Chocolate fridge cake (Florentine style)
By Sam Stern
Makes 16
Sam says “This could be the richest, easiest chocolate cake ever. You don’t need to cook it. And it tastes a bit like posh Florentines. You can customise it to suit your tastes: vary the type or amount of fruit, nuts, or biscuits. And the mix of milk and dark Divine Chocolate makes for just the right base”.
Ingredients
200g Divine Milk Chocolate (Fairtrade)
100g Divine 70% Dark Chocolate (Fairtrade)
Finely grated rind of half an orange (Fairtrade)
4 tablespoons golden syrup
(Rayners Fairtrade)
175g butter
175g digestive biscuits
125g raisins (Traidcraft Fairtrade)
100g glace cherries, quartered
75g Divine Dark Chocolate apricots, finely chopped
(Fairtrade)
Handful of flaked almonds (Traidcraft Fairtrade)
Method
Put the chocolate (broken up), orange rind, syrup and butter into a bowl. Sit bowl on pan of gently simmering water,
keeping the base of the bowl clear of the water. Melt slowly without stirring.
Crush the biscuits (not too fine) in a freezer bag. Place them in a bowl with the raisins, cherries, apricots and almonds.
Remove the melted chocolate from heat and stir until smooth. Pour into dry mix and stir.
Line an 8” shallow cake tin with clingfilm
(lay two bits across in a cross shape then mould down to fit the base, corners, sides, bringing it up over the rim).
Pour contents in and spread until even.
Refrigerate for 2 hours once cool.
About the Chef
Sam Stern
"Here’s a chocolate you needn’t feel guilty about. Divine Fairtrade chocolate is perfect for cooking and tastes fantastic – Divine cocoa powder adds strength and depth to the mix for a really special chocolate cake. I choose Divine for all my chocolaty recipes and it’s also great because it benefits the Ghanaian farmers who own half the company. Sam x"
A large chunk of Sam’s raison d’être is to encourage young people to get cooking. His previous three cook books – Cooking up a Storm; Real Food, Real Fast; and Get Cooking are pitched at the youth market, and are a fresh, funky and accessible entry for children and teenagers to get creative in the kitchen. His latest book, Sam Stern’s Student Cookbook, is perfect for college starters, gap-year travellers, first-jobbers and anyone cooking on a budget. Sam has won critical acclaim; his books have been translated into 15 languages; and he has advised on school menu design and teenage obesity policy for the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. Sam was nominated for the Best of British awards earlier this year.
Sam Stern Website