Dairy free, egg free Chocolate fudge birthday cake with marshmallow frosting

 Seven months ago if you'd asked me for a dairy free, egg free chocolate cake I'd have looked at you like you were asking for the moon on a stick. And here's todays post - dairy free, egg free chocolate cake. Oh the learning curve we're on. It's a good one too - densely chocolatey, with a fudgey consistency that's not too ooey gooey (technical term), topped with sweet, creamy marshmallow frosting and hundreds and thousands of hundreds and thousands. What more could any husband want.

However, I do feel that this post should come with a caveat. With a letter from my Mum. It's not proper baking. Not the way I do it. Please meet - the boxed cake mix...


Oh Betty Crocker, you don't know how much I wanted this not to work. But it did. And beautifully. And you know what - as much as a year ago, I'd have (silently) judged a blog post purely about cake mix - I get it now. I've always believed in inclusivity - for years my Guides had soya milk in their cakes, bakes and scrambled eggs because we had a girl with lactose intolerance. Similarly we are a completely nut free unit as I have three with nut allergies. I've never made anyone's additional needs the crux of who they are - just ensured they're included in everything by making appropriate adjustments that ensure they don't stand out. And for us these cake mixes do just that.

So, here's my 'recipe' for Chocolate fudge birthday cake with marshmallow frosting 
(serves 16)


1 box Betty Crocker Devil's food cake mix
1 can/ 300ml(ish) Cherry coke

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees
Grease and line 2, 8 inch sandwich tins

Empty the cake mix into a big mixing bowl, and pour in the coke. Using electric beaters or a hand whisk, mix until smooth (three minutes using my electric beaters)
Split the batter between the tins and bake in the preheated oven for 28 minutes

Remove from oven, allow to cool in the tins and then turn out onto a wire rack. These are really light cakes so do be careful or the layers will tear.

Marshmallow frosting

200g marshmallows - check the packet to make sure they're dairy free. Ours were from Sainsburys
3-4 tablespoons of rasperry jam - seived so there's no pips (or use a seedless one)
4 tablespoons of almond milk

Tip all three ingredients in a pan, and pop over a low heat. Stir constantly as the marshmallows melt until you have a smooth mixture.
Remove from heat and allow to cool, stirring occaisionlly.
When cold, spoon about a third in between the cake layers, and pour the rest over the top of the cake - this isn't a frosting you want to be epically tidy - part of the gloriousness is that it's quite casual.
Top with hundreds and thousands of hundreds and thousands.

Enjoy your dairy free, egg free birthday cake.

Up on Friday - an Apple and sweet mixed spice 'Wacky cake' - also dairy free and egg free

Marshmallow magic

 

When I got my Kmix, marshmallows were firmly on my to-make list - and then life kind of took over. One house, wedding and baby later, the Kmix lives on the fridge (don't get me started on the lack of counter space we have in the kitchen) and I buy marshmallows from M&S. Or at least I did. Before Christmas, Sainsburys asked if anyone wanted to have a go at making marshmallows from their new kit. In the madness that is sleep deprivation I volunteered, convinced of my ability to make perfect snowy mounds of confectionery that I could then bestow upon friends and family a la Nigella. Now I don't know if the baby can read my mind, if this was before he began teething or if I just picked a really good week for his naps, but I managed it.

The Sainsbury's kit takes all the fear that I had about marshmallows - mainly centred around sugar temperatures - and sweeps it away, you follow super simple instructions, let the mixer do the hard work, and voila - appropriately seasonal sweeties with an awesome wow factor. I dipped mine in melted dark chocolate and topped them with freeze dried raspberries before giving them as Christmas gifts to the other NCT mummies - and pretty much anyone else that passed our way.

I would definitely make these again, in terms of a wow factor for not much effort, they're a definite winner. The only thing I'd do differently is think about flavourings as the kit is perfectly plain. You could use a skewer to swirl melted chocolate or a lime curd through them, seived raspberries would make them perfectly pink and impart a lovely fresh tang, or you could add some salted caramel, pile them high and serve them as petit fours with some rich, dark coffee after dinner. The options are endless... I'll definitely be making them again, it is coming up to St Dwynwen's day after all...

Fancy s'more cake?

It feels like forever since I actually blogged about cake - which is ridiculous as it's essentially what I set this blog up to do. Mind you, times have changed quite considerably since those days in our old flat and the baby takes up a lot of my cake baking time. Takes it up beautifully however.

Back in July in was M's birthday. Happens every year. Every year something comes up that stops me making him a cake on time. You'd think the same happened this year - Harry was a month old, we were 2 weeks out of NICU, and yet somehow I managed to make his cake. Go me. Also, go sleep deprivation.

Inspired by s'mores, one of our favourite things, this chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting was a quick bake. I actually used (in the name of experimentation) coconut oil in the place of butter as we'd run out. I feel like I should say, in response to all those posts on Pinterest that say 'you can't taste the difference' you can totally taste the coconut. Or at least I can.

