Air-Fryer Lemonade Scones with Jam & Cream

The "lemonade scone" is one of Australia's small culinary innovations — a three-ingredient scone that produces a result indistinguishable from the classic butter-and-buttermilk version. Self-raising flour, pouring cream (or whipping cream), and chilled lemonade. The carbonation lifts the dough; the cream adds the fat; the flour does everything else. No butter, no rubbing-in, no resting. Mix, pat, cut, bake.

It came out of Country Women's Association cookbooks decades ago and has been the lazy weekend staple ever since. The air fryer adapts the technique with no compromise — twelve minutes at 200°C and you have scones with the right crumbly texture, the right slight dome on top, and the right tender interior.

The proper Australian serving: jam first (strawberry, traditionally), whipped cream on top — never the reverse (that's English; Australia sides with the Cornish jam-first convention). This argument has been running for a hundred years and won't be resolved here. Pick your side.

The photo shows two assembled scones on a white plate: golden split scone halves with thick strawberry jam visible underneath, a tall swirl of piped whipped cream, additional jam in a spoon behind. The kind of afternoon tea that justifies the afternoon.