Rocky Road (no bake) Cheescake

I am a little bit obsessed with rocky road, I'm still on the hunt for the best rocky road recipe but this takes rocky road to a whole new level of indulgence. It has all the main components of rocky road: biscuit, chocolate, marshmallows and nuts. But the extra ingredients make it a delicious pudding.

This is what I used:
280g chocolate chip cookies,
100g butter
300g dark chocolate
300mls double cream
100g caster sugar
200g full fat cream cheese
6 large marshmallows
50g crushed macadamia nuts (optional)

This is what I did:
First I crushed the biscuits in a bag with a rolling pin, if you have a food processor do it in there, its much faster. I removed about a cupful of this mixture to save for later. Then I melted the butter and mixed with the crushed biscuits. I pressed this mixture into a lined 22.5cm springform tin and put it in the fridge for a few hours.

To make the top I mixed together the cream, sugar and cream cheese until it it all came together and there were no cheese lumps. I melted the dark chocolate (over a pan of simmering water) and then poured about 1/4 of the cheese mixture into the chocolate and stirred. Once it was thoroughly mixed I poured in the remaining cheese mixture. I left this in the fridge over night. When this had set I melted the marshmallows in a pan with a little butter and drizzled it over the top.

Then I removed the cheesecake from the tin and put it on my serving plate. Finally I took the remaining crushed biscuits and combined them with the nuts and I gently pressed this mixture around the sides of the cheesecake.

I served this with mini marshmallows and it went down a treat. If you are having a dinner with friends you should make this, your guests will love it. Zoe xx

Dished Up: Sticky Toffee Cake

Two things that I love are sticky toffee puddings and bonfire night. Let's be honest who doesn't love a good sticky toffee pudding? So after playing around with a few recipes I came up with this Sticky Toffee Cake to serve up as a sparkling treat as we remembered gunpowder, treason and plot this year.

You may find the icing a little tricky if you've never made a caramel before but this video will give you an idea of what to expect. And believe me, it's worth getting right!

What you need.....

200g Dates, chopped

200ml Strong Tea

1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

125g Butter

200g Demerara Sugar

1tsp All Spice

250g Self Raising Flour

3 Eggs

2tbsp Golden syrup

And for the icing....

125g Caster Sugar

80ml Double cream

160g softened Salted Butter

200g Icing Sugar

Sparklers (optional)

What you need to do.....

1. Start off making a dry caramel by melting the caster sugar in a heavy based pan. Once the sugar has melted, cook it to look like a strong tea. 

2. When the colour looks right quickly pour in the cream and beat it in. You have to do this carefully as it will really bubble but you need to stand back and mix at the same time or you'll end up with just a hard lump. If you have a bit of a lump keep it over a low heat and melt it slowly. Set this aside and let it cool completely. You can put the pan in some cold water like this to speed up the cooling process.

3. Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius and grease and line a 20x30cm tin. In a small pan bring the tea to a simmer and stir in the chopped dates. Simmer for 5 minutes then turn off the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

4. Beat the butter and the Demerara sugar until it's pale and creamy. I did this in my freestanding mixer. Then mix in the flour, spice, eggs and golden syrup. Fold in the date mixture and pour into the tin.  Don't worry if it looks a little curdled. Bake for 30-35mins until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.

5. When the cake and the caramel are both completely cool make the icing by beating the salted butter and the icing sugar for 5 minutes with an electric mixer until really light and fluffy.

6. Beat in the caramel and slather the icing over the cake. Cut into squares and enjoy with your sparklers. (Don't worry though, if you haven't got any it's just as tasty without!)

Happy Bonfire Night, Cassie xx

Dinosaur Birthday Cake

This week my littlest boy turned 1. While I am no expert on the subject, I love to make fun birthday cakes for the kiddos. For his birthday we went to the Natural History Museum in London and he spent the whole day roaring like a dinosaur so I had to make a dinosaur cake. I was inspired by this cake I saw on Pinterest although mine is on a much smaller scale. I baked a chocolate cake in a round metal bowl and used the left over mixture to make cupcakes. My favourite recipe for chocolate cake is from this book from the Primrose Bakery, the chocolate sponge is really tasty and moist. It went down a treat and he loved it. And of course he made a huge mess while eating it. Just like 1-year-old's should. Zoe xx

Rocky Road: Back to Basic

I have mentioned before how I am a little obsessed with Rocky Road (see here). Its the cake I would always choose to eat from a coffee shop, a cake I love to eat because its so deliciously indulgent and the cake I would choose to make if I could only make one kind of cake for the rest of my life. Nom Nom Nom. I have been trying to find my own perfect recipe for Rocky Road and have made several attempts that were a total FAIL. So I went back to the start and looked up Nigellas recipe that can be found here. I have then adapted this very slightly to make them more chocolatey and added some nuts.

I used:
400g Dark Chocolate
125g Soft Butter
3 tbsp Golden Syrup
200g Rich Tea Biscuits
100g Macadamia Nuts (optional or replace with your favourite nuts)
100g Mini Marshmallows
2tsp Icing Sugar

To make these I simply melted the chocolate, butter and syrup in a pan. Once melted I removed three scoops of this and put it aside. I crushed the biscuits and nuts in a bag with a rolling pin until I had some crumbs and some chunks and then mixed with the chocolate mixture. Once all mixed I added the marshmallows and put all this into a baking dish, the chocolate that was set aside was spread over the top. I refrigerated it for a couple of hours, then cut into 20 pieces and sprinkled the icing sugar over the top.

So I am going to play around with this recipe and make further alterations and everytime I land on a good on I will share it with you. Enjoy eating this yummy scrummy (doesn't results in a small tummy) Rocky Road. Zoe xx

Marshmallow Glitzies

This is something I used to make as a child so I have no idea where the recipe comes from but I remembered it. It's very easy. I mean very very easy. 

This is what I used:

4oz marshmallows

4oz dairy toffee

4oz butter

7oz of rice crispies

1/2 tsp edible glitter (optional)

This is what I did:

Put marshmallows, toffee and butter into a pan and gently melt over a low heat stirring occasionally. When the ingredients all come together pour in all the crispies and 1/4 tsp of glitter and stir.

When it is thoroughly mixed, press into a 20x20cm tray. Sprinkle the remaining glitter over the top and cut into 16ish pieces. Refrigerate for an hour or so.

Then eat. Yum yum. Zoe x