Rocky Road Cake, By Nadiya ‘GBBO’ Hussain
Copyright: Nadiya’s British Food Adventure, by Nadiya Hussain is out now (Penguin, £20)
Prawn & Orange Curry With Basmati Rice
I love the combination of chewy fruit, sticky marshmallow and crunchy biscuit, all covered in rich chocolate.
Rocky road is one of the first things I ever made in the kitchen with the kids.
I say ‘made’, even though it is more a case of ‘putting together’ as opposed to baking.
But this variation is a rocky road with a soft landing – in cake form.
- Prep 45 minutes, plus cooling
- Cook 1 hour 25 minutes
Ingredients
For the cake
- 225g plain flour, sifted
- 350g caster sugar
- 85g cocoa powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 250ml whole milk, room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 125ml vegetable oil (or any flavourless oil)
- 250ml boiling water
- 2 tablespoons instant coffee
For the rocky road
- 250g dark chocolate, chopped
- 250g milk chocolate, chopped
- 100g unsalted butter
- 200g malted milk biscuits, roughly broken
- 100g marshmallows (if mini, that’s great – if they are big they will need cutting into smaller pieces)
- 200g glacé cherries, halved
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. Grease the base and sides of a 25cm round cake tin. Cut out two rounds of baking paper and use one to line the tin, putting the other one aside for later.
- Put the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and give it all a whisk.
- Put the milk, eggs and oil into a jug and whisk until they are combined. Add to the dry mix and whisk to a smooth batter.
- Using the same jug, measure out the boiling water and the coffee. Mix together and pour into the batter. You won’t actually taste the coffee in the cake, but it enhances the flavour of the chocolate, so you should taste a lot of chocolate. This feels weird, and it seems the two will not mix together. But I promise that they will, so persevere and continue to mix until you get a smooth batter. But be careful – the water will be very hot.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake on the middle shelf for 45–50 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
- Meanwhile prepare the rocky road by putting the two chocolates and the butter into a microwaveable bowl and melting in the microwave until the mixture is smooth. Do this in 30-second and then 10-second bursts, stirring between bursts.
- Now add the biscuits, marshmallows and glacé cherries, and mix well until everything is coated.
- Pour the mixture all over the cooled cake, using the back of a spoon to help spread it out if needed. Now take the extra round of baking paper you cut out earlier, place it on top and press firmly to flatten. Place in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Take the paper off the top and turn out on to a cake stand or serving plate.
- Now take off the other piece of paper and dust the cake with icing sugar before slicing.
Invite a little Nadiya into your kitchen …
Now with her own prime-time BBC2 cookery series, Britain’s favourite Bake Off winner presents her latest cookbook, featuring mouth-wateringly delicious recipes from the programme.
‘The best kind of cookbook … you can read it like a novel’ The Times
Nadiya Hussain was crowned the nation’s winner of 2015’s Great British Bake Off. Famed for her cookery talent and adventurous flavour choices, she sets off on a journey around the country to meet some of the finest growers, producers and pioneers behind the best of modern British food.
Inspired by her exploration, Nadiya has created over 120 easy and enticing new recipes that mix the local ingredients she encounters with her very favourite flavours, not forgetting a nod to her Bangladeshi roots.
Her reinvented classics capture the diversity of twenty-first century Britain – of tastes and culinary influences that shape what we love to cook and eat today.
Lavishly photographed, Nadiya’s must-try recipes have got you covered from breakfast to mid-week meals to something a little bit special, and of course puddings and parties too.
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