Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Best Chocolate Biscuit Cake - trust me

I loved chocolate biscuit cake as a child. I did notice something different about the chocolate biscuit cake that we had in my house and the ones that you could buy. Mum's tasted nicer but the ones in the shops had more chocolate. Anyway as you know (I'm presuming it's taking over your, TV, Radio and internet too) Prince William of UK and Kate Middleton will be having chocolate biscuit cake at the wedding and McVities released their recipe. So myself and Ms. Carroll decided to give it a go- not the best. Sorry but it's true. I know cake and that was weak, it tasted like a chocolate biscuit... Yes I know many of you may think that's the same thing; or even what you may want from chocolate biscuit cake; take it from me - it isn't!
You want a chocolate biscuit, you buy a chocolate biscuit, as the meercat would say "simples!"

So the real chocolate biscuit cake took five tries, but we have perfected it. And annoyed the whole Carroll household by plying them with fatty foods; also created a rumor that we're pot heads (as it happens neither of us are- not against it, just not my thing). We managed to be saying "O my goooodddd, this tastes sooo good" and have chocolate all over our faces, so I mean- it's fair.

So we started with the recipe in the paper and it wasn't a cake it was a giant chocolate biscuit, which is cool but didn't complete our task.
So we tried again with darling Mammy Reflections recipe. It was ok but it wasn't cakey enough. It didn't have the requisite fudgey texture. It was more a collection of coated biscuits in a yummy goo, with more goo on the bottom of the pan.
So then we tried three more cakes in one night. yes it was crazy but it had to be done!
We started with Mammy Reflection's recipe, but we put it in the fridge for an hour. Yup it became fudgey and solid enough that we put it in the cake tin and it was fudgey all the way through not just in a (albeit delicious) lump at the bottom.

The other two cakes were because I was thinking (lying on my bed and suddenly this jumped into my head) -what if I just heated condensed milk and melted some good dark chocolate. So we took half a can of condensed milk and put it in a saucepan over a medium heat and then added the chocolate and stirred it and added some biscuits and voila! It was fudgy and amazing but I had half an open can of condensed milk and half a bar of 70% cocoa chocolate.
-What's a girl to do?
Throw them in the microwave for 1 minute and yup you guessed it, it was the exact same, you have to stir it really quickly after to get rid of lumps but that was more fun then anything- then add the biscuits. It's ready pretty much immediately.
It isn't really chocolate biscuit cake; it's fudge biscuit. Maaannnnn I love fudge biscuit.

Amazeballs.


The Revised Mammy Reflections Recipe

12 oz rich tea biscuits (at your discretion maybe 3/4 of packet)
1/2 lb margarine
6ozs castor sugar.
6 teaspoonful of cocoa powder
2 eggs

Method
melt marg & sugar do not boil,
remove from heat & add beaten egg.
Break biscuits into small pieces,
Add choc sauce to biscuits & mix well.Put int fridge for hour (in mixing bowl)
One last stir.
Put into dish to set for 12 hours (that's pretty generous but basically make it the day before).

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Canadia Land

Well it feels like forever since I posted. But basically here's the lowdown on the life of reflections.
I went to London and worked on a workshop for a really brilliant play. THe actors were amazing and it was really a lovely experience. I was all happy and the day after this ended I went off to Toronto to work on the play I've worked on for nearly 2 years. I got to Toronto to be told there are some major problems with the show and then the next day received a text to say that the show was cancelled... yeah.
So now I'm in Canada with time on my hands. I've been filling my days with well internet and doing things I've never done before... this is like ummm driving on the wrong side of the road. Driving automatic, it's easy but a little unnerving and my left foot has never felt less loved. I saw a moose crossing sign a real one it was on the way to North Bay, another thing I did, going to North Bay. I made souffle from scratch. And I played bingo and won $14 which was great cos I got to shout "BINGO!" admittedly I wasn't the only person, ergo the $14. I ate at Swiss Chalet, it was lovely, I wasn't wild about the sauce I heard so much about but you know the rest was nommmm sooo yummy! I bottled wine, that was fun and educational. I went to the fresh water spring and gathered water (this was for making wine). I bought a mac not sure what I'm supposed to do with the two free stickers of the apple symbol... It is so lovely and I'm typing on it right now. I went into the Canadian Shield... no not some computer game but a giant formation of rock that was cool and imposing and surrounded the car on the way to and from North bay (by the by if you like sushi the best I've ever had was in North Bay, holy moly the tempura in the dynamite roll was still crispy, it was to die for).
Needless to say, I've been drinking lots of wine, and vodka, vodka courtesy of duty free at O'Hare airport and wine courtesy of the fabulous Carrolls, who make their own, ergo I bottled...
And well now I'm off to take a walk through the lovely town of Uxbridge to buy a notepad/copy to write on, then I'll do some writing and then figure out something new to do today.

Any suggestions?