04 April 2010

Recipe for a Happy Easter

One of the easiest chocolate treats in my recipe book collection is the desperately unexcitingly-named 'Chocolate Refrigerator Cake' from the 1986 Hamlyn New All Colour Cookbook (a volume I've mentioned here before). The recipe ought to have a better name, because it is not just easy, but delicious, too.

The ingredients given in the recipe book are:

450g/1lb plain chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
100g/4oz butter
2 tablespoons brandy
225g/8oz crushed chocolate digestive biscuits
100g/4oz hazelnuts

You just melt the chocolate and butter together, stir in the other ingredients and pour it into a 7-inch square cake tin. Leave to set in the fridge for an hour or so (or in the freezer if you're in a hurry). Then just cut it into squares and watch them vanish.

I don't think I've ever made this with precisely the ingredients given above. I only ever have plain digestive biscuits, for one thing, and I don't put brandy in the mixture because the children usually demand one or two (or four) of the finished squares. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever put hazelnuts in them either. In today's version I put diced dried mango slices and raisins with the digestives (you could use Graham crackers instead of digestives). I've used diced preserved ginger in the past, too, which is particularly good. To be honest, almost any foodstuff is going to be improved by being coated in a luscious layer of decent chocolate and butter, isn't it?

They're always very popular. How can they not be, with ingredients like these? But I do think they need a more tastebud-tempting name. Any suggestions?

2 comments:

Northern Beauty Seeker said...

"Chocolate Emergency Cake" because it is so simple you could whip one together in any chocolate emergency situation that, you know, may arise :-)

Sounds perfect with candied ginger.

Happy Easter!

Amanda said...

Now that is an excellent suggestion! All I could think of was 'happiness squares', but Chocolate Emergency Cake sums up the appeal of these perfectly.

Thanks!