Do you have a homemade slice that your mum would make for you as a kid? Cherry ripe slice was our family’s signature slice when it came to birthdays and celebrations. Those brown and bright red slabs would send me spiralling into a sugar induced form of total bliss.
A survey came out this week listing the top 10 most popular Aussie slices. Number one on the list is chocolate caramel slice. Fair call. Chocolate makes me smile. Caramel makes me smile. So melt them together and it is a match made in fat-thigh heaven.
But it just reminded me that I fail in the mum stakes as I have never made a slice for my kids. We get sushi for soul food and I pack store bought biscuits in their lunchboxes. Sigh. Another thing to beat myself up about this week: learn yoga, cook organic homemade slice and Instagram my ‘fabulous’ life while doing it all. The reality is I have not been to the gym for eight years and most days it feels a bit of a battle to find matching shoes for all my kids.
Passionfruit slice and jelly slice round out the podium positions for the top three slices. Who is making jelly slice in 2019? Not me! Jo’s White Christmas Slice is number six on the list. I do not know who Jo is, but what a claim to fame. Jo must be a damn great mum. Jo could just about take out a knighthood for services to society if she is good enough to have a slice named after her. I would quite fancy a George Clooney Mars Bar slice or a Connery coconut slice.
But the true controversy of this new list lies in the slices that did not make the top 10. Mint slice? Snobbed. Vanilla slice? Nope. And the big one: cherry ripe slice. It did not make the culinary cut. It is outrageous to think my cherry ripe weapon is not a go-to food group for Aussies today. Nothing said a birthday party in 1983 like pink food colouring and red glace cherries. Good times! A little bit fancy. A little bit fun. And there are cherries in the blend: that is fruit, people! Fruit is good.
Now we all want to have our raw cocoa, oat and lemon-filled organic vegan bliss balls. Life became so complicated along the way compared to when I was growing up, when party food meant fairy bread, cubes of cheese on toothpicks and cheerios.
Just as I was getting down about it all this week, my lovely friend Kim McCosker visited me armed with some true soul food: her Toblerone slice from her new kids cook book. This made me happy that a fresh generation of Aussies will be exposed to the humble Aussie slice and it also bucked up my spirits about my old friend the cherry ripe slice.
Perhaps I am not as loyal as I thought when it comes to chocolate and perhaps this week I will hit it out of the ball park and whip up a batch for my kids so I can Instagram my home cooking and dedication to the cause.
