The astonishing story of the first Lions tour Down Under: A captain who drowned halfway through, 55 games in 249 days, 120 dead kangaroos and hares, six weeks on a boat with stoats and weasels ...and what it shows best about rugby
The magnificent marble structure is fenced by pristine, white-painted railings. Its excellence might lead you to think it pays homage to the life of one of the area's local heroes – a former politician perhaps, or maybe even a member of the armed forces.
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The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ten baking tips (and life lessons) from Australia's best bakers
Baking: it's part science, part craft, part magic. A mindful escape or total mystery, depending on who you ask. In writing The Bakers Book, a collection of recipes, kitchen notes and wisdom, I asked 36 Australian bakers for an essential piece of baking advice – a lesson that changed everything, a tip that's always in their back pocket. I expected a pantry of practical tips, but I also realised their wisdom has applications beyond baking. Here's what I learned. We've all been there. You've turned up ready to bake, only to glare at the instruction for room temperature eggs and butter. Yours are fridge cold. Maybe you microwave the butter to a half-solid, half-liquid result and you take a gamble on the cold eggs. Your mixture comes together, but the scrambled egg effect is real. That's because a cake batter is an emulsion of ingredients, explains chef Danielle Alvarez. 'When something is a little bit too cold or a little bit too warm, it's never going to combine perfectly, or it will split or it will break,' she says. But if you forget to grab ingredients ahead, here's what she recommends: put eggs in their shells in a cup of warm water to let them come up to room temperature. It only takes a few minutes. For butter, warm a bowl in an oven or microwave, then place it face down over your butter. The ambient heat will soften it quickly – and evenly. How did you first cream butter and sugar? Did you, like cookbook author and TV presenter Belinda Jeffery, put the butter and sugar in the bowl of your mum's old Kenwood mixer and 'beat the hell out of them'? These days, Jeffery recommends a gentler approach. Going hell for leather means you can over beat the mixture and let in too much air, which will make your cake rise, and then promptly collapse. Use a medium speed instead – until the ingredients are well mixed but not all the way to white, light and fluffy. Same goes for egg whites that need to be folded into a mixture – they should be 'just beyond sloppy', Jeffery advises – too firm and they won't incorporate into your batter. Start by whisking them in a stand mixer, but quit while you're ahead and finish off whisking by hand so you can stay in control and avoid over beating. 'I think baking is one of those things you can't ever really be perfect at,' says Nadine Ingram, cookbook author and owner of Flour and Stone. It's a bold admission from the woman with a TED talk on cake. Instead, baking teaches you that imperfect is beautiful, she says. 'You need to try things more than once to improve. I think a lot of our culture these days says you've got to get it right the first time or you've got to be the best at it … Baking teaches you how to break those habits.' 'I'll test recipes eight times and they're still not right … sometimes, things will turn out how they're going to turn out and you have absolutely no control over it, even with all the skills in the world.' Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning When a recipe has an overwhelming number of steps, break down a project-bake by making the most of the freezer. 'I think people get so scared of baking because they start reading a recipe and think 'I don't have three hours',' says pastry chef Anneliese Brancatisano. 'Remember the freezer is your best friend … you don't have to make everything from scratch on the day.' Icings and buttercreams can be frozen and later defrosted in the microwave, for example. And the cold makes some things a choux-in. 'I always keep choux pastry in the freezer – just pipe it and freeze it. You can bake them from frozen, and the moisture from the freezer creates steam, which will help them puff up even more.' Alisha Henderson of Sweet Bakes is living proof. She taught herself to pipe from YouTube videos, practising on cake she'd make, then freeze, and re-freeze, so she didn't have to bake one for every attempt. 'Instead of going through that process … you can bring it out, decorate it, try out all your new techniques, wipe it off, and chuck it back in the freezer,' she says. 'Don't eat it, obviously, but use it again and again.' Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion 'Baking is 70% organisation,' says Baker Bleu pastry chef Gad Assayag – and taking the time to get organised usually improves the outcome. This means reading through your recipe before you begin, weighing your ingredients before you start and ticking them off as you go. 'And only then, once everything is organised, your tools are there, then you start working. You have to understand the process and understand where you're going before you actually start,' he says. It helps to remember bread has its own plans. 'Bread keeps you honest, it keeps you on your toes,' says chef, baker and teacher Michael James. 'It's a bit like life: you've got to let it take you on its journey. There are a lot of variables, so it's about guiding it.' Or as Jesse Knierum from Tasmania's Cygnet Bakery puts it: 'You might think you're hot shit, but then the weather changes.' You'll need to adjust for the season you're in, the temperature of the room and the ingredients you're using. Understanding what to tweak and when will help. Just because baking is a science, doesn't mean you should leave your intuition out of the equation. 'Always, always listen to your gut when you're baking,' says Giorgia McAllister Forte of Monforte. 'Sometimes it's easy to get a little bit lazy or just think, I don't need to do this, it'll be fine.' If in your gut you know you should be doing something differently, don't ignore that feeling. It takes much less time to fix something earlier in the process than going all the way through to the end. Ask yourself: Does this feel right? Does it look right? Is there something I can do now that will save me time later? 'To stay in control, try baking low and slow,' says Alice Bennett of Miss Trixie Bakes. 'We have our ovens on at about 145C/300F on low fan. Typically, a lot of cookbooks will tell you something like 160C/325F. I've always gone a little bit lower and slower with temperatures – and you can apply this before you even put your cake in the oven. If you slow down the whole process, you're less likely to make a mistake.' Gillian Bell, who travels the world making bespoke wedding cakes, is mindful of her mood when she's baking. 'I always mix my cakes by hand, and I stir in good wishes, good thoughts. I really believe that somehow it comes through … So I say to people, 'Find that place in your head, put on some music, do whatever you can to get to that place'.'' And remain positive. 'Everyone can bake,' says Bell. 'It's just that you don't know how to, or you don't have the confidence. You can make a cake in anything – you can make a cake in a big bean tin. So relax, let go.' Ruby Goss is the author of The Baker's Book, Favourite recipes and kitchen wisdom by Australian bakers you love (Murdoch Books, $45)
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The astonishing story of the first Lions tour Down Under: A captain who drowned halfway through, 55 games in 249 days, 120 dead kangaroos and hares, six weeks on a boat with stoats and weasels ...and what it shows best about rugby
At the Campbells Hill Cemetery in the Australian town of West Maitland, 25 miles inland from the New South Wales coastline, there lies a grave which stands out from those which surround it. The magnificent marble structure is fenced by pristine, white-painted railings. Its excellence might lead you to think it pays homage to the life of one of the area's local heroes – a former politician perhaps, or maybe even a member of the armed forces.
