Iced VoVo Recipe: Fondant, Raspberry Jam and Coconut

An Iced VoVo is an Arnott’s biscuit from Australia: a wheat flour base with two strips of pink fondant either side of a raspberry jam strip, sprinkled with coconut (Wikipedia). This is a home version, not Arnott’s recipe. You bake vanilla shortbread rectangles, lay pale pink fondant strips on top, warm them for a minute so desiccated coconut sticks, then pipe seedless raspberry jam down the middle.

Prep Time: 45 minutes | Cook Time: 18 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours 48 minutes, including 1 hour 45 minutes of chilling, cooling and setting | Servings: 30 biscuits

Difficulty: Medium | Calories: ~105 per serving (1 biscuit)

Is the Pink Topping Fondant or Marshmallow?

Fondant. Plenty of people remember marshmallow, and in 2024 Arnott’s told 9honey Kitchen that it has never been there. “Our Iced VoVo recipe, comprising of a golden biscuit topped with pink fondant, a strip of sweet raspberry jammy flavoured topping and sprinkle of coconut, has stayed the same for decades,” a spokesperson said. The same article reports that the recipe for the vanilla-infused wheat biscuit and its icing has stayed the same since 1906 (9honey Kitchen).

A close relative does have marshmallow. Jacob’s has sold the Mikado in Ireland since 1888, and it uses pink marshmallow instead of pink fondant (9honey Kitchen). Many home recipes go the marshmallow way too, since it simplifies the job. Wholesome Patisserie’s version is one, and its author still notes that the traditional biscuit is topped with pink fondant icing, not marshmallow (Wholesome Patisserie).

This recipe sticks with fondant, the ready-to-roll kind sold for covering cakes. Arnott’s doesn’t publish how its own pink layer is made, but rolled fondant gives a soft, sugary strip that holds coconut. Note the words “jammy flavoured topping” in the statement, too: Arnott’s doesn’t call its middle strip jam. At home, a seedless raspberry jam pipes cleanly and sets enough to hold its line.

Where Does the Iced VoVo Come From?

Arnott’s, the Australian biscuit company. Wikipedia says the biscuit was previously known as Iced Vo-Vo and that the trademark was registered in 1906 (Wikipedia).

Its best-known moment came on 24 November 2007, in Kevin Rudd’s election victory speech (Wikipedia). “Friends, tomorrow, the work begins,” he told the crowd. “You can have a strong cup of tea if you want, even an Iced VoVo on the way through. But the celebration stops there.” Sales took off, and Arnott’s sent a shipping pallet of the biscuits to his office in Parliament House, Canberra, in thanks (9honey Kitchen).

The flavour has turned up in other products since. Wikipedia lists an Iced VoVo ice cream made with Peters in 2017, and Iced VoVo-inspired Tim Tams in 2026 (Wikipedia). In May 2020 the company published its own home recipe, heart-shaped and iced with royal icing (Arnott’s).

How Do You Get the Coconut to Stick to Fondant?

Warm the fondant briefly once it is on the biscuit. Straight from the packet it has a dry surface that coconut slides off. Emelia Jackson’s recipe, from her book Some of My Best Friends Are Cookies, lays two 7 x 1 cm strips on each baked biscuit. They go back in the hot oven until the fondant begins to melt onto the biscuit, 1 to 2 minutes. She warns not to overbake, because the fondant will seal and the coconut won’t stick, and she sprinkles the coconut on as soon as the biscuits come out (Melbourne Food and Wine). This recipe follows that method.

Two habits make it easier. Bake one tray at a time, so you can coat every biscuit while its fondant is still soft. And keep the coconut in a wide bowl next to the oven, so you can scatter it by the handful. The strips should look slightly slumped at the edges, not glossy or bubbling.

The jam goes on last, so the coconut doesn’t bury it. Jackson pipes a thin strip down the centre of each biscuit through a small round nozzle. If your jam is stiff, warm it a little. Lucy Mathieson of Bake Play Smile says that makes it easier to spread neatly, and she heats hers in the microwave in 10-second bursts (Bake Play Smile). Let it cool again before piping, or it will run.

Under all this sits a plain, crisp biscuit. Arnott’s calls theirs golden, and the 9honey article calls it vanilla-infused (9honey Kitchen). Here it is a rubbed-in vanilla shortbread rolled to 4 mm. Jackson adds milk powder and 70 g of desiccated coconut to her dough (Melbourne Food and Wine), and Kirsten Tibballs uses a coconut shortbread in the recipe she shares with her YouTube video (Kirsten Tibballs). Either is a good change if you want more coconut flavour. In the video above, Kat Cooks bakes Jackson’s recipe, according to its description.

Ingredients for Iced VoVo

For the Biscuits:

1 3/4 cups (220 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (60 g) powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup (113 g) cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons (30 ml) cold milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Topping:

9 ounces (250 g) white ready-to-roll fondant
Pink gel food colouring
Powdered sugar, for dusting
1/2 cup (40 g) desiccated coconut
1/3 cup (100 g) seedless raspberry jam

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Make the Biscuit Dough

1Whisk the flour, powdered sugar and salt in a large bowl. Drop in the cubes of cold butter and rub them into the flour between your fingertips until the bowl holds fine crumbs, with no butter lump bigger than a pea. Beat the egg yolk, milk and vanilla together in a cup, pour them over the crumbs and stir with a fork until they start to clump. Press the dough into a ball, shape it into a flat block about 2 cm (3/4 inch) high, cover it in plastic wrap and chill it for 30 minutes.

