I’ve been contemplating on what my first post would be, I had the illusion that it needed to be ‘perfect’. After a somewhat hectic week, I needed a simple and easy dessert recipe to help me whine down and luckily this was it. I guess as with anything, the hardest bit is just starting, taking that first step to get the ball rolling. So here it is, my first step. No more procrastinating and coming up with reasons why not too, time to start asking and being excited about ‘what next?’

I did the hungry meme with my two OC's ^w^ This meme is super cute and I wanted to make my own version c':Thank you to my favourite SweetoTOONs for editing t. 192,182 likes 233 talking about this. Curating food photos that will surely make you hungry!

INGREDIENTS

For the base

• 150g all butter shortbread biscuits
• 30g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tbsp white caster sugar
• 25g neutral popping candy

For the chocolate ganache

• 175g whipping cream (I brought a tub of Bulla’s Thickened Cream and used about 200ml)
• Pinch of salt
• Pulp from 6 passion fruits (I used two of the mini cans of passionfruit pulp – not in syrup)
• 50g fresh custard ( About 1 heap tablespoon)
• 110g dark chocolate (minimum of 60% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
• 50g milk chocolate, broken into pieces

For the flocking

• 500g dark chocolate
• 200g vegetable oil

Hungry Man Band

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4. Place the shortbread biscuits on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown.
2. Place the biscuits in a food processor and add the melted butter and sugar. Blitz until the mixture resembles fine sand in texture.
3. Gently stir in the popping candy. Place the mixture inside a 15cm cake ring placed on a tray lined with baking paper. Flatten using the back of a spoon then put to one side to set.
4. Add the cream, salt and passion fruit to a small saucepan and place over a medium heat until it almost comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes, then stir in the fresh custard.
5. Put the dark and milk chocolate in a bowl. Place over a bain marie (a pan of gently simmering water) and allow to melt completely. Remove from the heat.
6. Strain the infused cream and add to the bowl of melted chocolate a third at a time, making sure to incorporate the cream thoroughly after each addition. Allow the ganache to cool to room temperature.
7. Once the tart base has set, use a pastry brush to spread some of the ganache on top of the base and around the edges then place in the freezer for 5 minutes. This will ensure that the ganache will not seep through.
8. After 5 minutes, pour the remaining ganache into the ring and place the tart in the fridge to set for 2 hours. Place the tart in the freezer at least 4 hours before flocking.
9. After the gateau is fully frozen, sit the gateau on a wide upturning glass or pot. Remove the metal ring by lightly warming with a blow torch. Remove by carefully sliding the ring downwards. Place back in the freezer.
10. For the flocking, break the chocolate into chunks and place in a small bowl. Melt the chocolate by placing the bowl over a bain marie. Leave to cool slightly before stirring in the vegetable oil.
11. Fill the base of a paint gun with the melted chocolate mixture and attach the nozzle. To avoid redecorating the kitchen in chocolate brown, set a large cardboard box on its side to provide a protective roof and walls to work in.
12. Remove the gateau from the freezer and carefully lift it onto a plate. Place the gateau in the cardboard box then spray it with the chocolate, turning carefully as you go. Return it to the freezer until 20 minutes before serving.

MY NOTES:

• The recipe is based on a 15cm cake tin, which I didn’t have so I used a 20cm loose base cake tin instead.
• I used 1 packet of Arnott’s Scotch Finger Biscuits and about 80 grams of melted unsalted butter. I didn’t bother with the whole baking of the biscuits in step 1.
• I couldn’t find neutral popping candy so used a strawberry flavoured one instead (brought it from Big W) which I’m glad I did; strawberry plus scotch fingers and butter = YUM!
• I included the sugar for the base this time, but actually don’t think you need to add it.
• After I made the base in the tin, I sprinkled more popping candy on top just incase = D
• I skipped steps 10 – 12 because I didn’t have a paint gun and wasn’t about to buy one just for this, instead I just dusted the cake with cocoa powder.

MY VERDICT:

This is really simple and easy to make but to be honest I find it way to rich. All the flavours are good together, the passionfruit really helps cut the richness of this dessert but you still wouldn’t want to have a whole slice of this to yourself. The best bit of the dessert for me was the base. The popping candy hit wasn’t as much as I expected (so you may even want to add more then I did) but the flavour of the base was awesome! As I said, strawberry plus scotch finger biscuits and butter = YUM! Would I make this again? probably not for myself. But I am defiantly going to use the base in something else. I’m thinking with white chocolate mousse instead it’ll be like strawberries and cream and hopefully not as rich as the original version.

Hungry Mean