Chocolate Refrigerator Cake

Can't believe how quickly time passes!  My last Blog Entry was almost 6 months ago?!?!  Naughty me!

I will have to learn to write short posts and I dunno, edit photos so they are a collage of pictures in one post?  I hate waiting for the upload time :p

Chunks of moreish Refrigerator Cake :)

OK, this chocolate confection goes by many names: No-Cook Cake, Chocolate Tiffin, Chocolate Biscuit Cake (Prince William's favourite apparently), Rocky Road and of course, Chocolate Refrigerator Cake.  Needless to say, many names means many recipes.  I was inspired to make this after seeing a Facebook post from this lady, Jo Wheatley, winner of Great British Bake Off 2.  She has a Facebook page which I have been following.  Her picture of these decadent goodies made me want to make this...

When I make something, I now have an annoying habit of googling the name of the item and reading different variations of the recipe before I make my mind up which to follow.  If it's measured in grams opposed to cups, then I'm more likely to try it - just because I put my bowl on the digital scales and throw things in as I need to. 

I used this Annabel Karmel recipe as my base and used Jo's ideas to create my refrigerator cake.  It is delicious with crunchy and gooey textures and quite rich!

The chocolate mix turned out into my swiss-roll tin ready for chilling

Chocolate Refrigerator Cake

Ingredients:

150g/5oz milk chocolate

150g/5oz dark chocolate

100g/3½oz unsalted butter

150g/5oz golden syrup

small bag of Malteasers (honeycombe balls covered in chocolate 37g bag)
small bag of Minstrels (chocolate buttons encased in a candy shell 42g)
small bag of White Chocolate Buttons (70g)
8 biscuits (rich tea, ginger snaps, digestives, oat biscuits ~ any would work)
50g rice pop cereal
10 marshmallow lumps - quartered (could use mini-marshmallows too)

I made this cake with one bowl, one spoon.  Minimal washing up!  I put my bowl (microwaveable) on my digital scales and added things as I went along - it saved getting separate bowls messy and having lots to wash up :)

Break chocolate into pieces into a microwaveable bowl.
Add the cubed butter and the golden syrup to the bowl.  

Microwave at 100%  (mine is 800watt) for 30 seconds.  Take out and stir the contents.  If there are any remaining lumps of chocolate, microwave again for 15 seconds.  The mixture does not need to be hot, just warm enough to melt the chocolate.  Stirring continuously will help.
When the mix has all turned to liquid, tip in your Malteasers, Buttons, Minstrels, rice cereal, marshmallows and snap the biscuits up as you add them in too.  You can put these in a bowl and bash lightly with the end of a rolling pin if you like - but do not turn it into crumbs - lumpy is fine.
When everything is thoroughly coated in chocolate, tip out onto a shallow tray (I used 20cm x 30cm) lined with cling film (make sure there is excess cling film off the edges to wrap the cake).

Level out as best you can with the back of a spoon. 
Fold the excess cling film over the cake and place in fridge to set (1-2 hours).  Cut into small pieces.  It is quite rich so you do not need a big piece :)

I decorated the top of my cake with drizzles of white and dark chocolate before cutting it up :)
Melt one bar of white chocolate (100g).
Melt remaining dark chocolate left over from making refrigerator cake (50g) - left over milk chocolate is for stress-related emergencies >.<
Drizzle, squiggle, splodge the melted chocolate over the cake as your creative talents allow :)  Replce in fridge for a few mins to harden before chopping into as large/small pieces as you like :)

The beauty of this cake is you can adjust the ingredients as you like.  Add chopped dried fruit (raisins, apricots, dates, stem ginger, sour cherries, cranberries, list is endless...) and nuts (hazlenut, brazil, pistachio) if you prefer.  Or soak the dried fruit in alcohol for 24 hrs prior to making this if you want it to be an adult-only treat!

See the soft, gooey marshmallow, crisp, crunchy Malteaser?

Bagged and ready as a birthday gift to my neighbour :)

Sticky Moist Ginger Cake

A deliciously moist cake - surprisingly light too!

I woke up and I fancied ginger cake.  Strange thing to want - not for breakfast though I hasten to add.  I just fancied baking.  I hadn't been in a cake baking mood for a few weeks.  I guess waiting for Junior to be born put me off!

Anyway, new Chinese mothers are encouraged to eat ginger after the birth of a baby to dispel any wind in the body.  (I have no idea why and do as I'm told - to a degree!)  So with that in mind I thought of making a gingery cake.

I made a cake with dates once and it was lovely soft and moist and well....datey!  I thought that it'd be nice if it was flavoured with ginger.  Until now, I never got round to making it into a ginger cake.

Ginger & Date Cake

Ingredients
300ml water
200g pitted dates
60g butter softened
175g dark brown sugar (muscovado)
1 tbsp ginger syrup ( from jar)
1 tbs golden syrup
2 eggs
200g self raising flour
2 tsp ground ginger (* I would've liked a stronger ginger flavour so I'd probably add 1tbsp next time)
60g crystallised ginger
60g stem ginger in syrup (I used 3 blobs)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method
- Preheat oven to gas 5.  Line tin with parchment.  (I used a 8" square tin).

- Boil water in a saucepan.  When water boils, remove from heat and add the dates.  Leave dates to soak for 10 minutes.

- Chop the crystallised and stem ginger into small pieces (about 1cm cubes), dust with a little of the flour to absorb some of the sticky syrup.  Leave to one side.

- Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream until smooth.
 
- Stir in the syrups and add the flour and ground ginger.  Mix well to combine.

- Break the eggs into the bowl one by one and stir well after each addition.  Stir the chopped ginger into the mixture.

- Add the vanilla extract to the date mixture.  Blend to a smooth pulpy consistency with a hand-held blender.

-  Add the bicarbonate of soda to the date mixture then pour into the flour batter.  Beat well to ensure well mixed.

- Pour into the lined pan and bake in oven immediately.  Bake for 35-40minutes until well risen and springy to the touch.  Remember to check the centre with a skewer to ensure the cake is cooked.  Leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool.  Delicious cold on own, or serve warm with  a drizzle of ginger syrup and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.


I baked chocolate brownie for hubbs to take into work after his paternity leave and also some of this ginger cake.  One of his colleagues commented how he liked the ginger bits in the cake.  I personally would  have enjoyed a stronger ginger hit to the cake and will probably put 1-2tbs of ground ginger in next time.  I might increase the amount of crystallised and stem ginger in too.

See the juicy chucks of stem ginger and small pieces of crystallised ginger in the cake?