Fairy bread
 | |
| Type | White bread |
|---|---|
| Region or state | Australia, New Zealand |
| Main ingredients | White bread, butter, Hundreds and Thousands |
Fairy bread is sliced white bread spread with butter or margarine and covered with "Hundreds and Thousands",[1] often served at children's parties in Australia and New Zealand.[2][3][4] It is typically cut into triangles.[5]
Although people had been putting hundred and thousands (or nonpareils) on bread and butter for some time, the first known reference to this dish as Fairy Bread was in the Hobart Mercury in April 1929. Referring to a party for child inmates of the Consumptive Sanitorium, the article proclaimed that “The children will start their party with fairy bread and butter and 100s and 1,000s, and cakes, tarts, and home-made cakes…” [5]
The origin of the term is not known, but it may come from the poem 'Fairy Bread' in Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses published in 1885,[5] and had been used for a number of different food items before the current usage.[6]
In April 2021, the satirical group The Chaser created a fabricated online petition calling for the renaming of fairy bread, calling it “offensive”, which resulted in many mainstream news stories.[7]
In November 2021, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate fairy bread.[8]
See also
- Hagelslag, chocolate sprinkles
- Muisjes, sugar coated anise seeds
- Vlokken, curved chocolate flakes
- List of bread dishes
References
- ^ Stott Despoja, Shirley (29 March 2012). "Bread and butter and hundreds and thousands". Adelaide Review. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ^ "Christmas Dinner with the Toddlers". 15 December 1936. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
- ^ Jacky Adams (6 February 2009). "The War Against Fairy Bread". Sydney Morning Herald.
- ^ Ursula Dubosarsky (2001). Fairy Bread. Mitch Vane (illus.). Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-131175-3.
- ^ a b c "Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms", Australian National University. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
- ^ "Australian Food Timeline". 17 September 1920.
- ^ "The Chaser Tricked A Bunch Of Murdoch News Sites Into Reporting That "Fairy Bread Is Cancelled"". Junkee (in American English). 2021-04-19. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
- ^ Celebrating Fairy Bread, retrieved 2021-11-12
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