Triple Mint Aero Biscuit Rocky Road!

You can never make too much rocky road, it's a fact! and a mantra to live by!

Rocky road will always be one of my fail safe go to recipes - need to whip up something in a jiffy? don't feel like turning on your oven in this amazingly warm weather we're having (jokes!) but if you do live in a warm climate...lucky you! and rocky road will become your new best friend! want to use up random contents of your baking cupboard? want to make something that sends through the post well?

Rocky road fits the bill for all! and one of my very favourite things about making rocky road is how customisable it is! 

There are endless flavour possibilities! Peanut butter lover, then try this.  Crazy for coconut try this, if peppermint is more your thing you'll love this...and I'm always thinking up new possibilities - a nutella & ferrero flavour one is definitely on the cards!! 

So when I was planning to make and post these to cheer up a mint aero loving recipient I decided they had to be mint aero to the max! So not only do they feature chopped up pieces of mint aeros, and mint aero balls, but also chopped up pieces of the little mint aero biscuit bars you get! This was a great addition, because it gives extra crunch alongside the rice krispie pieces! and the oreo pieces were thrown in because we all know oreo makes everything better! 

The one thing I don't like about rocky road is making it when you're on a diet! the little offcuts that come when you are chopping it up into squares are way too tempting! so I ended up trying more of this than I should have! but I'm a sucker for mint chocolate and this was one of my tastiest rocky road creations yet! 

Triple Mint Aero Biscuit Rocky Road:

Makes 16

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

350g milk chocolate 

100g dark chocolate

1 tsp vegetable oil

50g oreo cookies

140g mint aero 

100g mint aero balls

75g mint aero biscuit

130g mini marshmallows

35g cup rice krispies

Line an 8x8" square baking pan with parchment paper.

Break milk and dark chocolate into pieces and put in a large heatproof bowl above a pan of boiling water.  Stir in vegetable oil and mix until melted.

Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

Chop the oreos into quarters, the mint aero into chunks and the mint aero biscuit bars into small pieces (Reserve back a few handfuls of the mix ins to use as toppings)

Stir in the rice krispies   Once completely cool, stir in the oreo cookies, mint aero, mint aero balls mint aero biscuit and mini marshmallows.  Mix well.

Spread into the prepared pan, smoothing out on top.  Add the rest of the toppings.  

Refrigerate for an hour, or overnight.

Eat and enjoy!

Bounty & Coconut Marshmallow Rocky Road

After whipping up the batch of coconut marshmallows, I knew it was only a matter of time before they were going to make their way into some rocky road! and of course because I don't like to do things by halves it had to be truly coco-rific.  I have made a toasted coconut rocky road before with coconut m&m's and coconut biscuits so this one was still as coco-nutty just with a few different coconut mix ins this time! So I added chopped up Bounty bars and Coconut Lindor truffles and a sprinkling of desiccated coconut too.

They were so delicious, I feel like I'm never going to be able to make rocky road again unless it's with homemade marshmallows! They have certainly set the standard high!

 I'm already dreaming up the future homemade marshmallow flavour combos that will be turned into more decadent rocky roads!

Coconut & Bounty Rocky Road:

Makes 12

Cupcake Crazy Gem

450g milk chocolate

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 cup rice krispies

10g desiccated coconut

200g bounty bars

75g coconut lindor truffles

125g coconut marshmallows

50g white chocolate

1/8 tsp vegetable oil

Line an 8x8" square baking pan with parchment paper.

Break milk chocolate into pieces and put in a large heatproof bowl above a pan of boiling water.  Stir in vegetable oil and mix until melted.

Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

Chop the marshmallows into quarters, the lindor truffles in half and the bounty bars into about 10 chunks. (Reserve back a few handfuls of the mix ins to use as toppings)

Stir in the rice krispies and desiccated coconut.  Once completely cool, stir in the marshmallows, bounty and truffles.  Mix well.

Spread into the prepared pan, smoothing out on top.  Add the rest of the toppings.  

Chop the white chocolate and put it in a small microwavable bowl with the vegetable oil.  Microwave in 30 second bursts until melted.  Put into a piping bag and drizzle over the rocky road.

Refrigerate for an hour, or overnight.

Eat and enjoy!

Halloween Peanut Butter Cup Pumpkin Rocky Road!

