When I was little, coconut ice (along with tablet) was a mainstay of School Fetes, Bake Sales and the Summer Fair. Shops did sell it, but it was always much better when homemade (as is the case with most things). These days, you cannot find it in shops and schools no longer have fetes due to concerns about lawsuits surrounding hygiene and allergies. A sad state of affairs.
Today, whilst nipping into Waitrose for some limescale remover (such an exciting shopping trip), I spotted a row of intrieguing brightly-coloured tubs in the sweetie aisle. Despite my attempts to resist, I found myself drooling over them seconds later. The Burnt Sugar Sweet Company are all about handmade traditional British sweets ranging from Scottish Tablet (yay!) through to Devon Clotted Cream Fudge with a nice variety of different fudge flavours inbetween.
The coconut ice is everything that coconut ice should be. Tooth-numbingly sweet, crumbly, slightly chewy coconut bits and best of all…. the layers aren’t garishly coloured. Commercial coconut ice has a tendency to be very bright pink and very white. The pink here is nice and gentle and the white layer is a reassuring creamy-gold. What more could you ask for, other than for a larger tub?
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Ooh, coconut ice! Never had it before but does it ever look divine. The colour is just so pretty and spring-like too!
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Looks and sounds devine. I wonder if it is availble over here across the pond in Canada now that “Marks & Sparks” has disappeared…? Oh how I miss M&S; we used to buy everything there from underwear, to my first pair of “grown up shoes” to desserts and dinner. How to convince the boyfriend to take a trip to England…? Probably wouldn’t be that difficult, actually.
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Hi Prim! I think Coconut Ice is pretty much a British thing (I’d claim purely Scottish, but a friend who grew up in a different part of Scotland has never had it)… Here’s a recipe which looks quite reasonable: http://thefoody.com/sweets/coconutice.html
Hi Jennifer! I’m not sure that you’ll find it without the help of M&S. Having said that, M&S don’t stock it anymore in the UK. For about 6 months they brought it back as part of a range of Childhood Sweeties, and I guess it didn’t sell as well as they thought as they still have the range sans coconut ice on sale
However, visiting England for the purposes of going to M&S is indeed a great reason for a trip! Plus, you can nip into Harrods Food Hall, Fortnum & Masons, the lovely Chocolatier’s on Kings Road in London etc etc.
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Definitely not just British! My mum cooked massive quantities of coconut ice to give away at Christmas, and also for school fetes, when I was growing up in Australia. Your description of it as tooth-numbingly sweet is just right – I used to love it, but when I had a piece a couple of years ago it was almost overwhelming.
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Take a look at http://www.britishcandy.com they deliver British sweets Worldwide!
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Like Meg, I also grew up in Australia where coconut ice was (and still is!) a worthy addition to any respectable school or church fete. The clear celephane packaging has been replaced by one of Mr Glad’s marvels, but the squares of coconut ice are still the same – pale pink and white and deliciously sweet. I had always assumed that coconut ice must have originated in a tropical climate such as Queensland – interesting to find it popular on the other side of the world.
Coconut ice use to be known as coconut candy in Malaysia. My mother use to grate fresh coconut and make those pink/yellow pieces. It is always sold at school fairs in Malaysia too. Love them!!