She'll Be Right

Lolly Cake or Lolly Log is a New Zealand cake/confectionary that uses sweets (lollies) as one of the ingredients. It’s probably worth me explaining here that word ‘lollies’ in New Zealand doesn’t mean a boiled sweet on a stick. It’s a generic term for what we would call ‘sweets’ or ‘sweeties’.

The exact origins of this sugar-ridden bonanza of craziness are unknown but anecdotal evidence has suggested that lolly cakes were being eaten in the 1940s although you couldn’t buy them in the supermarkets until the 1960s.

Traditionally, the mixture is formed into a log and then cut into discs but I decided to plump for a traybake style slice just because I’m too lazy to roll stuff.

To make your Lolly Cake/Log/Slice you will need:

• 120g unsalted butter
• 1 packet of malt biscuits (you could use any plain biscuits but malt is more authentic a taste).
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 packet of Explorer lollies (see below for alternatives)
• 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut

You start by melting the butter and the condensed milk together over a low heat.

Meanwhile, you can crush your biscuits. I prefer using my trusty Magimix but by all means employ any method that renders them into crumbs. Transfer to a large bowl.

When the butter and the condensed milk have melted together, pour this mixture over the biscuit crumbs and mix until all the crumbs have been coated.

This little fella is an Explorer.

Slightly bigger than a jelly baby these sweeties used to be called Eskimo Lollies until March 2021 when the name became unacceptable to use.

I thought long and hard about it and I reckon the English sweets that come the closest to Explorers in flavour and texture are those foam banana and shrimp ‘penny’ sweets we used to get from the corner store as a kid. Remember them? If you can’t get your hands on those or the idea of using them as ingredient in a recipe is simply repugnant to you, use marshmallows.

You need to chop up your lollies into as many pieces as you can be bothered to do; I chose four.

If you decide to use marshmallows, get mini ones so you can skip this step completely!

Mix the lollies/marshmallows into the buttery biscuit mixture. It’s not easy but try and get the lollies pushed down among the biscuit crumbs.

At this point you can either roll your mixture up in some cling film to make a log shape or you can press it into a lined tin.

If you’re making a log, you can roll it in the coconut once you’ve shaped it. If you’re going the slice route, just sprinkle the coconut on top and press it down with your fingers.

Stick it in the fridge for an hour.

After an hour, you can remove your log/slice and then cut it into pieces.

Well there you have it, my friends. It certainly make for an interesting tasting slice!

Enjoy!