Rocky Road is one of my favourite things to make! It doesn't require you to turn on your mixer and wake a sleeping baby, or try and track down where the heck your whisk attachment has gone to (seriously whisk...where are you? my guess is lost in the move) and it can certainly be whipped up in one of the baby's shorter naps...and if you're lucky enough to live in a hot country it's good for those days when you can't bear to turn the oven on!  It is also SO versatile! It was one of the very first things I ever baked, using a recipe from one of those little random chocolate recipe books you get as a stocking filler! Go ahead and laugh at my embarrassing blog post back in 2009 where it made its debut. Since then I have jazzed it up using all of my favourite treats - Snickers and Oreo, Reese's peanut butter, crazy amounts of coconut and festive peppermint ones plus seasonal mini egg easter ones too!

So I thought it was about time that my peanut butter rocky road got made over into a Halloween edition! because I found a bag of reese's peanut butter pumpkins in Tesco and I knew I had to use them in my kitchen! Sadly when I opened them up they didn't look like pumpkins at all! just an oval sized peanut butter cup! so I pimped them jack-o-lantern style with a little bit of orange coloured white chocolate, green sanding sugar and chocolate sprinkles and mini chocolate chips!

I'm not exactly an artist, but hopefully there's no denying now that those are pumpkins!

I even added in peanut butter m&m's too to truly amp up the peanut butter goodness involved! and with some chopped peanut butter cups making up the bulk of the add ins you just can't go wrong! Throw some marshmallows, chopped nice and chunky, and rice krispies into the mix and you've got one delicious Halloween treat!

Not a trick in sight!

Peanut Butter Cup Pumpkin Rocky Road:

Serves 9

Adapted from Cupcake Crazy Gem

400g milk chocolate

100g dark chocolate

2 tsp vegetable oil

35g rice krispies

150g marshmallows

75g peanut butter m&m's

240g peanut butter cups (approx. 16)

9 peanut butter pumpkins

60g white chocolate, I used milky bar

1/2 tsp orange food colouring

green sanding sugar

18 chocolate sprinkles

9 mini chocolate chips

Line an 8x8 dish with parchment paper.
Melt your milk and dark chocolate in a large bowl together over a pan of boiling water.  Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the vegetable oil.  Leave to cool.

Chop your marshmallows in half, and your peanut butter cups into quarters.  Measure out your rice krispies and peanut butter m&m's.  Check that your chocolate is completely cool - you should leave it for at least 10 minutes (if it's still warm, when you add in your chocolates they will melt so the cooling process is important!)  Once it's cool, stir in all the mix ins.  Spread evenly into your baking pan.  I like to reserve back a bit of the chocolate in the bottom of the mixing bowl to use right at the end to smooth out the surface of the rocky road.

Melt your white chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave in 20 second bursts - watch it because white chocolate burns easily.  I used milky bar because the lower quality white chocolate melts far easier - don't go buying any fancy stuff for this.  Once melted stir in the orange food colouring.  Put into a piping bag and snip a tiny tip off the end.

Take 9 pumpkins, and pipe a thin edge all the way round with the orange chocolate.  Do zig zag lines in the middle of each pumpkin and at the end go back with your piping bag tip to help smooth out the chocolate until the pumpkin surface is completely covered.  Sprinkle green sanding sugar on the stem, and use 2 chocolate sprinkles for the eyes.  Place a mini chocolate chip for the nose.

Once all your pumpkins are complete, place them on top of the rocky road, pushing down slightly so they set into the chocolate.

Refrigerate for 2 hours until set, or overnight.

Eat and enjoy!

Festive Triple Peppermint Rocky Road

I know, I know, another Rocky Road recipe! but I just can't help myself! plus I made this for our games night the other week, alongside 4 other desserts and so it's always handy to have a no bake treat on hand when there's a lot of baking to be done! 

Of course I went overboard on the peppermint! How could I not when I had all these amazing goodies from the States I wanted to use up! I even had a bag of chocolate peppermint marshmallows too but I drew the line and decided the marshmallows should just be regular to balance out all the minty-ness! 

So I chopped up the white chocolate peppermint m&m's, the mint truffle Hershey's kisses and the candy cane Hershey's kisses, stirred in some rice krispies and mini marshmallows, drowned them all in some rich milk chocolate and refrigerate for an hour to form one tasty festive treat!

