Neenish Tart - Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride

Having come back to live in Bundaberg after just thirty years it was nice to wander around the central business district to see what shops were still around from my teens.  You can’t imagine my delight when I saw Lushus Cakes.  It just goes to show, you can’t keep a good cake shop down.

The memories came flooding back to me.  As the office junior back in the 1970s my biggest priority of the day was to collect morning tea for the guys in the office.  I know, I know – things were a lot more sexist back then and because I was not only the office junior but a ‘girl’ as well meant we didn’t even bother to draw straws, I was it.

Every day I’d head down to Lushus Cakes with a cardboard box to buy copious quantities of cream buns, cream donuts, cottage pies, sausage rolls, buttered Boston buns, apple turnovers and vanilla slices and the very occasional Neenish tart.   It was obvious that high cholesterol wasn’t a big deal back in the mid 1970s.  It still amazes me how much the guys in that office could devour – just at morning tea!

As I stood looking in the window of Lushus Cakes there sat a lone Neenish tart looking very sad and neglected calling out, ‘pick me, pick me’.  What is it with the Neenish tart?  I think it is the most under-appreciated baked item around.  Is it because it is smaller than a cream bun or a vanilla slice (aka ‘snot block’) and people don’t think they’re getting value for money?  Have people actually tried a Neenish Tart to see just what delicacy lies beneath the elegant icing? 

Within the realms of baked goods, you have competitions for the best pie or the best vanilla slice and this has helped raise their profile.   In the meantime, the poor old Neenish tart is treated like some poor relation, doomed to be left on the shelf when all the more glamorous cakes and tarts have been devoured.

Sadly, the Neenish tart is always the bridesmaid of the cake world and never the bride.

Don’t be lured by the giant calorie-laden, cellulite-generating cakes in the shop window that should come with a year’s gym membership.  Give the Neenish tart a try and I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you crack open the unassuming two-toned icing on top.  Remember, good things come in small packages – just like the small and elegant Neenish tart.