NZ Lolly Cake

This refrigerator cake  is popular in New Zealand and made with ingredients I recognise by sight and taste.  The cake itself is not one I remember my mother making but it is very similar to one I make with my grandchildren.  We call it 'mosaic' here.

I made a greek/NZ version for grandson Dimitris, commonly known as Jamie (amongst other names!)





The original NZ version is made with eskimo lollies (sweets), a NZ classic.  I ate eskimo lollies when I was a child and I always chew my way through a packet ( biting the head off first) when I'm visiting.  They are like a chewy marshmallow in the shape of a little eskimo (probably not racially-correct sweets today but they are eons old, way before 'correctness' came into fashion).

I used chopped up marshmallow smurfs, or stroumfakia, as they are known here.  

My foolproof mix is -

Melt 120 grams of margarine (or butter)

with a tin of condensed milk

Melt the margarine slowly and stir till the condensed milk is well combined to make a thick sweet gooey mixture

Break up a packet and a half of biscuits.  NZers use malt biscuits.  We normally make it with 'Petite Beurre', a greek classic, but this time I used chocolate biscuits.  Some of them I just break up, some I whizz into crumbs.

Combine the two mixes and add a packet of your children's favourite chopped up lollies.  Maltesers would be good 

Some add walnuts or raisins.  Not popular in this family.

To be NZ-ly correct you should shape this into a log and roll it in coconut.  I just put it into a loaf tin and stuck it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

In a more adult version you would add a good slurp of liqueur or brandy.  Once I made brownies with chopped up mars bars.  You can imagine how sweet and sickly that was.  I didn't actually eat any and I'm not sure my daughter let her kids eat much either.

Although I have been reading recently the theory that sugar makes kids suddenly become hyperactive kangaroos is an urban myth.