Festive Triple Peppermint Rocky Road:

Makes 16

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

450g milk chocolate (for eating, not baking)

1 tsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup candy cane kisses

1/2 cup mint truffle kisses

1/2 cup white chocolate peppermint m&m's

1 cup rice krispies

150g mini marshmallows

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof glass bowl, set above a pan of boiling water.  

Stir in the vegetable oil.

Chop the candy cane kisses, truffle kisses and m&m's in half.

Once the chocolate has cooled, add those into the bowl along with the rice krispies and mini marshmallows.  (I reserved back a handful of each ingredient to press into the surface of the Rocky Road to make it look pretty). 

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin.  If you want, press extra ingredients into the surface of the chocolate.

Put in the fridge for an hour until firm.  

Eat and enjoy!

United Bakes of America Round 6...and Reese's Peanut Butter Rocky Road!

Apparently Vancouver has somehow sucked away all my baking enthusiasm! I think it's because I had to leave my beloved baking cupboard contents back in England (my sister was the grateful recipient of all of that!) and so I no longer have an awesome baking cupboard brimming with ingredients and that makes me sad.  I'm also mourning the loss of my KitchenAid...again that was my sister's gain! and I'm mourning the fact that ingredients are SO expensive here! 

Hopefully though things are about to change around here...because tomorrow we're taking our first trip across the border to that favourite place of mine, the good old United States of America! and I could not be more excited! Firstly, because Canada doesn't get any of the speciality candy/baking ingredients I was expecting them to have and Secondly because KitchenAid hand blenders are waaay cheaper in the States and so I'm hoping one of them will work its way into my possession!  and hopefully a day spent in my favourite place stocking up on goodies will bring back my baking mojo! 

So until then I was way too lazy and sad this month to make anything that required more than a bowl and a fridge, but I did manage to spice up regular Rocky Road with not one peanut butter ingredient but four different peanut butter ingredients! (because we all know I can't do anything by half!)

Introducing...Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Reese's Mini Sticks, Micro Mini Peanut Butter Cups and Reese's Peanut Butter Chips!

I was worried that it could just be a bit of a peanut butter overload! but as we all know North Americans love their peanut butter and I was actually making them for some firemen who we were going to visit with my local church group so I thought if anyone can handle a peanut butter overload it would be some big burly firefighters!

and actually we managed to sample a few at the end of the night and the marshmallows and rice krispies interacted with all that peanut butter-y goodness perfectly!

Reese's Peanut Butter Rocky Road:

Makes 12

Adapted from Cupcake Crazy Gem

450g milk chocolate for eating (so use your favourite brand)

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 cup rice krispies

150g chopped in half marshmallows

125g chopped up Reese's Mini Sticks

125g chopped up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

40g micro mini Peanut Butter Cups

1/2 cup Reese's peanut butter chips

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof glass bowl, set above a pan of boiling water.  

Stir in the vegetable oil.

Chop the marshmallows, Reese's mini sticks and Reese's peanut butter cups into bite size pieces.

Once the chocolate has cooled, add those into the bowl along with the rice krispies and micro mini Peanut Butter Cups.  (I reserved back a handful of each ingredient to press into the surface of the Rocky Road to make it look pretty). 

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin.  If you want press extra ingredients into the surface of the chocolate.

Melt the Reese's peanut butter chips in the microwave, spoon them into a piping bag and drizzle diagonally both ways across the Rocky Road.

Put in the fridge for an hour until firm.  

Eat and enjoy! 

Now it's time for my favourite part, let's see what you have all been baking this month with American inspired ingredients!

Stuart from Cakey Boi kicked us off with this awesome Halloween Bark!  Not only is bark super American but to his melted chocolate he added pretzels, Oreos and Candy Corn! I'm not sure it gets more Yanky than that! I would have loved to have tried some myself, and I was won over by the super cute packaging too which was inspired by another American great - Martha herself!

Next up was Ros from the More than Occasional Baker who continued down the Halloween path with these delicious sounding Pumpkin Choc Chip Bars.  Not only did she use pumpkin puree, but her puree was actually brought over from the States in her suitcase from a previous trip there - dents and all, now that's dedication! She said that her kitchen smelt amazing whilst she baked it too, I'm not surprised - so if anyone wants a little more of that 'fall' feeling in their house maybe they should whip up a batch too! 

