StuartFraser/SweetThings

Regulars at GamesEvening who have pattern recognition skills a step or two above "completely nonfunctional" will probably have noticed by now that I tend to bring some form of sweet biscuits or cake or FlapJacks with me to GamesEvening on Mondays. This is in part because I love GamesEvening and want to contribute to it being awesome, and in part because it provides an elegant solution to the fact that (due to the irritating nature of how surface area to volume ratios scale with length) it's difficult to cook a lot of the things I like in portions suitable for one person to eat over the course of a week or so, and that I don't want to have the same sweet thing in my lunchbox for two weeks in a row. GamesEvening, in fact, is in large part very good at eating just enough of whatever I've cooked to leave enough for me to eat over the course of the week.

It also seems to be popular with the regulars, which is a bonus.

This page exists for two reasons; one, because Rachael asked about the recipe for the chocolate biscuit cake I sometimes make, and two, because I thought it might save me a bit of time wondering what to make on Sundays if I created a spot somewhere where people might make suggestions (the fact that I've never made something before will not stop me making something like it if somebody asks; though I'm unlikely to branch out into sponge cake type things because I tend to find sponges very boring).

So, if anybody wants me to make and bring to GamesEvening any particular sweet thing (whether or not I've made it before), please let me know here.

Secondly, chocolate biscuit cake.

Any Recipe posted by me should come with the caveat that I largely learned to cook from my grandmother and Chevaline and both of those people will tell you that you don't learn to cook by following recipes but by experimenting. So variations from the actual recipes are more the rule than the exception when I'm cooking, as you'll see below. That said, this one's so simple it's pretty hard to vary that much from it:

200g digestive biscuits, crushed (I use a food processor for this; if you don't have one, get a sealable bag and a rolling pin and start crushing, but it takes a lot longer).

: Variants - try whatever you like! I've done it with half ginger nuts and half digestives, when I wanted to use the ginger nuts up...

75g Margarine (I believe I use block Stork, but I probably also use tub Stork when I have more of that left)
20g Drinking Chocolate

: Variants - my grandmother (who I cribbed this recipe off) uses cocoa, I think. The ones I bring to GamesEvening use Cadbury's Highlights (Fudge flavour), and you can vaguely tell it has a fudge taste. People who actually like Mint Chocolate might want to try Mint Highlights in it.

2 tbsp Golden Syrup

: Variants - the last set that came to GamesEvening used (light) condensed milk instead, because I'd made something else with condensed milk and wanted to use it up. The result isn't as sweet as the one with Golden Syrup, but it's still nice

100g Mixed Dried Fruit (optional)

: Other Variants - haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure that if you added the same spice mix as my ginger biscuits (1:1:1 Ginger/Cinnamon?/Mixed? Spice) the result would be pretty good. Also tempted to add lemon or lime juice and see what happens, but that's true about practically all my cooking.

Put the margarine, the drinking chocolate, and the golden syrup (or substitutes) into a pan and heat gently, stirring together until the margarine is melted and the chocolate mix is smooth (this is a particular issue if you are using Highlights, which is really quite bad at actually dissolving/mixing with stuff (including boiling water - I tend to think it requires an electric whisk to actually make the stuff up as hot chocolate, but it tastes lovely and is only 40 calories so I drink it anyway...). Then add the crushed biscuits and the raisins and stir until the biscuits have gone the colour of the chocolate mix.

Transfer to (preferably metal) container - weights above are sized for my 7" square tin, smooth out the top surface (this takes a bit of effort, but after sufficient smoothing the cake surface should become shiny) and put in the fridge to cool.

Eat and marvel at quite how easy something so tasty is.