Sunday 7 March 2010

Pimp The Biscuit



Over at The Clayton's Blog, Gail is running a competition to 'Pimp The Biscuit' that is, choose an everyday biscuit/cookie then make a large cake in it's image. I stole Gail's idea of a Jaffa Cake (sorry Gail) For those of you who have never met a Jaffa Cake they are the small biscuits at the front of the picture. The prize for the winner is (Drum Roll)

A Batter Finger.




Now who wouldn't want one of these hilarious items in their kitchen. The competition is open to everyone. So please have some fun and enter. The entries have to be in before the end of March .Gail runs a communal blog and there are some great contributors and lovely recipes. You will find everything you need to know about the competition here.




The humble Jaffa cake has been around for as long as I can remember. The base is spongy and curved so I decided to bake a sponge in a pasta bowl. As there is an orange filling in the biscuit, I used some Jelly marmalade to spread on top of the sponge I then made a chocolate ganache for the topping. It's nice and glossy so looks like the chocolate topping on the biccie. There are little squares marked on the top of a Jaffa cake so I plonked the cooling tray on top of the ganache to make these. To be honest it made such a nice cake I would make it again.

For the sponge I used an all in one mixture using soft brown sugar to give a slightly darker colour to the base

Cake

Grease and line the bottom of a sandwich tin ( or in this case a pasta bowl)
Pre heat your oven to 180.c/160.c fan/ 355.f/Gas 4

100gg/4oz Self raising flour
100g/4oz softened butter or margarine
100g/40z soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon milk


Orange jelly Marmalade for the filling

For the Topping

200 g dark chocolate
120 mls double cream
A knob of butter about 1oz/25g

Just beat the cake ingredients all together until nice and soft. Spread in to the tin/bowl leaving an indentation in the middle. This will keep the surface nice and flat.
Bake for approx 15-20 minutes until the top bounces back to the touch.
Leave to cool completely before removing to a cooling rack or plate.

To make the Ganache topping place the double cream and butter in a small saucepan and break the chocolate into small pieces and place in another pan
Bring the cream just to boiling point and pour over the chocolate.
Beat until the chocolate is well combined and melted.
Leave to cool and thicken then spread on top of the cake.

I think chocolate ganache is one of the nicest cake toppings. Lovely and glossy and oh so rich. The higher the ratio of chocolate to cream the thicker the ganache will be. The usual ratio is 100 g chocolate to 60 of cream. I wanted mine quite thick for this and this ratio was perfect
The butter added gives extra gloss

Thank you Gail for this bit of fun I am keeping my toes crossed for the prize!





19 comments:

Brownieville Girl said...

Great to see you back blogging again Granny:-}

Your Jaffa cakes look fantastic, I'm spending far too much time lurking in the biscuit isle at the moment looking for inspiration!!!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A great giveaway and event!

Those Jaffa cakes look lovely and so delicious! Perfect.

Cheers,

Rosa

Nickki said...

Lovely to see you blogging again Granny, I've missed you! I LOVE your jaffa cake, it looks delicious!

Best of luck with the competion :-)

George@CulinaryTravels said...

OMG Brenda that looks gorgeous. Lovely to have you back blogging!!

Better Late said...

Many people on the Nigella forum recommended this blog and it's great to see it being updated again. I'm here today, at their prompting, to look at your soda bread recipes but will just say that I too have pimped a biscuit which is on Gail's blog !

Rhyleysgranny said...

Brownievillegirl - Thank you. I have been away too long. I look forward to your entry with all that research :)

Rosa- Thank you.

Nikki and George - Thank you. I am glad to be back at it.

Rhyleysgranny said...

Betterlate- -I am now overcome with curiosity as to who you are. I am so glad you dropped in and wish you success with the soad bread. How nice are they on N.com for recommending my Blog? I am glad to be back at my blog. :)

Anonymous said...

Brenda that Jaffa cake looks good, well done and I'll keep my toes crossed for you:)
Sandy
xx

Brownieville Girl said...

Forgot to congratulate you on your nomination for the Irish Blog Awards.

Good Luck!

Natalya said...

Granny, glad to see you back !
What a lovely idea to make a big cake which looks exactly like mini cakes !

Rhyleysgranny said...

Natalya - Thank you.I think it is a grand idea. I think I may try it again with a different biccie. i am glad to be back blogging. I need to catch up on my blogreading/visiting too x

Anna's kitchen table said...

Brenda, well done for such a great contribution! They look amazing!
Its nice to see you blogging again ( lovely to see bloggers coming out of winter hibernation lol)
xxx

Grannymar said...

Glad you are back again. Only yesterday I was eating a jaffa cake and wondered If....? Now you have put the gun to my head!

La Bella Cooks said...

Glad to see you blogging again since you are the blog to stop at for delicious cakes and cookies. I have never heard of a Jaffa cake but I am loving the ganache. I wouldn't be able to resist.

Anonymous said...

I came across your blog several months ago and was so pleased to find recipes my mother from Northern Ireland had made when I was young. Was trying them out with much success, and telling freinds about them, when your blog seem to have ended. So glad you're back again. The recipes you share are great, so please don't stop!

Lucie said...

Brenda, I'm so pleased you're back! Oh how I have missed you, and your posts. Hope all's well. Wonderful 'pimped' biscuit, love it! with love Lucie x

Joie de vivre said...

First of all, the name of this contest is hilarious. Secondly, I'm impressed that you were able to modify the recipe to make it work like a cake. Wonderful!

arista said...

A huge Jaffa Cake - my idea of heaven! Like Brownieville Girl, I'm also lurking in biscuit aisles searching for likely-looking biscuits to pimp!

Aoife mc said...

Oh NO YOU DIDN'T!! A giant Jaffa cake. This is like the cake of my dreams!! I want to go to there.