SweetloreEncyclopedia of World Sweets (534）
Louise Slice
Louise slice
Coconut meringue over a layer of red jam
Baked Sweets ／ New Zealand
New Zealand’s Louise slice is made by spreading jam over a buttery base, topping it with a coconut meringue and baking it. It is baked as a large sheet, then cut into squares or long, narrow rectangles. At home it is also called Louise cake. The yolks are used in the base and the whites in the meringue on top. In a single bite you can taste the crumbly base, the tartness of the fruit and the sweet, light meringue.
A base made with yolks and a meringue made with whites
The yolks are combined with butter, sugar and flour to make the base. The whites are whipped, and sugar and desiccated coconut are added to make the meringue layered on top. Some recipes use up the yolks and whites of two eggs, while others use two yolks for the base and three whites for the meringue, producing differences in the thickness of the base and the amount of meringue.
The jam spread between the base and the meringue joins the two layers while adding sweetness and tartness. The color of the jam appears as a band in the cut edge. Raspberry is often used, but Edmonds also lists plum and blackcurrant. Fine desiccated coconut gives an even surface, while long shreds make the surface more uneven.
A piece of Louise slice. The base, the fruit and the coconut top layer are visible. Photo: Tom Ackroyd, 2023-03-11, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the source; no further modifications.
Baking order and combinations of ingredients
In the Edmonds recipe, jam and meringue are layered on the unbaked base and everything is baked at once. It is cut while still warm and left to cool in the tin. By contrast, in the Chelsea recipe, the base is baked first and cooled slightly, then the jam and meringue are layered on, it is baked again, and it is cut once cooled. The recipes differ in whether the base is baked first, and in whether it is cut while the meringue is still warm or after it has cooled.
There are also examples that change how the fruit is prepared or how the meringue is made. In the recipe from Naomi Toilalo’s Whānaukai, raspberries are cooked with chia seeds to thicken them, and the egg whites and sugar are warmed over a water bath before whipping. This is one example that replaces bottled jam and ordinary meringue with juicy fruit and a meringue warmed before whipping. In the book, which presents English and Māori side by side, it is called Keke Rahipere Me Te Kokonati. Besides being cut into pieces and eaten at morning tea, it is also served as a dessert with berries or yogurt.
Home recipes recorded in a 1927 newspaper
In the readers’ column of the Otago Witness on September 20, 1927, there is a post asking how to make “Louisa cake.” On September 27 the following week, a recipe called “Louise Cake” was sent in; noting that it might be the same as the cake being sought, it described three layers: a butter dough, jam, and egg white with coconut. Another contributor also shared a three-layer version made with raspberry jam of one’s choice.
On October 4, yet another recipe for “Louisa cake” appeared. The variation in spelling and the multiple methods show that by 1927 it was a sweet whose name was understood among home cooks, who confirmed details with one another. By the time several households had brought their own separate recipes, neither the name nor the method was already fixed to a single version.
The theory that it was named after Princess Louise
The name is said to come from Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, or to commemorate the princess’s wedding. The wedding of the princess and John Campbell took place on March 21, 1871, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. However, the story that the sweet was created at the wedding has been handed down as a legend about its origin.
While origins connected with the princess are told, the source that can be cited as concretely conveying how it was made is the household column of the 1927 newspaper discussed above. Just as home cooks in that column exchanged different recipes, a variety of approaches can still be seen today in the order in which the three layers are baked and the choice of fruit.
Food historian Helen Leach examined 135 recipes for Louise cake and noted that some recent examples use more butter, sugar and eggs in the base than before for a tin of the same size, making the base thicker, while the meringue layer stays the same. Even with the same three layers, the ratio of their thicknesses changes with the era and the recipe.
Glossary
- Helen Leach
- A New Zealand food historian. She studied changes in Louise cake recipes.
- Princess Louise
- Daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She married John Campbell in 1871. Louise slice is also said to have been named after this princess.
- John Campbell
- Husband of Princess Louise. At the time of the marriage he was Marquess of Lorne, later Duke of Argyll.
- Otago Witness
- A weekly newspaper published on New Zealand’s South Island. Its 1927 readers’ column contains a post asking how to make this sweet and several replies.
- Meringue
- Whipped egg whites with sugar added. Mixing in coconut gives a baked result containing dry fibers.
- Desiccated coconut
- Grated and dried coconut flesh. The size of the pieces affects the texture of the surface.
- Blackcurrant
- A small black fruit, also called cassis.
- Chia seeds
- Seeds that absorb water and form a gel-like layer around themselves. In Toilalo’s recipe they are used to thicken the jam.
- Naomi Toilalo
- Author of Whānaukai, a cookbook written in English and Māori side by side.