Laura of How To Cook Good Food must have been picking up on those same pumpkin themed vibes as Ros and she baked up this Spiced Pumpkin, Rum & Choc Chip Loaf, due to a squash explosion at her allotment! now that sounds like the kind of explosion I'd like to be a part of! 

Breaking away from the pumpkin theme, Kim of Cakes from Kim baked up these beasts using one of my all time favourite flavour combos - chocolate and mint! and not only that but she threw in some super special Mint M&M's (which I also happen to love) to create these Mint Chocolate Whoopie Pies. Speciality M&M's, Marshmallow Fluff, Whoopies - this bake couldn't be more American if it tried! Kim - you're lucky I'm no longer living in North Wales, I'm pretty sure I would have hunted down your house to try some of these! 

Finally, Caroline from Caroline Makes baked up these Nanaimo Bars, which are very dear to my heart right now being a pretty famous Canadian bake!  I have yet to try one here in the city because I'm saving myself for when I get to visit Vancouver Island to check out the town of Nanaimo itself and I plan to do the Nanaimo Bar trail! Until then I am left looking longingly at Caroline's delicious bars! and don't worry my geography skills haven't eluded me...although this is a Canadian treat Caroline made it using graham cracker crumbs which she bought at Wal Mart all the way over in Colorado! Man these jet setting Stateside blogging friends of mine are so lucky!

and not content with just whipping up one American bake, Caroline squeezed in this Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake too just before the deadline...and I decided why not allow multiple entries? As far as I'm concerned the more American inspired goodies the better! I love the swirly patterns and can just imagine how amazing it must have tasted! I have developed a huge love for all things pumpkin since crossing over the pond!

I cannot wait to see what everyone gets around to making next month! and am especially getting excited that we can now start counting down to festive fun and festive bakes!

Until next month, Happy Baking!

Triple Toasted Coconut Rocky Road

Do you ever get baking epiphanies? I do...and they occur at the most random times in the most random places.  Five weeks ago, I was in the queue at Tesco waiting to pay for my groceries when an epiphany struck...a coconut rocky road epiphany! I turned to Byron and exclaimed excitedly 'I'm thinking up the most amazing baked treat' to which he replied 'just don't', and then the conversation halted! In the car on the way home I asked him if he wanted to hear what the amazing baked treat was, to which he replied no! He told me I need to calm down with all the baking due to our waistlines and our Vancouver fund...

Fast forward five weeks and Byron is declaring this the best rocky road I've ever made! and my snickers one takes some beating...so I'm feeling triumphant on this one!

but when you're making something consisting of purely the ingredients above how can it not be?! I started with Lindt Coconut Intense chocolate - it's a dark chocolate with toasted caramelised coconut inside.  I'm happy to use dark chocolate in baked goods but I'm not a fan of the taste of it by itself so I paired it with some Milka so it wasn't too dark and it worked beautifully.  A thick rich chocolate with strands of coconut throughout.  Throw in some toasted coconut marshmallows which my sister kindly gifted to me, and some coconut M&M's which my other sister gifted to me! and some crushed Nice biscuits (because they're coconut flavoured don't you know!) and then finish off with a sprinkled of toasted shredded coconut. 

If you think there it too much coconut going on, think again! 

You need to make this for all your coconut loving friends, you even need to make it for your coconut hating friends because I guarantee no one could turn down this level of deliciousness!

Usually I try to space out my coconut desserts on here because I know some followers aren't fans of it, but I moved this post straight to the front of the blogging queue because it's too amazing not to share!

Triple Toasted Coconut Rocky Road:

Makes 12

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

400g Milka chocolate

100g Lindt Coconut Intense chocolate

2 tsp vegetable oil

130g toasted coconut marshmallows (I used Plush gourmet ones)

75g Nice biscuits

70g coconut M&M's

10g desiccated coconut

For decoration:

15g toasted shredded coconut

20g toasted coconut marshmallows

15g coconut M&M's

Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt both chocolates together in a glass bowl set above a pan of boiling water, and add vegetable oil.

Once it is completely melted, take off heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Chop marshmallows in half, and break the biscuits into 6 small pieces.  Stir the marshmallows, biscuits, M&M's and desiccated coconut into the bowl of chocolate and mix together.