Two hands rubbing cubes of cold butter into flour in a white ceramic bowl, fine crumbs falling between the fingers, beside a small glass of egg yolk and milk with a fork in it on a wooden bench — Step 1- Make the Biscuit Dough

Step 2: Roll and Cut the Biscuits

2Lay the dough, still cold, on a sheet of baking paper, cover it with a second sheet and roll it out evenly to 4 mm (just over 1/8 inch). Peel off the top sheet. With a sharp knife held against a straight edge, cut rectangles 8 cm long and 3.5 cm wide (3 1/4 by 1 3/8 inches). Space them 1 cm (1/2 inch) apart on two trays lined with baking paper. Gather the scraps, re-roll them once and cut again; you should end up with about 30. Refrigerate the trays for 15 minutes. Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C; 160°C with the fan on) while they chill.

One hand pressing a plain wooden straight edge on a sheet of shortbread dough on baking paper while the other cuts rectangles with a knife, beside a lined baking tray of raw dough rectangles — Step 2- Roll and Cut the Biscuits

Step 3: Bake and Cool the Biscuits

3Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, swapping the trays halfway, until the edges are light golden and the tops look dry but still pale. Leave the biscuits on the trays for 5 minutes, then lift them onto a wire rack and cool them for about 30 minutes, until they are cold right through. Keep the oven at 350°F (180°C) for the topping.

A hand lifting a baked shortbread rectangle with an offset spatula onto a black wire rack of cooling biscuits with light golden edges, next to a lined baking tray of more baked biscuits — Step 3- Bake and Cool the Biscuits

Step 4: Tint and Cut the Fondant

4Knead a dot of pink gel colouring into the fondant until the colour is even, adding more a speck at a time until it is pale pink. Dust the bench and rolling pin with powdered sugar and roll the fondant out 2 to 3 mm (about 1/8 inch) thick. Slice it along the straight edge into strips 7 cm long and 1 cm wide (2 3/4 by 1/2 inch). Re-roll the scraps until you have about 60 strips, two for each biscuit. Cover the strips with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out.

One hand holding a plain wooden straight edge on a sheet of pale pink fondant on a sugar-dusted bench while the other cuts it into narrow strips with a knife, beside a row of cut pink strips and a wooden rolling pin — Step 4- Tint and Cut the Fondant

Step 5: Top with Fondant, Coconut and Jam

5Lay two fondant strips lengthwise on each biscuit, one along each long side about 3 mm in from the edge, leaving a gap just under 1 cm wide down the middle. Warm the topped biscuits in the oven, one tray after the other, just until the strips soften and their edges slump a little, 1 to 2 minutes. As soon as the tray comes out, scatter coconut thickly over the fondant, press it on gently and tip each biscuit to shake off what doesn’t stick. Spoon the jam into a piping bag or a zip-top bag, snip a small hole and pipe a thin line of jam along the gap on each biscuit. Leave them for 30 minutes to cool and set.

A hand piping red raspberry jam from a piping bag into the gap between two coconut-coated pink fondant strips on a biscuit, on a lined tray of topped biscuits where the front row already has its jam, beside a bowl of desiccated coconut — Step 5- Top with Fondant, Coconut and Jam

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you use icing instead of fondant?

Yes, and Arnott’s own home recipe does. Its Iced VoVo-inspired hearts were published for Mother’s Day in 2020. They use a royal icing of egg white, icing sugar, vanilla and a teaspoon of glucose syrup, coloured with 1 or 2 drops of red colouring. You pipe a jam strip down the centre, pipe pink icing around it and sprinkle on the coconut; the biscuits then dry overnight, laid flat in an airtight container (Arnott’s). Expect a smooth, hard finish rather than soft fondant.

Can you make Iced VoVos with marshmallow?

You can, but you get a softer, stickier biscuit than the original. Wholesome Patisserie melts pink marshmallows with water, stirs in icing sugar, and spreads about a teaspoon over each whole biscuit; the recipe notes that the icing will remain tacky (Wholesome Patisserie). Kirsten Tibballs whips her own raspberry marshmallow with gelatine and pipes it on, according to her video’s recipe notes (Kirsten Tibballs). Both depart from the original: Arnott’s says the real biscuit has never had marshmallow on top (9honey Kitchen).

Why won’t the coconut stick to the fondant?

Usually the fondant was either too cold or heated for too long. Unwarmed, its skin is too dry to grip anything. Emelia Jackson warns against overbaking because the fondant will seal and the coconut won’t stick (Melbourne Food and Wine). Take the tray out as soon as the strips soften and sprinkle the coconut at once. If a few biscuits cool before you reach them, brush their strips very lightly with water and try again.

How long do Iced VoVos keep?

About a week in an airtight container at room temperature. That is the storage time Wholesome Patisserie gives for its version. In humid summer weather it suggests the fridge, since the icing can begin to melt off (Wholesome Patisserie). Store them in a single layer or with baking paper between layers so the jam doesn’t stick to the biscuit above. Lucy Mathieson of Bake Play Smile does not recommend freezing them (Bake Play Smile).