Goodness what a difference an academic year makes. This time last year we were learning to let go of middleteen as he went nervously on his way to university. This year he is driving himself back, has stripped our house of useful stuff for his new student home and has given me a list of cakes he wants me to make before going as ‘moving -in’ eats for a bunch of his hungry mates.
It’s the way it should be, of course, it’s fabulous that he has grown in confidence and maturity, not to mention cooking skills. this summer he added another five recipes to his small but-growing-list of dishes he can rustle up on a student budget. His food box contained the new additions of baking powder (breakfast waffles) plain flour (for roux sauces) pickled ginger (for Wagamama’s yaki soba) and a baking tray suitable to use for traybakes. I even taught him how to shop, as interestingly he said he found this quite tricky, knowing the best size/type/brand to use. You may say I should have taught him this before hand and you would be right, but sometimes with boys, they have to be in the situation before they properly listen.
Anyway, he’s not yet that good at cake, so I made him Roald Dahl’s Bruce Bogtrotter’s Chocolate Cake (recipe here, picture above) and iced it with the new Dr Oetker chocolate icing, which wasn’t as good at the chocolate icing in the recipe, but it’s a whole lot easier to roll out and slap on, I suspect the students wont mind it either. The chocolate stars were a bit of a glam extra.
Middle teens favourite chocolate cake is the super-simple chocolate fridge cake, which is student friendly as it requires neither oven nor much effort to make*.
Student friendly chocolate fridge cake
50 grams butter, soft
200 grams milk chocolate, best you can afford
3 tablespoons of golden syrup
225 grams digestive biscuits (bashed up in a plastic bag)
Melt the butter, golden syrup and chocolate together VERY GENTLY in the microwave or over a pan of boiling water.
Add the crushed up biscuits and mix well.
Spread out into a foil or greaseproof paper lined shallow tin and chill in the fridge until solid, then cut into small slices.
*Also works well on flagging fashionistas needing an energy boost during fashion week.
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