Transfer into the pre prepared baking pan.

 Put shredded coconut on a baking tray and place under the grill for 2-3 minutes until lightly toasted. 

Press the marshmallows and M&M's into the surface of the rocky road and sprinkle the toasted shredded coconut liberally.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Chop into bars and serve.

I have submitted these for the Alphabakes challenge, hosted by The More Than Occasional Baker (who is hosting this month) and Caroline Makes because the theme this month is T.

I'm also linking them up to the zero baking required challenge by Maison Cupcake, if you're not feeling like turning your oven on in this mini heatwave either then no bake desserts are the way forward! 

An Easter Market Cupcake Stall at Bangor Uni & Mini Egg Rocky Roads

So 14 hours of baking, 150 cupcakes later and this is what I had to show for it! This was my cupcake stall at the Easter market my Uni put on.  

The things that couldn't fly off the table quick enough were these assorted boxes of mini's! I'd been saving egg boxes for weeks, along with some very thoughtful friends and sisters who did the same for me! My mom sent me that lovely flowery paper and so I decided to cover each box with it to make it prettier, and in case some people wanted to give the egg boxes as gifts.  That was a time consuming task - who knew that some egg labels are stuck on with such nasty adhesive that takes forever to get off! but I think it was worth it in the end!

People couldn't resist their cuteness and the opportunity to taste every cupcake I was selling without looking like a piggy! I made four varieties of cupcakes, including Cookies and Cream Oreo Cupcakes (I forgot to take a picture of them on the stall but you can see the mini one above)...

I also made Creme Egg Cupcakes...

and Coconut Birdie Nest Cupcakes...

and these Malteser Bunny Cupcakes were definitely the hit of the day and I sold out of these first.

Here's another shot of the mini's all lined up and ready to be bought! 

My mom got me this awesome cake stand from a charity shop! On the second row down you will see some Mini Egg Rocky Roads that I decided to make at midnight the night before the stall! I had finished all the cupcake baking and still had a whole bag of Mini Eggs left and decided I should really whip something up for people who don't like cupcakes (yes, these people really exist - who knows how or why!)

So I'll leave you with the recipe, it's pretty simple and easy to whip together.  They would be fun to make with kids, but make sure they don't get involved with the chopping of the Mini Eggs! I nearly lost two of my thumbs to this process! and that's not even an exaggeration.  I was using a super sharp knife and because they roll around when you try and chop them in half it was a dangerous task! My one thumb still hasn't properly healed and it was 3 weeks ago now that it happened!

Warnings aside, these were absolutely delish and would make the perfect addition to any Easter gathering this weekend!

Mini Egg Rocky Roads:

Makes 12 cupcake sized

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

300g milk chocolate

150g dark chocolate

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 cup Rice Krispies

1 cup Mini Eggs, chopped in halves or quarters

150g mini marshmallows

36 Whole Mini Eggs

Melt both chocolates in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Add the vegetable oil and mix together.

Chop up Mini Eggs, with caution!

Add Mini Eggs, marshmallows and Rice Krispies to the cooled chocolate mixture.  Mix together until combined.

Pour into cupcake cases.  Decorate each one with 3 whole Mini Eggs.  Press them slightly into the chocolate.

Refrigerate overnight or for at least one hour if you need to try them right away!

Happy Halloween! Snickers & Oreo Rocky Road

It's Halloween!! and thank goodness for the blogosphere getting all festive because it certainly doesn't feel like Halloween around these parts! Our Halloween party we were meant to be going to got cancelled, we couldn't go to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkin due to insufficient funds! and although we have our Halloween candy ready I'm betting that we won't get a single trick or treater.  It's definitely at times like these I wish I lived in America - everything is more fun over there! 

but...I did get very excited when I discovered these Halloween Oreos in Tesco (our local supermarket) a few weeks ago.  It is the very first time I have ever seen them in the U.K, we're catching on slowly so it seems.  I'm crossing my fingers that they'll surprise me with Mint Oreos any day too but I'm not sure that will ever happen! I also got excited when I saw these orange Silver Spoon buttons, like candy melts.  So I snapped both of these up in the hopes of making a yummy Halloween treat.

