Hello dear baker friends and how are we feeling? As much as I hate using the term detox, I do love when you hit the 1st of January and just pretty much stop over eating. I indulge at Christmas time only when I am hungry. I can't say I eat loads more, I just really enjoy what we have, but it is nice to stop having so many big meals and return to normal. However, if you are like me and get stuck with a huge supply of chocolate there is only one thing to do; it eventually has to be eaten. It is hard and I am not a chocoholic but I find myself eating way more at this time of year with cups of tea! So this week I decided to melt a lot of it down and bake with it. That way I can share it out between family and it is not all here for us to eat!!
Mama's in the kitchen
I must say, my role in the kitchen is probably very different to a lot of you. I do not cook at all. I know! I really am not a great chef and my meals are often high in carbs as they are the easiest kind of meals to cook. Needless to say it is Rob who is king of the kitchen and I reside myself to cleaning, faffing and of course, baking!
Baking really does make me feel like I achieve something in a day. If Rob gets home and I can proudly show him a product from my own hands I feel like I am standing proud with those domestic Goddesses!
Christmas Chocolate Fridge Cake:
For these #mamabakescakes recipes I only try to use things we have in the cupboards. Baking shouldn't have to a be an expensive task so I raided the cupboards to see what I could add to this chocolate fridge cake. Now there is no direct recipe for this, some of you will know it as a no bake chocolate cake, or maybe even tiffin, but this basically is a biscuit and dried fruit mix which is just covered in chocolate. That means you can use any dried fruits you want. I had raisin and prunes; crazy mix but that is what was in the cupboard. Dried Apricots go well in this kind of thing too.
First I smashed up a packet of Rich Tea biscuits (Digestives also work) into small chunks. I then chopped up a load of fudge bars that we had so they would give a nice caramel flavour.
In a bain marie I melted down lots of Christmas chocolates and then poured it straight onto the biscuit, fudge and dried fruit mix.
Stir in all the ingredients until it is all well covered in chocolate.
Line a tin with grease proof paper, make sue it covers up the edges as well as this allows you to lift the whole thing out easily once it has cooled for chopping.
Flatten down the mixture as smoothly as possible and leave.
Melt more chocolate to pour on the top; this helps hold it all together.
Once the tray is cool and setting, place it in the fridge for a couple of hours until it is hard.
Chop up and share out!
Have you seen these Icing Sqeezers?
I must say I felt compelled to tell you about these Icing squeezers as I just love them! I hate using piping bags for icing work as I find I just get in such a mess. My sister picked up one of these squeezers from TKMaxx and you simply fill them with your icing and squeeze. We found them so easy to use for decorating biscuits and they were so much cleaner and simpler than using a piping bag. I just wanted to alert you bakers to them if you haven't come across them yet. They are also great for kids as you could have a few with different coloured icing in for making beautiful edible masterpieces with!
#mamabakescakes Gallery:
Thank you so much for sharing all your baking ideas on Instagram. It is so lovely for Nanda and I to see them all. Especially after a little break from sharing them over the Christmas holidays.
(Left to Right) @liasfarmlife, @emer_dreamin, @messyjessaoi, @fin_langmn
Thank you all for continually joining in and if you have any bakes that you photograph and put onto Instagram make sure you tag them #mamabakescakes so we can all enjoy them too!
Also head over to Nanda's blog to follow along with her journeys through life.
Emily
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