Looking at my chums in Australia’s food media, it makes me think that we’re in the grip of a bit of a lamination revolution. Whether we’re talking about Lune’s expansion from Melbourne into Brisbane and Sydney; or the success of the patisserie from Christian Jacques in Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point, Prove in Adelaide or Alchemy Bakehouse in the Victorian surf town of Ocean Grove, there seems to be an obsession with Australian pastry. 

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It’s the same overseas – 31 pastry shops and bakeries in NSW and 24 in Victoria made the French-compiled La Liste ranking of the world’s best. But there were two glaringly obvious omissions: the two Aussie bakeries that hold the title for Australia’s best vanilla slice. Neither the Banana Boogie Bakery in Belair in South Australia (which won the 2024 Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph) or North End Bakehouse in Shepparton (which won Best Vanilla Slice for the second consecutive year at the Baking Association of Australia’s 2024 Baking Show), made the list. It’s like some old-school foodie snobbery, where a ‘snot block’ only has value if it’s a French mille-feuille or Italian millefoglie. 

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I was discussing this with a bloke who makes 10,000 vanilla slices a month in his factory. He, too, was appalled, but also suggested that, while the vanilla slice has long held a nostalgic place deep in the hearts of Australians, its hold might be starting to slip.

This stopped me in my tracks. What bakery item could be threatening the pre-eminence of the vanilla slice in the bakery and cafe cold cases across this wide brown land? The underrated neenish tart? The chocolate-topped caramel slice? The apple turnover or the strudel? 

Nope, these aren’t even in his top-three sellers. Now, the vanilla slice and the lemon slice are his second- and third-biggest sellers. And outselling the two combined is another slice that is largely unknown outside Australasia, and has a lurid reputation to match its colour.

It’s the jelly slice.

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So, is the jelly slice to replace the vanilla slice as Australia’s favourite bakery treat? And if so, why? Is it the acidity of the raspberry jelly against the creamy, lemon-scented condensed milk layer? Is it the elusive waft of cinnamon in the crushed biscuit base? Or is it the growing trend of doubling the height of the jelly layer, for more impact? For me, it was the perfect excuse to head to a selection  of bakeries and try a few, because I wasn’t convinced.

I found that what the jelly slice offers is three distinct layers, each with very different but complementary and contrasting textures. While the usual slab of vanilla slice can overwhelm you with custard and pastry, the jelly slice shifts in balance with every bite … 

I feel a seismic shift in the cosmos at this thought.

So next time I walk past a bakery window, I know where my eye will be drawn amongst that ranked display of warm browns and fluffy creams and custards. That brilliant shimmer of red leaps out at you – apparently it’s only the raspberry jelly ones that sell – and demands you order it.

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