A birthday tradition: Lolly cake recipe

Every year for the past three years, lolly cake has been on the 'required' list for kiddie birthdays in this house. It's not to my taste, but the children love it and a few adults do, too! Plus it adds wonderful colour to a party table.

The recipe is below. It contains gluten, dairy, fat, sugar, artificial colours and flavours. It is almost devoid of anything healthful. But it only appears in our house once a year (because our children have birthdays only three days apart). Most of all, happy childhood memories and family traditions are, I think, very healthy.

My own childhood party food memories are cream-filled brandy snaps and mallowpuffs. They announce "Special, honoured, treat-time" to me.

What are your favourite party food memories?

Lolly cake. Cropped from a larger photo - I never thought I'd be blogging about lolly cake! Now I'll have to wait until next year to get a good lolly cake photo.

LOLLY CAKE
Recipe by Alison Holst, barely modified.

125g butter
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (about 200g)
1 tsp vanilla
250g packet malt biscuits
180-250g lollies, either 'eskimos' or 'fruit puffs'
dessicated coconut to coat

Melt the butter in a bowl or pot big enough for all the ingredients.
Stir in the condensed milk and vanilla, and mix well.
Crumb the malt biscuits finely, either in a food processor or by putting them in a plastic bag and rolling them with a rolling pin.
Chop the eskimos into about 8 peices, or fruit puffs into 3 or 4 pieces.
Combine everything together well in the bowl or pot containing the butter mixture.
Form mixture into 3 or 4 cylinders. Roll these in coconut, then place in covered container and refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Cut cylinders into slices 10-15mm thick.

These are nice in goodie bags for the guests to take home, too.