My excellent birthday lunch
The lovely montjoye put on a birthday lunch for me on Good Friday at her house. There was the two of us, drwacky, mishymoocow, her hubby, quatrefoil, sjkasabi and HLG, bar_barra and tyggerjai. So a select group.
There was lots of great food contributed by various guests, with montjoye providing most of it. I was given some rather lovely presents, and enjoyed the company and conversation much. I was perhaps a little subdued, because I was in the process of coming down with something.
montjoye had emailed around the menu beforehand, and I noticed there was no cake. So I decided to produce one of my favourite cakes and the only one I make because it involves no baking; a chocolate ripple cake. (The Brits apparently call it a fridge cake; what an unappetising name.)
It was a long time since I had made one, so I consulted various recipes on the internet and came up with my own version, which involved 500ml marscapone, 400ml of creme fraiche whipped together with 2 shots of Kahlua. (Creme de menthe would provide a mint effect, Cointreau an orange one.) You put down a base, take the first chocolate ripple biscuit, put the whipped "cream" on it, hold it in place, add second biscuit with "cream" on it and continue. I ended up with two lines of biscuits before covering the lot in the remaining "cream". Then you cover lightly with tin foil, leave in fridge for 8 hours. If you cut diagonally when serving, you get a better effect.
The chocolate ripple cake was quite popular.
So, I had a lovely time and am extremely grateful to montjoye for hosting the event and putting so much work into it.
There was lots of great food contributed by various guests, with montjoye providing most of it. I was given some rather lovely presents, and enjoyed the company and conversation much. I was perhaps a little subdued, because I was in the process of coming down with something.
montjoye had emailed around the menu beforehand, and I noticed there was no cake. So I decided to produce one of my favourite cakes and the only one I make because it involves no baking; a chocolate ripple cake. (The Brits apparently call it a fridge cake; what an unappetising name.)
It was a long time since I had made one, so I consulted various recipes on the internet and came up with my own version, which involved 500ml marscapone, 400ml of creme fraiche whipped together with 2 shots of Kahlua. (Creme de menthe would provide a mint effect, Cointreau an orange one.) You put down a base, take the first chocolate ripple biscuit, put the whipped "cream" on it, hold it in place, add second biscuit with "cream" on it and continue. I ended up with two lines of biscuits before covering the lot in the remaining "cream". Then you cover lightly with tin foil, leave in fridge for 8 hours. If you cut diagonally when serving, you get a better effect.
The chocolate ripple cake was quite popular.
So, I had a lovely time and am extremely grateful to montjoye for hosting the event and putting so much work into it.