Sunday 28 July 2013

(Not quite) Thursday Feasts #2 - Swirled Rocky Road

Just imagine it's Thursday not Sunday, k? If you read my last post, I'm sure you'll understand why Thursday Feasts has taken a little while to get off the ground. But it's back and it's back for good!

Rocky road, or as it was known in our family, 'fridge cake' was one of my favourite foods growing up. I have great memories of not only making it but the delight of realising one of my parents had made it - it was the only thing my Dad ever 'baked'! I have wonderful memories of making this in a loaf tin and slicing a 'slice' off for my breakfast whilst my parents weren't looking ;) Not the healthiest start to the day but man does it hit the spot. The recipe is so simple but utterly delicious and it's such a quick make that you don't really have an excuse not to.


I pulled the base recipe for this from the BBC food website, but adapted it a little for myself. It also takes inspiration from a rocky road sold in my uni town by a local cafe. 

Swirled Rocky Road

Ingredients:

  • 100g/4½oz soft unsalted butter
  • 300g/10½oz best-quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
  • 3 tbsp golden syrup
  • 150g/7¼oz chocolate digestive biscuits (roughly crushed)
  • 100g malteasers (roughly crushed)
  • 50g glace cherries (roughly chopped)
  • 75g mini marshmallows
  • 3 tbsp peanut butter if desired

Method:

  1. Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in either a glass bowl over a saucepan of hot water on the stove or in the microwave (if microwaving, stir the syrup in once the butter and chocolate have melted and make sure you heat it in 30 seconds bursts, stirring in between to ensure it doesn't burn).
  2. Stir in the roughly crushed digestives, malteasers and cherries until all are coated. If you're adding peanut butter, stir 1 of the tablespoons in now. The mixture should be rough but still quite fluid. If you have just coated the biscuits and cherries with little chocolate/butter/syrup left, you'll need to add more.
  3. **Optional** If you add the marshmallows in when the mixture is still hot from being melted, they too will melt and dissolve into your rocky road. Either chill in the fridge for ten minutes or leave the mixture for half an hour to cool if you want to make sure that your marshmallows remain whole. If you don't have time, then only stir a small amount of them into the mix and put the rest aside.
  4. Line a square dish with tin foil as smoothly as possible. Pour the mixture into the tin. Using a teaspoon, swirl the remaining peanut butter through the top layer of the mix. It should create a lovely yellow marbling pattern. Push the remaining marshmallows into the top and refrigerate until solid. Serve by cutting it into chunks with a big knife.


The wonderful thing about this is that you can really go wild with your imagination and put whatever you want in it, as long as it's crunchy and you like the taste! If you don't like malteasers, then why not try M+Ms or fudge pieces? If you are allergic to peanut butter, why not try swirling caramel across the top or even a green coloured peppermint sauce? Your imagination and tastes are the limit here. 

One of the best versions of this I tasted had white chocolate malteasers, digestives and mars bar chunks in... Just throwing that out there.

Friday 26 July 2013

The 'big five'; AKA the busiest month of my life.

For some reason this year it appeared that all the big events that I was a part of took place in a matter of weeks. Now they're all done it's time to take a breather and relax with a cuppa whilst looking at the photographic damage! For the most part, I'll let the photos do the talking.

First was my sister's hen do - for this we did a 'Strictly Come Dancing' party with The Cheerleading Company (who I would thoroughly recommend) and then a scavenger hunt and a meal followed by some fun, games and alcohol.

hen do cheerleading company dance party


hen do


Secondly, we had my Dad's summer ball. Drunken revelry commenced and a good time was had by all! We go to this most years and it's always a good laugh. The booze flows as the drinks prices are generally about a quarter of that you'd pay for in a regular bar (can of diet coke = 35p!) and there's always bottles of wine and cider or beer on the tables that you can have.

The only photo of the night that I'm willing to show you (because it's already on facebook and I can't hide my shame)...
summer ball drunk

...

God damn it I am sexy. The sad thing is this was taken at 7pm, just after we'd got there, so I can't even blame my hideous facial antics on alcohol.

Thirdly, we had the rather large occasion of my sister's wedding! I don't know about her but it feels like this has been in the planning stages for years so to actually get to the day was really exciting. I'm still doing residual wedding 'stuff' (some secret stuffs and some not so secret stuffs) but it was all so much fun I don't really mind reliving it.

wedding charli simon soham church

wedding charli bridesmaid bride

Finally, a photo of me looking like I can drink wine like a normal person!

Fourthly, two days after we celebrated Simon and Charli tying the knot, we drove up to Wales so that I could attend my graduation ceremony.

graduation family

graduation

Finally, we drove to Manchester (again, two days after driving to North Wales, and four days after driving home from Cambridge) for a wonderful event called 'The Color Run'. A Color Run is basically a 5k run with a twist; at every kilometre there is a 'color station'. This is where volunteers throw powdered paint at you to make you all bright and colourful... For comparison, side by side of before the race and after:

the color runthe color run


So much fun, I can't wait to do it again next year! I finished in 33 minutes 21 seconds so that is my time to beat. It was a fantastic day and it was lovely to run it in Manchester, my boyfriend's home town. My parents met his family afterwards, so it really was a great weekend.

All of this took place between the 14th of June and the 21st of July - phew! Now I have nothing left to look forward to... so I guess I should find another run or something ;) Or I could attend to my poorly neglected blogs... haha!