If you can remember a time when golden daytime only came on a stick, and making children stand on temporary scaffolding metres in the air without safety rails was considered kosher, then chances are you’ll remember the chocolate slice from home economics class.
I only took home economics in year eight, much to the relief of my teacher Mrs Walker. She wanted us to arrive with a plan of how we would use our time in the kitchen, to be truthful, I’m still winging it in the kitchen twenty five years on.
This chocolate slice recipe is from Mrs Walker’s home economics class. When I first made it I took some to Nanny (a former Lourdanian herself). In the charitable way that Grandmothers are best at, she raved about my cooking and asked if I might share the recipe with her. Years later, long after I’d discovered that Scientists got to blow things up, she kept making that slice from my handwritten recipe.
She’d be proud (and claim to be not a little bit surprised) that I’m in the process of writing a cookbook.
the chocolate slice from home economics class
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
2 tbs cocoa
3/4 cup coconut
1/2 cup caster sugar
125g butter, melted
1 egg
for the icing
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
15g butter
1 tbs cocoa
boiling water
splash vanilla extract
Method:
Mix the dry ingredients together. Beat the egg and add the egg and butter to the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Press into a biscuit tray about 28 x 18cm. Bake at 180°C for 10 – 15 minutes.
When cooked, allow to cool until just warm. Then ice before dividing into squares.
for the icing
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add butter and cut through.
Blend the cocoa with a little boiling water. Add to the icing sugar with a splash of vanilla and mix together. Add additional boiling water until you reach a spreadable consistency. Ice while warm.
I ‘m off to my twenty year school reunion tomorrow. No doubt I’ll have an update for you next week. In the meantime, tell me…
did you take home economics at school?
been to a school reunion?
So school photos now have handrails in them? 😉
I cheated on a home ec test once because I’m a wing it type in the kitchen. And because I thought the penalty for needing one extra spoon was too harsh. So I snuck it out the drawer when the teacher left the room. Clearly it damaged me for life 🙂
Don’t laugh but Home Ec was one of my top 3 subjects at high school, much to mum’s delight. But as soon as I left the farm and hit the real world I stopped loving cooking. Love that photo of you and nanny, cute!
Really? That’s a surprise for my Friday! Love your mummy. xx
Love a good Home Ec Chocolate slice – still use the good ol’ Day to Day Cookbook to this day!!
I’ve tried and tried but can’t spot you in the school photo – are you in the nose bleed section?
I don’t think I’m that picture SIL. I have a foggy recollection of being sick that day. Can’t beat the Day to Day Cookery. xx
i loved making that chocolate slice! Thanks for sharing the recipe- I shall go forth and bake now.
Looking forward to catching up tomorrow night at said reunion. The thing I remember most about home ec. was making pillow slip cases. I had cut mine out and sewed it up before the teacher had checked my pattern lay out. That was not on apparently. They did like a good plan didn’t they?
I loved Home Ec so much I became a home Ec teacher! Love hearing all the stories from ex-students about their favourite recipes and the mischief they got up to. I was excited to see one of my students in Masterchef this season and one on My Kitchen Rules. Not sure if they’d say their Home Ec classes were behind their appearances or if it was their Drama classes that got then there!
Was interested to see if your recipe was like mine. Very similar but wondering about the two lots of cocoa in the base. Should the 3/4 cup be coconut?
Well done on the book contract, an awesome opportunity!
Eeeep! Yes, it should be. Thank you Lisa!
It must have been quite a thrill to see your students on those shows – your love for cooking must have rubbed off! x
We had to travel by bus and tram to home economics and I remember emptying a casserole into someones bag when the tram stopped suddenly. Many memories of those days..
That’s funny, on Saturday night I was chatting to a school friend about making an apple crumble at home ec and finding it all through her text books when she got home Val!
Mum used to get cross when I ate my creations before I got home! 🙂
I loved Home Ec. Don’t remember the choc slice but do remember learning the hard way that the slightest bit of yolk in your egg whites will totally stuff up your meringue! One of life’s lessons learned 😉
I loved Home Ec. and how funny I actually made this slice last weekend for the husband and the youngest who headed off for a ‘boys camp’ (my icing was revoltingly thick due to my need for excess in all and I added sesame seeds as we do not have allergies)…Love the photo of you and your Nan. xxx
Home economics was one of my most favourite subjects. Love the photos and the recipe.
Lots of the stuff I learnt in Home Ec *cough* 35 years ago *cough* I’m still using on a daily basis; how to budget for meals, portion sizing, never watch TV in a completely dark room (no I have no idea why either but it is a habit I can’t break), Day to Day Cookery book and a load of basic sewing skills. Mrs Rob our legendary teacher would also take life questions in her stride. I remember one lesson she succinctly explained STIS, their variations and consequences without batting an eyelid. This was in answer to the question “Mrs Rob what is the clap?” From a 13yo. I imagine she had a small whiskey when she went home that night.
Is it completely bizarre that I had a random thought of the choc coconut slice sold by the Lourdes tuck shop… at 2:30am? I typed it into google on the off chance someone else loved it too 🙆🏻♀️ Going to try this ASAP!! I attended 2006-2010 but never kept the recipe, so thank you! 🙈😂