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Aldi Australia shoppers claim a popular item is missing from shelves: 'There's an issue, I'm stressed!'
A beloved and convenient supermarket staple has recently become difficult to find in the freezer section of Aldi stores, according to customers. Earlier this week, disappointed shoppers took to Reddit to share their struggle to locate frozen corn cobs at Aldi and discuss rumours of a shortage in supply to the budget supermarket chain. It began when a shopper uploaded a post titled: 'So what happened to frozen corn cobs???' 'My father and I loved the frozen corn cobs, they were decent size and usually juicy the way we cook them,' he elaborated. 'Now we've got to suffer paying [mainstream] prices, ugh.' Aldi stocks frozen Market Fare Corn Cobs in a 1kg bag, priced at $4.59. The budget supermarket also sells Market Fare Corn Kernels in a 1kg bag, priced at $4.19. The post was met with sympathetic replies from fellow shoppers who agreed that they too had struggled to find the popular frozen vegetable in their local Aldi store. Some hypothesised that they believed the missing item was a result of broader 'seasonal' and 'supply' issues. 'There is an issue with corn growing atm [at the moment] in general so probably why,' one person said of the rumoured product shortage. 'A lot of Aldi products are due to seasonal and company demand. Aldi can only stock what they are provided/can buy,' read another comment. Another responder, who claimed to be an Aldi store worker, said the staff were not privy to explanations about 'why we don't get certain things'. 'I usually just guess it's a supply issue/seasonal thing like others have said,' they added. However, the shelf stacker claimed that they had personally placed 'three boxes of cobs into our [store] freezer yesterday, so they still exist at least for now'. Another person, who also said they worked at Aldi, rubbished the item disappearance rumour, claiming it was still available in their store. They wrote: 'My store is in stock, cannot see why others wouldn't be.' While the original poster understood that supply issues could be to blame for the disappearance of frozen corn cobs, they were puzzled as to why there still appeared to be 'tons' of frozen corn kernels available in the Aldi freezer section. They wrote: '[W]hy don't they just leave [a] couple on the damn cob [a]n[d] bag it??' The original poster on Reddit was puzzled that frozen corn cobs appeared to have disappeared from Aldi shelves, while bags of frozen corn kernels still appeared to be plentiful. Aldi sells Market Fare Corn Kernels in a 1kg bag for $4.19 Meanwhile, other fellow corn-lovers suggested the shopper alternatively give fresh corn a try. 'Just buy the fresh ones and freeze them,' recommended one comment. 'You can microwave them in the husk then cut and peel husk off... butter and salt then enjoy,' advised another. FEMAIL has reached out to an Aldi spokesperson for comment. The rumoured missing frozen corn at Aldi comes after another frozen vegetable staple had become difficult to locate in major supermarkets. Aussie shoppers were recently left scratching their heads after frozen mashed potatoes appeared to vanish without a trace from both Woolies and Coles. The mystery was kicked off by a discussion in a Reddit post, when one person wrote: 'Strange post, I know, but it seems like all brands of frozen mashed potato are currently unavailable and have been for a while. 'Does anyone know what's going on with this frozen mashed potato shortage? We rely on it for toddler meals a few times a week so it's actually very annoying.' FEMAIL reached out to a Woolworths spokesperson in mid June 2025, who said: 'We know this can be a convenience product for our customers. 'At the moment, we have different products available, but this may vary store by store, and we're working closely with our various suppliers to replenish stocks as soon as possible. In the meantime, we appreciate our customers' understanding.' The thread was flooded with replies from equally baffled shoppers, many of whom hadn't seen frozen mash in weeks – or even months. 'YES! I've been trying to get it for weeks and it's never there,' one person wrote. 'It's so annoying. I haven't been able to find it anywhere for probably a couple of months now.' Another shared: 'Oh my god, we noticed this too! It's one of our staples and we have been to all the shops, and no one has it.' So where has it gone? According to one supermarket employee: 'Apparently it's due to a foot and mouth disease outbreak in Germany where they get their supply from, and they said they were sourcing a replacement to arrive in November.' This aligns with other comments noting that many frozen mashed potato products - including some sold at Coles and Woolworths - are manufactured in Belgium and Germany. While many Aussies pride themselves on cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients, frozen vegetables like corn and mashed potato are prized for their convenience, particularly among time-poor parents and busy workers.
