refrigerator cake

For the cookery demo, we needed to show people how to prepare some simple vegan recipes that didn't require much cooking, so I opted to make refrigerator cake!

The base of refrigerator cake is usually biscuits, so I wanted to use some generic shop-bought biscuits to show how to make a really simple dessert with easy-to-find ingredients. I decided to make it with Gingernuts as not only are they widely available, but it's almost Christmas and it'd be nice to make something with seasonal flavours. For that reason instead of just adding raisins and hazelnuts in the recipe, like I usually do, I used dried cranberries and pecans instead.

This was one of the first, if not the first, vegan dessert I ever made. It's a modified recipe from a wonderful, but now sadly defunct, cafe in Norwich called the Treehouse.

Ingredients:
450g/1 lb biscuits (I used gingernuts)
200g/ 12oz cranberries
150g raisins
225g/ 8oz pecans (chopped)
150g/ 5oz sunflower margarine
3tbsp golden syrup
3 dsp cocoa powder
Topping: 100g/ 3 ½oz vegan chocolate

1) Boil some water, place the raisins and cranberries in a bowl, then pour over the water until they're immersed. Allow to soak for 15 minutes then drain.

2)Smash up the biscuits til they're just crumbs! You can do this a few ways: put them in a muslin bag, or wrap them inside a clean tea towel, or even use a clean plastic bag ... then smash smash smash with a rolling pin until they're crumbled! Or if for some reason you don't like smashing things, use a food processor.

2) Place biscuit crumbles in a bowl, add raisins/cranberries and chopped nuts, then stir everything together.

2)Melt the margarine and syrup with the cocoa over a low heat, don't allow to boil.

3)Combine the cocoa mixture with the biscuit mixture and press into a greased, ridged baking tray.

4)If you want to add topping, boil a pan of water, place a heat proof bowl above it and put the chocolate in the bowl. Once it's melted, spread over biscuity cake thing.

5)Refrigerate until cool (about an hour) then cut into squares.

- eva