I’ve joined with Hungry Harry’s Foods to bring awareness to the devastating Australian wildfires. If you’ve ever met the Hungry Harry’s team, it’s obvious that they are from Australia. They have been personally affected, along with millions, by these wildfires. They are trying to start a movement by baking koala cookies – sharing their love of Australia and bringing attention to the serious matter in the cutest way possible.
Why Are We Making Koala Cookies?
Almost a billion animals will die in these devastating fires. Can you even wrap your head around that? Have you heard the story about the firefighter having to leave the fire fight because he couldn’t deal with the koalas screaming, being burned in the fire? And the firefighters finding charred bodies of koalas that tried to flee from the fires, but perished? And the kangaroo hugging its rescuers after fleeing the fires? It’s beyond heartbreaking. It made me break down and cry, having worked with marsupials in a zoo – that these creatures are losing their habitat and breeding ground at alarming rates.
While most of us can’t hop on a 20 hour flight to Australia to help fight the fires, we can donate with our money, and reducing our carbon footprint to help reduce climate change, and fight for legislation on climate change that might help these devastating fires across the globe.
Donate to Australian Wildfire Relief
I personally donated to WIRES Wildlife Rescue, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organization. If you’re interested in animals, you can also donate to the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, RSPCA Australia, Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park and more. You can donate to fire departments, the Australian Red Cross and other organizations fighting the fire and helping repair Australia.
Koala Cookies
Sometimes, we just have to bake. We bake to sooth frazzled nerves. We bake for comfort food in a time of high anxiety and depression. We bake to share our hearts with the world. Hungry Harry’s made gluten-free dairy-free koala cookies and challenged others to share awareness about the devastation in Australia by baking and sharing our love of Australia flora and fauna. I couldn’t resist by baking some myself!

Koala Cookies
I made the sugar cookie recipe with Hungry Harry’s All Purpose Flour to make these koala cookies.
Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups Hungry Harry’s™ All-Purpose Flour Blend
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
- 8 tablespoons coconut oil or vegetable shortening (soft but not melted)
- 2 egg replacers (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk. Add the oil, egg replacer and vanilla and mix to combine. The dough will be thick, I used my hands to massage and squeeze together. Roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper to about ¼ inch thick. Cut out your bear face cookies. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes until just starting to brown.
Fondant Koala Cookies
Ever since I made the gluten-free realistic turkey cake, I’ve been in love with the Satin Ice vanilla fondant. I like that it tastes like marshmallows and I also love that I can mix colors like a throw back to Play-doh.
I used these Ann Clark Bear Face Cookie Cutters and Satin Ice fondant in white and black. Combine black and white fondant to make a koala grey. Roll out thin. I used the bear cookie cutter to cut-out the face in grey. I then used white and black fondant to craft the eyes, nose, mouth, and ear tuffs.

Iced Koala Cookies
For these iced koala cookies, Hungry Harry’s used the same sugar cookie recipe using their AP Flour Mix.
For the frosting, make a simple vanilla frosting with coconut oil, powdered sugar, dairy-free milk, and vanilla extract. Add a small amount of gluten-free food coloring to achieve a koala grey color. Hungry Harry’s used candy eyes and jellybeans for the koala’s face.
If you love baking, take a moment and bake up and share your koala cookies online. But you don’t have to bake to share the pressing matter with those you love, and urge others to donate to the cause.