Easter Malteser Hedgehog Slice

I’ve been meaning to bring you a recipe for lolly cake for some time but, quite simply, haven’t gotten around to it. The truth is, I’m not a massive fan – only because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth – but it’s super popular in New Zealand and, because of that, is definitely on the menu at (my fictional) Beach Road Café in Queenstown.

I was first introduced to lolly cake by my Kiwi bestie (as an aside, she makes a really good one) when she brought one in to our regular Thursday morning tea – back in the days when we used to work together. I tasted one in the wild, so to speak, the first time I visited her in Wellington. 

What is a lolly cake?  Essentially, it’s a no-bake log shaped cake that’s (usually) made from just a few ingredients:

• Butter
• Condensed milk
• Crushed malt biscuits
• Fruit puff sweets

It’s then rolled in desiccated coconut and left in the fridge to harden before being sliced.

Lolly cake – pic from the NZ Herald

This just-in-time-for-Easter no-bake chocolate Malteser Fridge Slice is a similar concept to the Lolly Cake. It’s prepared in no time at all and the fridge does the rest of the heavy lifting.

When I went to make this slice it was one of those things I knew I’d seen somewhere – but couldn’t quite remember where (you know how it is). So I googled easter egg fridge slice and a heap of them came up. The recipe is based on one I found on the Taste website, another from the Cadbury chocolate website, and another on a Kiwi baking site, but really I think you can almost make it up as you go along.

It is one of those things you’re best to be organised with before you start, though. Grease and line your tin (I used a slice tin 18x28cm – or thereabouts) with baking paper – making sure the baking paper overhangs the sides to make it easier to pull out. Also, have your biscuits broken up and the wrappers off your little easter eggs.

Other than that, you’ll need a bowl, a saucepan and a wooden spoon or spatula.

Finally, for those of you interested in vintage china, this rather cute plate is by Royal Winton Grimwades and dates back to around the 1930s. There’s a super cute little bird that’s right under where the slice is.

What you need

• Chocolate – I used 2 x 180g packets of Cadbury cooking chocolate: 1 packet of milk chocolate and 1 packet of dark chocolate. I also had a few squares of dark chocolate left over from another recipe that I tossed in for good measure.
• Condensed milk – 1 x 395g tin
• 150g Marie Biscuits – that’s about 2/3rds of a packet. (Arnotts Marie biscuits are plain vanilla biscuits perfect for dunking in tea. I’m pretty sure you can get them in the UK, US and Canada, but if not substitute for a malt biscuit.)
• About 100g of Malteser mini easter eggs
• A good handful of Cadbury mini easter eggs. If you like, you can use chopped up raspberry lollies instead.
• 100s and 1000s to decorate

What you do with it

• Break your chocolate up into little pieces – I smash it up while it’s still in the packet with a rolling pin; a good few whacks and it’s done – and tip into a saucepan with the condensed milk. Melt together over a low heat until smooth. Keep an eye on it and stir regularly to ensure it doesn’t catch and burn.
• Break up your biscuits in the same way. You don’t want the pieces to be small or crumbly though – say 5-6 pieces from each biscuit.
• Put them in a large bowl and pour over the melted chocolate and condensed milk. Toss in the mini easter eggs (or lollies) and stir it all together.
• Spoon it into your prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle over the 100s and 1000s and pop it into the fridge for a few hours before slicing into pieces.
• Because it’s Easter I decorated a few of mine with Malteser Easter bunnies and more mini eggs.