Company’s a’comin’

Cooking, cleaning and tidying the house for just under sixty guests coming to afternoon tea tomorrow, along with my regular “supporting-my fabric-habit” job,  has occupied quite a bit of time and headspace this week and accounts for the hiatus in blog activity around here. Please accept my apologies, dear reader.

Since there has been little quilting done, I thought you might like the recipe for one of the slices I’ll be serving up to my guests.

It’s an oldie, but a goodie, and comes from a tattered and stained little cookbook I’ve owned for more than 30 years.

Raspberry Slice

Makes about 16 pieces

Base ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

Raspberry jam

2 ounces (60 grams) softened butter

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Cream the butter and sugar, add egg yolks then flour. Press into a tin 8” x 12” (I line it with baking paper just to be careful, but you can just grease the tin if you don’t have the paper). Cover with jam. My recipe says 2 tablespoons, but as you can see I use much more – no sense in skimping on such a yummy ingredient!

 

Topping

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 cup coconut

Beat the egg whites .  Add sugar and beat some more until you have a stiff meringue. Add coconut and stir in well. Spread this meringue mixture carefully over the jam.

Bake in a moderate oven (about 170 degrees Celsius) for 20 minutes. The aroma of toasting coconut will fill the house, and the result is this crispy topping with a soft fluffy inside.

Beneath that  is a layer of yummy raspberry jam, and on the bottom a buttery biscuit base.

This recipe never fails to attract compliments (always acceptable!) and requests for the recipe. So it goes without saying that I make it often

Do you have an old favourite, never-fail, crowd pleasing recipe like this?

Di