Australian birthday parties have one constant.
Why you should cook this
Fairy bread is the only Australian cultural artefact that has survived intact from 1940 to 2026 with no improvements, no influencer adaptations, and no thinkpieces. White Tip Top, soft butter to the edges, a generous shower of hundreds and thousands, cut into triangles. That is the recipe. Anything else is a war crime.
The technique that elevates the average to the legendary is the press. Don’t sprinkle the hundreds and thousands on top. Tip them onto a flat plate. Spread the bread with butter as far as the corners. Press the buttered slice face-down into the plate of sprinkles, then lift. Every square millimetre is now coated. Cut into triangles. Crusts on for nostalgia, off for a child’s birthday party where the parents are watching you. Make on the day you serve. Will not keep overnight, the bread goes stale and the colours bleed into the butter like a watercolour disaster.
What to drink with it
Birthday cake. Lamingtons. A glass of fizzy lemonade or, if it’s after-hours, our Aperol Spritz.
Notes from the kitchen
Soft white bread only. Tip Top, Wonder, generic white. Sourdough is wrong. Butter to the edges. No naked corners. Press the sprinkles in. Don’t just sprinkle. Press the buttered side onto a plate of hundreds and thousands so they stick.
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Tip the hundreds and thousands onto a large flat plate.
- Spread each slice of bread with a thin even layer of soft butter, all the way to the edges and corners.
- Press the buttered side firmly onto the plate of sprinkles, then lift. The whole surface should be covered.
- Cut into triangles, crusts on or off (your call).
- Serve immediately or within 2 hours. Will not keep overnight — make on the day.
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Sprinkles falling off
You didn’t press the buttered side onto a plate of sprinkles. Sprinkling on top means half end up on the floor.
Cold butter, ripped bread
Butter must be very soft. Take it out of the fridge two hours before.
Variations worth knowing
Wholemeal fairy bread
Use wholemeal soft bread instead of white. The texture is wrong. Don’t do this. Stick to white.
Coloured butter
Tint the soft butter with a drop of food colouring before spreading. Pastel rainbow effect.
Multicoloured layered
Use four different colours of sprinkles in stripes across each slice.
Leftovers and make ahead
Make on the day. Will not keep overnight. The bread goes stale and the sprinkles turn the butter into a colour-bleed nightmare.