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There you are, front and centre, nose squished to glass, eyes bigger than a layer cake.
"What can I get for a dollar?" you ask the bakery server.
"Well, you can get a neenish tart, a small hedgehog slice or two crackles," she says.
Oh, the humanity! What to choose?
Of course, you choose the crackles, because two are always better than one. But wouldn't it be nice to have them all?
Let's have them all.
Despite s, the very-sweet, very-Aussie is not named after home cook Ruby Neenish from Grong Grong. The origin of the bi-colour icing shortbread tart is sketchy at best. Someone, somewhere in Australia once made a shortbread pastry, filled it with jam (perhaps) and iced it 50/50. So, the who is unknown, but the why has been answered for generations in one, big sugar-fused bite.
If your bakery made a continental slice, you were winning. Not quite as popular as the snot block or hedgehog, getting your hands on a continental was slim pickings in some suburbs. When you found one, you sucked the custard out from between the chocolate layers, opened your mouth and showed your brother. What can you say? A layer of custard makes people do strange things.
Source: Tammi Kwok
A rich chocolate biscuit base topped with mint-flavoured white fondant and coated in dark chocolate, it’s almost impossible to stop at one. Source: John Laurie
The icing-topped bread roll known as the is still going strong in bakeries across Australia. It's the treat a parent can kid themselves is 'fairly healthy comparatively' but kids know what's what.
Bake your own
Packet-mix finger buns
This version of lamingtons is gluten-free, so no one needs to miss out. Source: Alan Benson
Patty case mandatory. Source: Donna Hay
The school canteen did them best: it was the highly-processed, bright yellow vanilla custard that tipped them into greatness. Source: Alan Benson
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Around the world in vanilla slice
Why is this bakery fave called a hedgehog slice? Apart from the fact that it doesn't even remotely resemble a small furry mammal, we don't even have hedgehogs in Australia... We'll just have to chalk it up to being another slice of mystery (looking at you, Neenish).
A welcome twist on a confectionary classic. Source: China Squirrel
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Richo’s rocky road
Sticky and a little bit sicky, toffee was the paper-clad sweet you tirelessly licked for an entire afternoon. Source: China Squirrel
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Toffee apples
The biscuit base, gooey caramel centre and chocolate topping is a combination made in heaven. Source: Alan Benson
Strawberry and milk jelly Source: Petrina Tinslay
Bakery hit
Baklava vanilla slice
