Honeymoon Slice

I've been putting off posting this recipe for a while now you'll see why when you get to the pictures! the pictures are dreadful!!! laugh till there are tears awful!!! it's not so much the photography it's more the state of the end product!
But first why I decided to try and make it ...

I was raking through some old books when I found this recipe and was immediately taken back to my childhood when this stuff was a regular in the local café. It is very sweet and calorie heavy so it was a once in a while treat and every bite was to be savoured. Now here I was with the recipe in hand and an up-coming event to bake for - it was a sign! It was meant to be!

The recipe looks like this -

Ingredients:
2 x 300g blocks white* milk or plain chocolate (the cooking variety)
12 oz dessicated coconut
2 oz glace cherries
1 tbs icing sugar
1 large tin condensed milk
1/2 cup rice crispies

Caramel:
1 tin carnation caramel

*white cooking chocolate is the quick route to madness! Congrats if you can get the suff to melt well, I just couldn't! this was the first hint of things to come..

First up you need to line a baking tray with cling film.
Now the first block of chocolate can be melted and spread on the bottom of the tray.
Chop the cherries and in a big bowl mix in with the coconut, icing sugar and condensed milk, this mixture can then be spread on the chocolate base which should be set.
Now pour the caramel over the top of the coconut mix and sprinkle the rice crispies over this.
Don't forget to scrape out the caramel tin with a big spoon and enjoy the dribbles that didn't make it on to the tray! (do this quietly so no one else in the house catches on and you can have it all to yourself!)
The other block of cooking chocolate can now be melted and spread over the top.
Allow to set then slice.

For me it was at the melting of the second block of chocolate that seriously began to go wrong. The first bar had been a bit troublesome so I figured I'd melt this one in two batches the first lot went well and was poured over the tray bake but the second lot wouldn't melt properly then in the blink of an eye it burnt! Aaarrrgh!!!So the half chocolated tray bake was covered and put in the fridge. With only one evening left to finish it I couldn't find any more white chocolate locally and frankly didn't want to so I resorted to milk chocolate and hid the white stuff beneath a nice thick layer of it! Genius!
Problem solved, next problem created!
When it came to cutting it I couldn't get the knife to go through the top layer of chocolate without squishing out all the yummy gooey layers below. Hot water didn't make the blade hot enough to go through the chocolate effectively so I resorted to some "don't try this at home" stuff and after many rounds of heating the knife over the gas stove I had a sliced hacked up tray bake!
Every piece unique! no two the same size and several with a top layer that had hints of white playing keek-a-boo!
Take a look for youself...

Before slicing

looks promising!

not for long ...

it looks like someone dropped a slab of chocolate on top of a chicken curry with rice (if it was a battle the curry definitely lost)

and finally ...

present cake with lumps, bumps and stuff oozing everywhere in pretty paper cases!

It tasted lovely inspite of all the problems and iffy looking end product. Amazingly not a piece was left after the coffee moring!