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A neenish tart, also in the past sometimes called a nienich tart, is a tart made with a pastry base, usually jam, sweet gelatine-set cream or mock cream paste filling, and icing on top in two colours, half one colour and half the other. This kind of tart (so far as is known) was created in Australia, and is still best known there.

The origin of the name is uncertain. A Mrs Evans and her sister reported that it was named after a Ruby Neenish, a friend of their mother who lived in Grong Grong, New South Wales and was the first to make such a tart in about 1913. The two colour icing was because she ran out of cocoa to make it all chocolate. The name nienich suggests a German origin, except neenish was known before nienich.

The earliest printed recipe for a neenish tart is in Miss Drake's Home Cookery published in 1929, calling for cream filling set with gelatine, and pink and white icing on top. A 1932 recipe in Miranda's Cook Book calls for custard filling and chocolate and white icing. Today pink and chocolate icing is also common.

[edit] References

• OzWords project October 1996 at the Australian National University

• Miranda's Cook Book recipe, reproduced by Andrew Turpin