Revisiting the Italian slices

When we go on our family holiday, instead of having desserts after our meal in the evening we have home-made cakes, cookies, buns, slices, tray-bakes and brownies… and any other yummy things people feel inspired to make. This year I went back to a favourite recipe our Aunty Audrey used to make, Italian slices.

I realised I had never made them before but it is such an easy recipe it’s foolproof! Foolproof that is unless you use the wrong sized baking tray. The recipe says to use a Swiss roll tin… I don’t have one, never having made Swiss roll (there’s a joke in there!) but I just got out my ordinary baking tray, and lined it in the usual way… only to find halfway through pouring in the melted chocolate which has to go in first, that the tray was too big… easy to remedy – double the quantities of the topping waiting to go on!

I wrote about these slices before:

My Aunty Audrey loved giving parties; every year before Christmas she would have a party, first of all for us children, her nieces and nephews, and then as the families expanded for our children too. The tables were always groaning with food; what had started as a simple tea party for me and my sister and two cousins, with jam sandwiches, date rolls and a little cake, became a wonderful celebration of our big, happy family.

Aunty Audrey was always more fond of sweet things than savoury so there were always plenty of cakes, desserts, puddings and yummy stuff. One thing she made which I really liked was her Italian chocolate slices. She used to make them in advance then freeze them to keep them fresh. Once I didn’t realise and put them out on the table still frozen… they were even nicer!

• ½ milk chocolate
• 2 oz magarine
• 4 oz castor sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 oz desiccated coconut
• 2 oz chopped glacé cherries
• 2 oz sultanas or currants

1. melt chocolate in a bowl over hot water and spread on a greased Swiss roll tin and leave to set
2. cream sugar and margarine and gradually add all the other ingredients
3. spread over the chocolate, and bake at gas mark 2, 160°C, 325°F, for about 35 mins
4. mark into slices while still warm and cut when cold