Baking for Beginners: Chocolate Fridge Cake

Aside from Lantana Cafe brownies, another cocoa-based obsession of mine are the chocolate fridge cakes in Pret a Manger. The bars are a mixture of chocolate, biscuit, dried fruit and crack (probably). But an addiction to anything from a sandwich chain can get pricey, so I got creative in the kitchen.

Aside from containing everything that's good in the world, the appeal of chocolate fridge cake is that there's no baking involved. Which means that I can't possibly screw it up. And I didn't - they're pretty tasty.

You will need (makes 12 dense squares):

• 200g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
• 100g softened butter
• 250g digestive biscuits
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 3 heaped tbsp mixed dried fruit

Make it!

• Melt the broken chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a saucepan on a low heat.
• Put the digestives into a freezer bag and bash it with a rolling pin. You want to keep it fairly chunky - not total crumbs.
• Put the dried fruit and broken digestives in a mixing bowl and fold in around three-quarters of the melted chocolate mixture. Try not to gobble it right there and then (but you can have a small spoonful).
• Once that's all combined, place the mixture into a greased baking tin. Use a spatula to smoosh the mixture into all the corners - you want it packed in quite tightly so it doesn't fall apart once it's cut into squares.
• Pour the remaining chocolate over the biscuit mixture in the baking tray and pop it in the fridge for at least three hours (but preferably overnight).
• Cut into squares and munch with a glass of cold milk.

Flickr image from dumbledad's photostream