilla and sift in the cocoa powder. Incorporate on a low speed.
Add the milk, flour and water (or coffee) and beat on a low speed until smooth and velvety.
Pour into you greased and lined cake tin and bake for 45-60 minutes. You will know the cake is cooked when the centre is no longer wobbly and you can pierce the centre of the cake with a skewer and it comes out clean.
If the top of the cake begins to brown before the centre is cooked, loosely cover it with foil to prevent it from burning.
Turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool before icing. The cake can be made in advance and stored in the fridge or freezer.
Icing
To make the icing simply melt together the butter and the chocolate. Either in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between each one or on the stove top on a very low heat stirring constantly.
When melted it will become smooth and glossy, keep stirring once you remove it from the heat allowing it to cool slightly. Then pour over the cake starting in the centre, allowing the chocolate to drip down the sides.
Decorate with fresh berries, or chocolates.
Treakle Tart by Annabel Bower @foodbyannabel
I'd never made a Treacle Tart until I found myself cooking in a grand Gloucestershire kitchen for The Lord and Lady Mancroft.
Gooey, golden and outrageously sweet, it quickly became a Sunday staple—especially requested by Lord Mancroft himself, usually after a morning of polo, fox hunting, or some other thoroughly British pursuit.
Known affectionately as a 'nursery pudding,' this tart is the kind of comfort food that makes you feel like you've earned a second slice… even if the only galloping you've done is to the table.
Ingredients
Pastry Shell
300gms sweet shortcrust pastry. Homemade or high-quality store bought.
Filling
400gms golden syrup
1 lemon, zest grated
2 eggs, beaten
100gms fresh white breadcrumbs – made from fresh white bread with crusts cut off in a food processor.
1 tsp flaked sea salt or Maldon salt (optional)
To serve
Ice cream or clotted cream
Equipment
22cm Tart baking tin with removable base, 1 baking tray for the tart tin to sit on.
Food processor for breadcrumbs
Baking beans – ceramic beads used to weigh down pastry during 'blind baking' which means baking a tart shell without its filling.
Method
Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Roll the chilled pastry out to a thickness of 0.5-0.75cm. Gently transfer into tart tin, pressing into the base and sides to form a tart shell. Chill again if it has become warm.
Cover with baking paper which generously overhangs the edges of the pastry and tart tin. Fill with 'baking beans' or dried pulses or rice. Place tart tin on a baking tray.
Bake for 15 minutes then carefully remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 10 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Leave in oven and lower the temperature to 160 degrees Celsius.
Mix together the filling whist the tart shell is being prebaked. Combine the golden syrup, lemon zest, eggs and breadcrumbs and whisk until there are no lumps.
Carefully pull the baking tray with the tart tin out of the oven and pour in the filling. Gently shake to evenly distribute but be careful not to spill any down the sides of the pastry shell. Sprinkle with flaked salt if using.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until just set. Cool for 20 minutes before slicing.
Serve with clotted cream, crème fraiche or ice cream – vanilla or chocolate!