S'mores cake

3oz self raising flour
1oz cocoa powder
4oz butter (or coconut oil)
4oz caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting

4oz marshmallows
2tbsp milk
2 egg whites
1oz caster sugar

Beat butter & sugar until light and fluffy
Seive flour and cocoa powder together
Add vanilla extract and eggs slowly to mix. Add a spoonful of flour with each egg
Fold in the rest of the flour/ cocoa
Divide mixture equally between 2 greased and lined 6 inch sandwich tins (I used 8 inch and ended up with a rather flat cake)
Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 - 30 minutes
Cool on a wire rack

Frosting

Melt the marshallows and milk together in a pan over a low heat
Leave to cool
Beat the egg whites and sugar until you get to stiff peaks
Fold the egg whites into the marshmallow and leave to set

Split the frosting between filling the centre of the cake, and using a pallette knife smooth over the sides and top

Decorate the top as you wish - I used sparkly silver stars

Also, isn't my new cake plate beautiful? I'm completely in an Emma Bridgewater phase and this is personalised for our wedding - see

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S'more s'mores? Yes indeed

I was sure when writing this post that I would have talked about s'mores loads on the blog - but in actual fact, the only post where I've labelled them is the one from earlier this week - the no cook version for when a fire isn't practical. 

S'mores for those not in the know (where have you been?) are a wonderful invention - their name a contraction of 'some more' Guides and scouts across the years have made and loved these. Marshmallows, toasted over a fire are squashed between two Graham crackers and squares of chocolate in a wonderful combination of biscuit, chocolate and gooey marshmallow-ness (it's a word). The closest thing in the UK to Graham crackers are digestives. We usually buy basics milk chocolate digestives and skip the square of chocolate. 

They're a fantastic introduction to campfire cooking - they get Guides introduced to being around a fire safely and are a firm favourite of our unit. I can guarantee if we're cooking the girls will beg, plead and insist we finish up with s'mores. And who are we to argue! Brownies or Guides without an outdoor space could do these over a disposable barbecue, or even over tea lights. I use kebab sticks usually and if I'm worried about them burning, soak them beforehand.

A few months back we picked up some waffle ice cream cones in the pound shop. You know how you do - just in case they'll be useful. In fact I think they were intended as witches hats for our cauldron cakes. They were lying around in our den and one evening in a fit of inspiration we took them out to use with our patrol fires.

Ice cream cone s'mores

Waffle ice cream cones (check out the pound shop)
Marshmallows
Chocolate (unsurprisingly we used basics)
Tin foil

You could also add chopped up bananas if you wanted to

Stuff each cone with 2-3 marshmallows and squares of chocolate
Wrap in a double layer of tin foil
Cook in the embers of the fire for 5 minutes or so

Eat, messily. And imagine just how amazing they would be if you had vanilla ice cream. Now there's a pudding for camp! 

No pictures today, not because I forgot the camera or left my phone uncharged, but because they were GONE when I got out after doing some Baden Powell work with our older girls. Gone! Outrageous!

Fancy s'more tiffin?

No really, s'more tiffin.

I love S'mores - I could write an ode to them right now, but will save you from any shocking attempts at poetry and merely say that as far as I am concerned they win.

Sadly however I can't always summon up a fire at the opportune moment when s'mores are in demand. I know - it's very remiss of me. As such I put together a tiffin recipe for those moments when nothing else but the pairing of digestives, chocolate and smooshy marshmallow will do. 

At Easter M and I made Jules' Mini egg tiffin for his parents, and this recipe is based around those quantities. 

S'more tiffin

85g butter

2 tbsp golden syrup

100g milk chocolate, melted in a bain marie or the microwave

170g digestives, crushed - I use a sandwich bag, rolling pin and any lingering agression

230g marshmallows - Either get 50g of mini ones, or chop about 50g up small

Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan and add the digestives and melted chocolate

Pour half of this into a 2lb loaf tin lined with cling film. Press down

Melt 200g or so of marshmallows (I use the same pan because I hate washing up) and pour/ spoon this on top of the first layer of digestives

Pour the other half of the digestive mixture on top

Sprinkle the top with the chopped up marshmallows and gently press them into the top layer - you really don't need too many

Pop in the fridge until it hardens up (overnight is usually plenty of time) 

Those are fairly loose measurements - if you can get 170g bags of marshmallows, buy those - it'll be fine. Don't worry about weighing out the ones to chop up small, just take a couple of handfuls. As always basics chocolate and digestives are perfect. If you have Guides with faith based dietary restrictions or who are veggies you'll probably want veggie marshmallows. I've bought them from eBay in the past, but our local sweetshop now has kosher and vegetarian varieties. 

In terms of doing this in unit cooking - I would make this in fairy cake tins with cake cases for the Guides or Brownies.  When I say I would make it - either group could happily manage this, especially if we used the microwave to melt the chocolate. The smaller size should mean that if we started straightaway they would be take home-able (it's a word) by the end of the meeting.

