Australian Boston Bun

The bread/cake concoction named the Boston Bun in Australia is also known as the Sally Lunn bun in New Zealand and is more often topped with pink colored icing as opposed to the white one in my photographs.

A little over a year ago I stepped foot for the first time in Australia, to attend my only cousin’s wedding and while my time in the continent was relatively short, I have in fact grown up around some of Australia’s fair food.

Australian Boston Bun Origins

The Boston Bun is uniquely Australasian and while the history of what it is today may in fact have only been created in the 1950’s or 1960’s, there is a much vaster history to this fair and humble bread here.

Working in London is almost like bringing all the foreign Australian’s and New Zealander’s together as people no longer living in their home countries. It really is interesting to see how much our two cultures are intertwined and why we can live in each others countries with no paperwork required.

Our accents sound the same to everyone else and often enough the talented artists from New Zealand soon enough get named as Australian. We share so much culture and are almost in each others back pocket so often that it’s no surprise we share similar food.

How to prepare the Australian Boston Bun

• Mash the potato: For the finest mashed potato, sieve so absolutely no lumps remain.
• Combine the potato and sugar: With sugar being hygroscopic, when you add it to the finely mashed potato, it will loosen and then be easier to combine with the dough for the Boston Bun.
• Make the bun: Combine the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients and those sultanas.
• Bake the bun: Bake until a skewer comes out clean and the top is golden.
• Make the icing: Whilst the bun is still warm, make that icing and smear over the top.
• Finish with coconut: The coconut rounds out this bun in the best possible way.
• Serve: Definitely serve alongside your favorite hot beverage.

Tips for the best Australian Boston Bun

Cake tin: The cake tin used here is 13 inches or 33 centimeters.

Mashed potato consistency: You will need a sift for this, to obtain a truly fine mashed potato.

The icing: This is perfectly spreadable and a great base for other recipes such as on top of Carrot Cake or a Banana Cake when you don’t have cream cheese on hand.

Baked consistency of homemade Boston Bun: Supermarket purchased Boston Bun or Sally Lunn Bun has more of a breadlike consistency so the larger your cake tin the more you will have a traditional result of what you find in Australia or New Zealand.

The Boston bun here: I remade this in 2017 to improve on the images and the cake tin was 13′ so this would usually be a third higher…then we had a power outage so this stood in the tin for an hour-and-a-half so I hope yours rises better than this one…though this is still great in it’s imperfect state.

More Australasian recipes you’ll enjoy

Pavlova

Lamingtons

Anzac Biscuits

Boston Bun
Adapted from NZ Woman’s Weekly magazine
Serves 8

Ingredients:
Boston Bun
1 cup mashed potato (1 medium potato is sufficient to make this)
170 grams/3/4 cup superfine/caster sugar
320 grams/2 cups plain flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
250 milliliters/1 cup milk
2/3 cup sultanas or raisins
Icing
30 grams/2 tablespoons butter
170 grams/1 1/2 cups confectioner’s/icing sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup desiccated coconut

Directions:
Greaseproof a round baking tin and preheat the oven to 180°C/350F.

Place the mashed potato (must be fine, sieve if necessary) into a bowl and combine with the sugar until well mixed.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the potato mixture along with the milk and sultanas.

Fold until the mixture is well combined then pour into the prepared tin.

Bake for 55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack.

Prepare the icing while the bread is still warm. Place the butter, sugar and milk into a bowl and beat to combine, it will be a little stiff at first but will give the more you mix.Spread evenly onto the top of the bread and pat down with the coconut.

Allow to cool fully before slicing over tea.

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