Chocolate Krackolates

What a name! That's the 60s for you. They're just cornflake cakes. By popular demand, from the Woman's Own Cookery Book, 1968: makes 12 small (kiddie size) or 6 adult size. (I tend to double the quantities).

7 tablespoons corn flakes (that's 34g if you have electronic scales)
1 tablespoon icing sugar or caster sugar
1oz vegetable fat or shortening (I use Pure or Sainsbury's 'Free From' marge to keep them vegan)
1 level tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon golden syrup (heat the spoon to keep it from sticking)
2 tablespoons dessicated coconut or 1 tablespoon grated orange peel

Melt the fat and syrup slowly in a saucepan; do not boil.
Add the cocoa, remove from heat and stir in the sugar.
With a metal spoon, quickly fold in the cornflakes and coconut/orange peel until well-coated.
Spoon onto a greased baking sheet (I use paper cake - not muffin - cases) and cool.

I seem to remember them coming out of the fridge hard, but recently they've been quite squidgey still. Possibly this is because I'm slap-happy with the syrup - they have been tooth-achingly sweet. To counter the sweetness, though, I'm tempted to halve the sugar; I think they need the stickiness of the syrup to bond.

Yummy.

January drinkies - roll call

Waitrose Food Illustrated lied. I may have to take it up with the editor. January 09's Lancashire Cheese Straws were alleged to take 10 minutes' preparation and 10 minutes' cooking. Lie. A single egg yolk was deemed sufficient to bind 200g flour, 100g butter and 100g cheese. Another lie. With the rolling and breaking and moistening and re-rolling, 17 cheese straws somehow took 40 minutes to prepare and almost 15 minutes to cook. I was planning to make a second batch, but I abandoned that idea as the dough crumbled for a second time and all my edges feathered. Still, they looked ok, they tasted reasonable (a bit dry; short, maybe. I don't really know what that means), and they all got eaten. Along with:

Feta filo parcels. Fresh filo better than frozen - frozen a little floury. Easy to make but a bit on the dull side. Currently seeking new filling ideas. Comments, please.

Spanish tortilla. Served in cubes, which surprised the half-Span guest. Thanks, Rebato's. Nod to Marina for the prep tips. (Marina's (Spanish) way? Nothing like the Good Housekeeping way. No turmeric, for starters. Yes, she was as confused by that as I was.).

My staple salsa. Too chunky for crisps; best eaten with a spoon.

My staple guacamole. So long since I catered, I almost forgot how to make it. Fortunately had bought lemons... I belatedly remembered the lime. Not sure I actually tasted the guac. Boo.

Tyrell's ready salted hand-cooked crisps. Never tasted.

Sainsbury's 'mozzarella cheese straws' - mozzarella in their 'Signature' (TM) crumb. Awful. Oozed on heating, tasteless and rubbery mozz.

Sainsbury's 'garlic and cheese bites. Still in the freezer.

Crostini with pesto and roasted tomatoes. Yummy, easy, but the ciabatta not toasted enough.

Chocolate sandwich cake, with raspberry jam. I'm so over the jam filling. Back to buttercream for me.

Chocolate cornflake cakes. From the Woman's Own Cookery Book, 1968. Quadrupled the quantity; made 24 bigguns. Delish. Steve asked how old I am, 12? Killjoy. (He's from Manchester. Says it all.)

Dates stuffed with marzipan (resembling hot dogs) like my mum used to. They look so anachronistic, I was quite embarrassed. But people liked them, clearly didn't remember them from the 70s and it meant Flesh had a little more to eat than the plain ciabatta that was otherwise the only thing I had bothered to concoct for a vegan.

Not a bad spread, I think, but the table was in the corner, and people sat rather than milled, so it was hard to nibble without someone constantly offering plates around. Always happy to fulfil a stereotype, our American friend, S, ignored everyone else's reserve and the lack of plates and napkins and asked for a napkin so she could carry more back to her place on the sofa.

I stupidly didn't buy any soft drinks, but had invited a clutch of drivers and a room full of parents of under-ones, so I forced booze onto most of them, or they made do with water.

Next time, I will ditch the ready mades, find more stuff I can make the day before (5 hours in the morning was not long enough), remembere the soft drinks and I might try these cheese straws instead.

'Coals to Newcastle' or 'Crocker to Conneticut'

So the great BC backlog continues. Though not for much longer. The cupboard is almost bare:


<Sniff>

As documented earlier, my brother came over from the US in November. In his honour, and partly in recognition of the fact I swiped all the Crocker with no mention to mother or brother, I whipped up the Yellow Cake.

(Yes, Crocker-naive British readers, it really is called Yellow Cake. It's not Victoria Sponge. Its a sweet sponge-type cake which is yellow. There is also White Cake.... Which is also not Victoria Sponge. And Angel Cake, which is probably similar to White Cake, and similar - but different - to the Angel Cake we used to get just occasionally from M&S back when it was still called Marks and Spencer).

The best way with Yellow Cake is always Brown Frosting. (Oh go on then, 'Chocolate' Frosting. But a pitiful 8.5% cocoa powder. I just checked). Oh, gosh, it really is yummy. Anyway, my tins are too small (established previously with the carrot cake) so I made some cupcakes too, and when Flesh and Papanomicron turned up for supper I foisted one upon Pap and presented the whole cake as dessert. Which was lush.

"I don't really like chocolate"

I started this post 10 days ago with a title and a blank page. Really, I was too gobsmacked to come up with a comment. I still am, I suppose, it's just that I want the quote plopped down in the blogosphere for posterity.

Flesh's friend F, who has just recently had a little baby boy, needed to conquer some fears and so came to mine for lunch. [Fears were of driving alone, the North Circular, just generally going out with a tiny yet utterly dependent companion, alone. Not lunch. Or my house.]

It was a pretty rubbish lunch, since the fridge was bare and the baby slept so well all morning I didn't have chance to go to the shop. True, I often consider nipping to the shop while she's asleep in the cot, and I regularly debate with myself whether or not I could ask littlest B next door to stop with her for 15 minutes, but as always, I did neither. I did, however, fret - though I consoled myself that lunch might be crap, but at least there was cake - then turned to Waitrose for inspiration.

Waitrose.com has a super recipe database, with a reasonable search engine. Terry had suggested soup, we had some tomatoes in the fridge, I found a Tuscan Tomato and Bean Soup recipe, so I made that. With no celery, and a couple of leftovers in the fridge to chuck in (I substituted half an aubergine! Ha!), it wasn't a faithful attempt, but the liquid/solid ratio was about right, so I was disappointed (truthfully? A bit embarrassed) that it turned out like weird stew. Walthamstow Tomato and Bean Stew, perhaps.

Still, F (who is pretty slight) powered through it, and surprised me (she's very polite/proper) by accepting seconds. I (not very polite/trouble being proper) articulated my surprise and the poor thing said she's suddenly, after 4 weeks of breastfeeding, discovered a huge appetite. She was so preoccupied with over-running house renovation at the end of her pregnancy that she lost weight, and has been preoccupied with his weight since he was born, and suddenly her body's shouted at her to wake up and damn well feed it. So she is. So I was v v pleased I had cake in. And extra specially pleased I could offer Pilsbury brownies at that.

And then she said it: "I don't really like chocolate". I nearly fell off my chair.

She got a piece of old parkin and a 2 day old jam tart.