However, despite all this thinking and planning weeks ago...Halloween definitely snuck up on me! and right now I am writing one of my first essays for my course (it is due on Wednesday) so last night I knew whatever I made needed to be quick so I settled on my favourite Snickers Rocky Road recipe.

Of course I decided the usual pink and white marshmallows wouldn't do, and in true Halloween spirit they would have to be orange.  In England you can't buy orange marshmallows so that meant one thing - I would need to whip some up! So you can see this quick treat turned out being rather time consuming in the end....anything to get out of writing an essay! 

I followed Smitten Kitchens rather excellent tutorial about how to make marshmallows and I just threw in some orange food colour right before I poured them in to the pan.

I chopped up my Snickers, got a cup full of rice krispies, 2 mini bags of Oreos and a handful of orange buttons.  I chopped up the marshmallows and then I was ready to start melting some chocolate and mixing the whole lot together.

I melted another handful of the orange buttons and drizzled them over the top before refrigerating for around an hour.

and there you have it, the perfect no bake treat to bring some Halloween spirit to your neighbourhood! Give it a try! If you buy store bought marshmallows this whole treat can be whipped up in less than 10 minutes and then it's just a painful hour in the fridge while you wait for it to set! 

Snickers & Oreo Rocky Road:

Makes 16 bars

50g mini Halloween Oreos

25g orange chocolate buttons

230g Snickers (4 standard size bars)

150g marshmallows

35g Rice Krispies

450g Your preferred choice of eating chocolate (I used Dairy Milk)

2 tsp vegetable oil

For decoration:

60g orange chocolate buttons

Break the Oreos and chocolate buttons in half.  Chop Snickers bars into bite sized pieces.  Chop up marshmallows.  Measure out Rice Krispies and set everything aside.

Melt the eating chocolate and oil together in a glass bowl set above a pan of boiling water.  

Once it is completely melted, set aside to cool for 10 minutes.  Turn flame down to low and heat the pan of water gently.

Add all the other ingredients into the bowl of chocolate and mix together.

Transfer into a pre greased baking pan.

Put the 60g orange chocolate buttons into a bowl and return to the pan of water that should still be being heated, but not boiling.  Melt buttons and transfer to a piping bag.  Drizzle over the Rocky Road,

Refrigerate for one hour or until firm, cut and serve and enjoy.

American chocolate:a disgrace to the world

Today I got attacked by potcakes as I cycled home from work. Potcakes are the name given to mixed breed dogs down here in the Caribbean, they are usually kept outside and are trained up to be watch dogs over peoples homes. However the neighbourhood I work in, the potcakes roam the streets and the Kids that live there have trained them to chase after cars, bikes and people. So tonight a group of kids set their gang of pot cakes on me, they chased me biting at my heels and getting some good scratches in too. I ended up out cycling them in the end, but as I turned the corner two more potcakes emerged from a different house and started sprinting towards me so I stopped where I was, burst into tears and ended up getting my husband to come and pick me up!

So how do you recover from a potcake attack? by making some delicious Snickers Rocky Road! This is one of my favorite treats to make, but unfortunately it wasn't as good as it is when I make it back in the U.K and the reason for that is because of the chocolate I used! The title of this blog post is a direct quote courtesy of my husband...there is no chocolate here that even comes close to the tastiness of chocolate back home, it's definitely one of the things I miss the most! I guess on the upside it's helped me kick my daily chocolate fix, back in the U.K I had to eat chocolate every day but here I don't even get tempted because the chocolate just doesn't taste good! What's strange is even chocolate bars that we have back in the U.K like snickers and twix taste bad here! But luckily it's less than 4 weeks until my sister comes to visit and I know she's going to cram her suitcase with English chocolate for me...hooray! Don't get me wrong...I don't wish to offend any Americans, in fact if you follow my blog then you should know I am America obsessed and just love that country...in my opinion most things are bigger and better in the U.S! Most of my fave desserts and restaurants originate in the U.S but that's what surprises me most about the poor effort for chocolate they put forward! If indeed there are some amazingly delicious chocolates I have missed out on then feel free to tell me about them and I will gladly try and track some down to prove myself wrong!

So back to the rocky road, luckily the white chocolate drizzle on top saved the day because it was a bar I had brought over with me from England.  I melted it down and when I was finished with what I needed I didn't just lick the bowl it was in, I devoured it! Chocolate has never tasted so good!