I'm right up the road - even if it's rocky

I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

Well, the Guides are learning Lean on Me for the forthcoming fundraiser we're running so the lyrics are currently running around my head naturally. One of the perils of being a Guider is that I spend a large proportion of my waking life listening to people chat about random things and simultaneously thinking "Could the girls do something related to/ like/ adapted from this?" Rocky Road came about in one of these ways. Before or after acupuncture each week I bribe or treat myself to a Starbucks coffee and a piece of rocky road. It's half an hour of peace and pleasure after the prior hour of pain (well more discomfort but that doesn't alliterate half so well). I was wondering if this would be something the Guides could make for the cafe, as it seemed to be fairly simple (although did I ever tell you about the disaster with the truffles? No? Let's just not mention it again).

As it was a sweet dish I went straight back to my beloved Nigella, and found a recipe in Nigella Express. For once I made it exactly as stated - I know, I was shocked too!

INGREDIENTS

125g soft butter
300g best-quality dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
3 x 15ml tablespoons golden syrup
200g Rich Tea biscuits
100g mini marshmallows
2 teaspoons icing sugar for dusting

METHOD


1. Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan. Scoop out about 125ml of this melted mixture and put to one side.
2. Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and then bash them with a rolling pin. You are aiming for both crumbs and pieces of biscuits.
3. Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, and then add the marshmallows.
4. Tip into a foil tray (24cm square); flatten as best you can with a spatula. Pour the reserved 125ml of melted chocolate mixture over the marshmallow mixture and smooth the top.
5. Refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight.
6. Cut into 24 fingers and dust with icing sugar by pushing it gently through a tea strainer or small sieve.

I'm going to take them into work tomorrow as a thank you for those who've had to cover my work while I've been off sick. Let's face it, given that much chocolate who could be cross? Fingers crossed that no-one is the answer to that!

Campfire's burning... campfire's burning

Well I'm actually feeling pretty rotten at the moment; a whole host of emotional stuff, pneumonia again, randomly earache, and the n key on my keyboard has decided it needs to be hit with a surprising amount of force to work. As is my wont this has meant little cookery has taken place this week as has little eating. Fortunately tea and biscuits - all hail the chocolate coated, malted milk (and fie upon Sainsburys for not stocking them) - has sustained me until today when I have been able to flop.

However, a couple of weeks ago, we had a district event for the Brownies and Guides; Circus Skills at our Pack Holiday house/ Campsite to celebrate it being open for 75 years. The girls had an amazing day, learning to juggle, walk on stilts, spin plates, ride unicycles, and a whole host of other activities. For the Guides, there was a special 'Backwoods cooking' activity, where they had to lay, light and cook over an open fire. I was quite keen that all of my Guides had a go at this as we're camping at the end of term and as in the most part I have a very young Guide unit so we don't have the opportunity for the elder girls to take the lead on Patrol cooking and the younger ones to learn that way.

We raced down the field in our flowery wellies (yes, me too) to the end by the woods - Pauline (a fantastic Guide Guider) led the activity and at first I was worried, two of my girls M & C were terrified of the matches they needed to use, not even wanting to strike one. Another pair Ma & D were much more ready to get going, but needed help sorting out their punk. Punk is dry leaves and tiny twigs that you use to get a fire started. As always I worked with the girls gently, encouraging them to sort their fuel, and just keep going with the matches. After half an hour, the wind died down and M & C got their fire started, it's amazing when you see something just click with them. And all of a sudden their fear evaporated, they added bigger and bigger sticks, and as is so often the case with Guides, as they realised their achievement, they began to adore this new skill, feeding their fire and toasting marshmallows, popping popcorn and even trying out dampers! The wind was not being kind to Ma & D who had to use some paper to get theirs started as each match blew out. But as Pauline explained to the girls, if you want to eat then sometimes it's good to have a back up plan! Again their fire needed some tlc and we all learnt quickly how to blow gently to reignite it if an overzealous amount of sticks have been chucked on, or if the wind picks up. Ma & D made dampers and toasted marshmallows too, much to their old Brown Owl's delight.


I should explain what dampers are really. In the Australian outback, cattle drivers would carry flour and water, and make a bread dough from that (I use self-raising) which they could cook over a fire on sticks. We wind the dough around our sticks and dip the cooked bread in jam. The girls love it. (I've had to google for a picture, as the smoke covers the dampers and you can see the childrens' faces in mine)

Another camp food I adore, are camp bananas; which forunately for me can be recreated over a BBQ - leaving your banana in it's skin, slice it in half lengthways leaving the very bottom still together. Then slip squares of chocolate inside the banana before wrapping it in foil, and placing either over the BBQ or in the embers of your campfire. As the banana warms through the chocolate melts and the resulting gooey mess is a camp banana. Lush.

I think I've mentioned on here before that I initially began as a Brownie Guider, moving on to Guides as a favour (and naturally, not leaving) It's days like this when I realise why I stay, to see young women achieve so much from something fairly simple that they just don't have the option to learn anywhere else gives me such a sense of achievement, and seeing them learn and grow (I've known some of these since they were 7) is just astounding.

On camp and days like this one I run mainly on coffee and tea, this day was no different. I stank of woodsmoke on the car ride home, and was only too happy to stand under a long hot shower - still smiling as I thought of my girls, certificates in one hand and 'one last' damper in the other and started to get really excited about camp this summer. Fingers crossed for better weather this year!