Frog cakes

are quite popular here. No, they are not made from frogs. 

I have no idea who thought of the idea but they are little cubes of plain cake topped with fondant. The cube is cut in half horizontally. There is a thin layer of apricot jam spread between the two halves. The cake and fondant is covered with green icing . The icing and the fondant are slit open at an angle with a bit of cream coloured icing inside for a "mouth" and then a couple of spots for eyes. 

That is the traditional "frog" cake from my childhood. You can now get chocolate and pink coloured "frogs" as well. These are not considered quite "right" but they are made. They are quite expensive to buy - understandably as they require construction in a way that other bakery items do not.  

I have not eaten one since childhood and can only remember doing that on very rare occasions. I am not sure I would enjoy one if I was given one to eat now. 

They were once unique to this state...along with "fritz" (a sort of processed sausage put in sandwiches) and "Fruchocs" (chocolate covered pieces of dried apricot - now expanded to include other fruits), and "Kitchener buns" (doughnut like balls slit open and filled with raspberry jam and cream). 

And now the business has been sold on to another business which plans to take the frog cakes to a national level. I am not sure this is going to work. These frogs were something that made us unique. It is something tourists discovered or came to find. Many of them may have been disappointed but their very rarity made them all the more precious. 

I know one child who refused to eat one "because it's a frog" (but then she refused to eat chocolate frogs too). I know an adult whose "guilty pleasure" is a one of these frogs at the end of each week. "It's better than beer." Yes, even I would prefer the frog cake.

They are an oddity we need to preserve, just for the fun of it. We need to preserve them along with the other little pleasures in life. Don't make them too common though - that would spoil them.