I will admit to you now that I approach the humble slice with an element of trepidation.  I have little patience for messing about with layers and taking things in and out of the oven, and I find it frustrating that I can perfect 2 of the layers but if 1 falls short the whole slice suffers.

Nana’s books are full to the brim of slice recipes.  So I decided I should tackle my first slice sooner rather than later.  Spoiler alert: I chose well, this disappeared in minutes and it was super easy!  I was lucky to have the help of my two beautiful younger cousins for this one.  They filled the kitchen with infectious giggles, which is an important ingredient in baking of any kind.

For the pastry:

– 1 cup self-raising flour
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 30g butter
– 2 egg yolks
– 1 1/2 tablespoons water

For the topping:
– 2 2/3 cups coconut
– 3/4 cup sugar
– 4 egg whites
– 1 tablespoon water
– 1/3 cup plain flour
– 4 tablespoons raspberry jam

I have this really nifty toy for separating eggs. It’s a little fish. You just crack the egg, squeeze the fish a little, put his lips over the yolk, let go and he sucks the yolk up! You can do this with empty soft drink bottles too.

Step 1:

For the pastry, rub butter into sifted flour, mix in sugar, combine lightly beaten egg yolks and water, gradually mix into flour mixture to form a soft dough.  Turn pastry out onto floured board; knead lightly to form a smooth ball of dough.

Our dough was a little too hard.  My aunt suggested putting the dough into the microwave for a few seconds until it was a little softer and this really helped.

Step 2:

Press pastry over base of greased 28cm x 18cm (11in x 7in) lamington tin (we lined ours with baking paper too).  We had trouble extending our pastry this far, perhaps it wasn’t quite soft enough, so we used a slightly smaller tin. Prick base well with a fork, bake in moderate oven (I put mine at 180 degrees) for 12 minutes; cool.

Spread jam over cooled pastry.  We were generous with the jam!

Step 3:

Combine in medium saucepan coconut, sugar, water and 1 egg white. Stir over medium heat until mixture becomes moist and lumpy. Don’t let the coconut brown.

Remove from heat, cool. Sift flour into cooled coconut mixture. Beat remaining egg whites until firm peaks form; fold into coconut mixture, combining well.

Step 4:

Using hands, sprinkle (or gloop) coconut mixture over top of jam.

Bake in moderate oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown (ours took about 25 minutes). Allow to cool before cutting the slice.

This slice looked really beautiful and was gone in minutes.

Enjoy!

Kath & Kate x