Well the title is a little mis-leading as I was always in the chocolate concrete with pink custard camp, but coming a close second and slightly easier to make is the Cornflake cake, which I promised to share, so here it is.
Best described as being a sweet pastry base topped with jam and cornflakes and it can be eaten as it is or served with a whole lot of custard. Absolute heaven in a bowl! Here is everything you need with regards to Utensils and Ingredients!
Utensils
23inch fluted baking tin - mine is a quiche/flan tin but it does the job
Baking beans if you’re making your own pasty (read below)
A wooden spoon
Parchment paper
Baking Beans
Spatula
Ingredients
Depending on your love for making pastry, you can cheat and just buy a ready made pastry base or the ready rolled shortcrust - I’m not one to reinvent the wheel when it comes to pastry, so the ready rolled will do. However for those of you who are a little less lazy, you will need:
- 180g/6oz Plain White Flour
- 80g/3oz Unsalted Butter
- 30ml Water (Cold)
Then for the filling, which is the best bit and it is of course really simple to do and takes less than 10 minutes!
- 135g/5oz of Golden Syrup
- 65g/2.5oz Butter (unsalted)
- 30g/1.1/4oz Soft Brown Sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 100g/ 3 3/4oz of cornflakes - if you like it crunchier, add a bit more
- 100g/ 3 3/4oz of Strawberry Jam - must be seedless
Now whatever brands you do and don’t choose to use is entirely up to you, but I used the ones you probably are thinking about in your head right now!
Method
I feel like I am back in Hone Economics, I assume that’s still the fancy name for the class that teaches you to make rock cakes, also known as scones (scownes for the rest of you).
If you are making your own pastry. Place the flour and butter in a food processor/bowl and blitz/mix until the mixture becomes like breadcrumbs. Then add water and again blitz/mix it until you can form a soft dough - then let it chill for an hour. If you have the ready rolled stuff, roll it out and add it to your baking tin and leave it to chill in the fridge for up to 30 minutes as this gives you time to put the oven on to pre-heat to 180°C (160°C fan).
When you’re ready to bake, line your pastry with parchment paper and fill it with baking beans and then bake it for 15 minutes. Whilst that is cooking away, you can make the filling.
- Firstly, you need to melt the butter, syrup, sugar and the pinch of salt in a pan, once it is completely melted and looks like caramel, stir in the cornflakes and gently, using your spatula, mix until everything is covered, if you want to add more cornflakes, then do, I always end up adding more because I like crunch.
- Take your pastry out of the oven, check it is slightly golden in colour and allow to rest for a few minutes as you give the cornflake mix a final stir to check you are happy with the consistency.
- Grab the jam and spread it across the pastry base, it is much easier to do if the base is warm. ensure the base is entirely covered with jam
- Get the cornflake mix you have just made and spoon it on top of the jam and spread it out so it is even
Once you have completed those steps, it needs to go into the oven for around 5 minutes. Once those 5 minutes are up, leave it to one side to slightly cool and harden before serving.
Or if you are like me, have a taste test whilst it is still hot!
That is it!