Wednesday 25 May 2016

Chocolate Tarantula Experience (NB no arachnids harmed during the making of this cake)

No spiders here thanks - Not exactly scared, just don't like them.
However this is my mother-in-law's recipe for what the family always refer to as Tarantula. The real name is lost the mists of time. If anyone recognises it I would be delighted to know.


Ingredients

120g dark chocolate
120g butter
150g caster sugar
200g ground almonds
50g cocoa powder
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat the oven to 150 C / Gas 2. 150 Degrees C

Grease a 20cm round cake tin, and dust with cocoa powder.
In the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. (Lazy person cheat - microwave until liquid) Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, ground almonds, cocoa powder, eggs, chopped walnuts, choppedcherries and vanilla. Pour into prepared cake tin.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Pop a half walnut and half cherry on alternating slices
Slices can also be reheated for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave before serving.
Word to the wise - cut this into slices whilst still hot. It is very dense to cut when cooled - if you do not wish to serve it pre-sliced at the very least score whilst still warm

Cardiac Cookies

Let's get one thing straight first

These are NOT good for your heart. Your soul - maybe

These are incredibly scrummy but as they consist of pretty much sugar, sugar and more sugar in various forms I promise you will suffer the sugar rush from hell if you over-indulge. bouncing off the wall is the least of it (Yes, you know who you are...). However they are popular so I very, very occasionally will bake some and stand back to watch the fireworks. This time they are for a team meeting at the other half's place of work. Me, I think he's a sadist....

You can find many variations on this recipe all round the interweb - here is mine. Handle with care...




INGREDIENTS


1 c. butter

1 c. crunchy peanut butter

1 c. white sugar

1 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup golden syrup (optional)

3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 bags fun size SNICKERS® bars, cut in half

If you are using normal size snickers bars cut into quarters




METHOD

Cream butter, peanut butter, both sugar, egg, vanilla. Add flour and form in small balls. Wrap the dough around the SNICKERS® bar completely covering it and making it somewhat round. Lazy folks can add everything into a food processor and work that button. Warning dough is pretty solid so make take some final hand scrunching (Technical term there) Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees / Gas Mark 4


Makes about 50 - really depends on how many snickers bars you have and how big you want the cookies.

As they will be scaldingly hot with all that sugar Try to let them cool before scarfing as many as you think your body can handle in one sitting.