Thursday, 30 May 2013

Super Sweet Teatime Treat- Millionaires Crispy Cake

Around 4 o'clock almost everyday, I get a familiar feeling, a craving for something sweet to go with a cup of tea. I then procede to scrabble around in all the cupboards on a hunt for something to satisfy my rumbling tum! All I ever seem to discover are stale old digestives and dried apricots,  not quite what I'm after!

So on one such afternoon, tired of the slim pickings from my cupboard, I headed to the village shop and bought anything I could find that after some kind of mixing and cooking process would resemble something I could call an afternoon treat! 

And thus, my Super Sweet Millionaires Crispy Cake Extravaganza was born.  Now I can't quite remember exact measurements, and to be honest I dont think they matter, but I will do my best to recall how I made these...




You will need: 
100g Rice Crispies
100g Soft Toffees
100g Marshmallows
200g Caster Sugar
90g Butter
120ml Thick Double Cream
100g Dark Chocolate
75g White Chocolate
(You can buy tins of ready made caramel from Carnation, so just substitute one of these for the Caster Sugar, 80g Butter and Double Cream)

Now I know this looks like a scarily long list of steps, but honestly none of them are either hard or time consuming and if your using ready made caramel you can skip steps 4-8 anyway!

1. Firstly bung the toffee, marshmallows and about 10g of butter into a pan and put onto a medium heat.

2. Stir until the mixture has completely melted into a sticky, oozy consistency, and remove from heat.

3. Mix the rice crispies into the toffee/mallow mixture. Hold some back if it's looking a bit dry or add some extras if it's too wet.

4. Spoon all the crispy mixture into a baking tray, flatten with the back of a spoon and set aside in the fridge.

5. Now for the caramel. If you're using the ready made stuff then jump straight to step 

6. Put the caster sugar into a heavy based pan over a high heat to melt. This will take around 15 minutes. Don't be tempted to stir! You can shake the pan should you so desire.

7. Once the sugar crystals have melted and you are left with a gorgeous amber liquid, add the rest of the butter in cubes and remove from the heat when all the butter is melted.

8. Quickly pour the cream into the caramel (off the heat), and whisk until you have a thick, golden sauce. Set aside to cool.

9. Now onto the chocolate top. Put a saucepan of water onto a medium heat to boil, with a glass bowl over the top.

10. Break chocolate into bowl and stir until melted. And melt the white chocolate in the microwave.

11. Remove crispy from the fridge and pour the caramel over the top. Smoothing over to form an even layer.

12. The final layer is the choccy. If you want a fancy (but easy) pattern on top then you will need a piping bag filled with the white choc. If not then spoon the chocolate on and leave to cool.

13. For a pattern, pour the dark chocolate over the caramel. Quickly before the dark chocolate melts, pipe evenly spaced horizontal lines on white chocolate onto the dark chocolate.

14. Next, using a skewer or cocktail stick, drag it vertically across all the lines of white choc. And you will create a nifty little patter. Pretty easy once you know now!

15. All thats left to do is leave it to cool, pop the kettle on and enjoy!

















Thursday, 9 May 2013

The Real Food Festival

When descending the steps of Hungerford Bridge I was instantly met with the glorious smell of grilling meat. Especially welcoming to someone as hungry as I was.  So many stands at which to fill my rumbling tum, but what to try first?

Real Food have been hosting food festivals since 2007, and on the 3rd-6th May the first Southbank Centre food festival took place. Holding true to their word, the Real Food Festival really did showcase some of the finest, freshest produce available. It was great to be able to walk around the stalls talking to the producers themselves, finding out about the foods and most of all, tasting!

Tables creaking under the weight of mountains of ripe cheeses; cones of sweet, warm and comfortingly doughy churros; great towering artisan burgers; and pints of refreshingly tangy cider, delicious!

Cheese heaven- Cote Fromager.
Iberico Ham from Can Vila

There were so many great ingredients and tasty morsels but by far my favourite were the scotch eggs by Kirsty's Kitchen. The Scotch Egg, a controversial snack. My friends would real in horror as I would bite into a scotch egg over lunch at University.  However I, maintain that they are an unbeatable lunch time refreshment. Kirsty's Scotch eggs came in various flavour, I went for the Bacon flavour and a Moroccan Spiced one. Both had beautifully soft yolks and were delicious, almost as good as my mum's, but not quite. The best part, all the pork is sustainably sourced from rare breed piggies in Wales, and the eggs are from local free range hens nearby to Kirsty's Kitchen.


Moroccan spiced scotch egg from Kirsty's Kitchen.

All in all a fabulous foodie afternoon out. With Real Food Markets held weekly at the Southbank Centre and a number of other Food Festivals happening throughout the year then there are plenty of opportunities for you to go and feast! 


Have a look on the Real Food Festival website for the next foodie event: http://www.realfoodfestival.co.uk/festivals/

Finn enjoying the sunshine.