English

Noun

vanilla slice ‎(plural vanilla slices)

1. (Britain, Australia) A snack similar to a mille-feuille, consisting of a layer of vanilla custard or cream between two layers of pastry.
   • 1941, Studies from the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories and School of Hygiene, University of Toronto, Volume 12, page 852,

     Strain 1162 was isolated from a vanilla slice that was incriminated in a second outbreak originating in the same bakery, six weeks after the first outbreak.

   • 1978, Association of Public Health Inspectors (UK), An Examination of the Bacteriological Quality of Retail Vanilla Slices, Environmental Health, Volume 86, page 67,

     One hundred and thirty-three vanilla slices, purchased from shops in the County of West Yorkshire, were examined to determine the numbers and type of bacteria present at the time of purchase.

   • 2003, David Philip Reiter, Liars and Lovers, Interactive Press, Australia, page 197,

     She passed the answering machine as she brought over a tray with the coffee and a vanilla slice that she′d divided unevenly.

     ‘Homemade?’ I asked, as she handed me the larger portion.

   • 2011, Vicky Daddo, Meeting My Renaissance Man, Stephen Thompson (editor), Mythic Resonance, Specusphere, Australia, unnumbered page,

     ‘Vanilla slice,’ he said, his voice directed at the glass cabinet. […] I pulled back the tray with the vanilla slices and he ducked down like a meerkat on sentry duty.

   • 2012, June Whyte, Muzzled: A Kat Mckinley Greyhound Mystery, Untreed Reads, unnumbered page,

     Leaving Lady Margaret to do battle with the bookies, I bought myself a country-baked vanilla slice. The biggest, mouth-watering vanilla slice I′d ever laid eyes on. Then, cake clutched in both hands, face sticky with creamy custard—not the chewy rubbery custard found in store-bought slices—I wandered over to the catching pen in readiness to catch Ben′s dog at the end of the race.

Synonyms

• (snack similar to a mille-feuille): cream slice, custard slice, Napoleon slice