If you want to make Snickers Rocky Road here is the recipe, it is super simple:

400g Milk chocolate for eating (Dairy Milk if in the U.K is what I usually use)

2 tsp Vegetable Oil

1 cup Rice Krispies

150g Chopped Marshmallows

4 x Snickers (chopped up)

1. Melt the chocolate over the hob or in the microwave

2. Add the vegetable oil

3. Chop up marshmallows and Snickers into bite size pieces

4. Add those and Rice Krispies into the bowl of melted chocolate

5. Pour into dish and refrigerate for 1 hour

6. Cut into pieces...and devour!

If you fancy turning this Rocky Road Delight into cupcakes you can see how I did it here: a chocolate cupcake with a peanut and caramel filling, topped with pink marshmallow frosting and topped off with a mini piece of Snickers Rocky Road (or not so mini in my case!)

Cupcake Club and Snickers Rocky Road Cupcakes!

I was very excited about the upcoming cupcake club! The absence of Iron Cupcake had left a huge cupcake shaped void in my life...and so even though I was away the whole weekend house hunting in Wales I made sure I was going to make it to the first meet up (and hopefully not the last!) so it was a late night baking sesh for me!

My Snickers Rocky Road that I make is just one of my fail safe recipes, it is so amazingly easy to make and produces delicious results every time! so I knew it had to feature somehow! I settled on Snickers cupcake that I was going to fill with caramel and peanuts and then I was going to try a marshmallow frosting for the 'rocky road' part of it.

Here is the baking process.  I made these Devil's Food Cupcakes and adapted them slightly as part of a Snickers recipe.  They called for coffee granules but since I don't partake of any form of caffeine I left this out.  I read after on google that the coffee granules bring out the chocolate flavour so I should have probably added a bit more cooca powder to make up for omitting the granules but they still tasted pretty good to me.  I added a cup of chopped up peanuts mixed with some dulche de leche, and cut a hole in the top of each cupcake and filled them with this caramel mixture.

I then whipped up some marshmallow frosting.  It was my first time making this and I was a bit nervous it wouldn't work out! but it was super easy and it piped on like a dream, it really tasted just like marshmallow!

I then topped them with my Snickers Rocky Road which I had let set in little heart silicone cases to make the heart shape.  I got a bit carried away and these were really bigger than I had intended! I was planning on just cutting a little square out to top it with but they are so delicious that I figured no-one would mind having such a big topper!

So I set off for Cupcake Club and it was a great night of yummy cupcakes and good company.  Here is our little sampler plate we had.  Andrea made peanut butter cupcakes, and I don't usually like peanut butter but these were delicious and even had a reese's peanut butter cup in the bottom! Kelly, who hosted the event, made coconut hi-hats...the combo of coconut and marshmallow is always such a winner in my book and I loved the colour co-ordinating tops.  Mara made lemon and lime cupcakes with a mascarpone frosting which were delish, and a refreshing change from all the chocolate-y ness of the other cupcakes!

Kelly has written a more comprehensive write up here that you can check out.  

One of the best parts of the night was that Lisa from Yummy Boutique came along to answer all our cupcake related questions and tell us all about her business! It was fascinating being able to pick her brains and gave me a much better insight into what the life of a professional baker is actually like...I'm not sure I'm hardcore enough for it! She works right through the night before her Saturday market she does just to get everything baked and fresh! now that is dedication, you must go check out her stall on a Saturday outside Patridge's on the King's Road or order some of her cupcakes because they are delicious! She brought us these amazing fluffernutter cupcakes and the cake was so moist with a really creamy frosting!

Thanks to Kelly for arranging the meet-up, and to all the bakers for bringing such yummy treats!

And now onto the results of my 1st giveaway! Thanks to all those who entered and all my new followers :)

We have a winner!! Katiecakes, is now the owner of the brand new cupcake heaven book! congrats!

But...I was having so much fun with my giveaway I couldn't just stop at one winner! so I decided to have a runner up too...hooray! and they will win this book of yummy treats...

                                   

Congrats to Rhonda of Obsessed with Cupcakes for being runner up!

I'm joining in with these for Cupcake Tuesday, so head on over and see what everyone else has been whipping up this week!