Linda’s Louise Slice

Photographer: Adam

Once again it’s time to celebrate one of our many colleagues who is passionate about baking. Linda, one of the technical writers, is particularly skilled in the art of home baking. Linda shares her thoughts with us.

“Louise slice evokes the image of ladies’ afternoon tea, lace tablecloths, and bone china, the soft tinkling of genteel laughter and teaspoons. Actually blokes just LOVE this cake; it has the perfect blend of short crust pastry, plenty of jam, your choice of sweet or a little tart, and then the soft but slightly chewy coconut and meringue topping. The recipe is easy and can be made from store-bought pastry to make it even easier – great for those of us that work full time as it means we can keep it simple but still get great results. My mother made it when we were kids, there were six of us so she was a very busy woman, but she still managed to pass on the joy of home baking. My own grown-up children still love to find it in their care packages from home sweet home; some things never change.

“Whether it is a ladylike segment to impress or a big slab for Dad’s lunchbox, the result will be the same…. Yum!”

INGREDIENTS

Base*
50g Butter
25g Sugar
2 eggs (separated)
150g Flour
1 tsp Baking powder

Topping
Raspberry jam
2 Egg whites
125g Sugar
50g Coconut

METHOD


Preheat your oven to 180°C on Bake.
1.Cream butter and sugar; add egg yolks then combine with sifted flour and baking powder.
2. Roll mixture out fairly thin (3-5mm) until it is roughly the size of your sponge roll tin. Line your tin with baking paper and place the rolled out mixture into the tin, press the mixture into the corners until the base of the tin is evenly covered.
3. Spread the base with raspberry jam.
4. Beat egg whites until quite stiff and add 125g sugar. Beat until sugar is dissolved. Fold in the coconut, do not over beat. Spread the meringue evenly over the jam.
5. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C. Cool in the tin before slicing.
*You can use store bought short-crust pastry if you are short on time