Rocky Road

This is by far one of the quickest and easiest cakes I've ever made.  The best part about Rocky Road is that it is pretty much entirely up to you what you put in it.  Every recipe is different, but I based this one on the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, although I reduced the quantities a fair bit to keep costs (and my size!) down.

 First of all, I decided what treats I was going to put in my Rocky Road.  Marshmallows and some kind of plain biscuits are somewhat of a necessity; I used around 100g each of mini marshmallows, and Malted Milk biscuits roughly broken up.   To this I added 100g of Maltesers, and 100g of chopped up Milky Ways.  The recipe called for Mars bars but, due to them being on offer (£1 for 4!) in my local Morrisons, there was none left I put these all in a bowl, mixed them up a little, and put them to one side.  Some recipes include cherries, sultanas and other dried fruits.  I'm not overly keen on fruits with chocolate so I left it out.  That's the beauty of Rocky Road, you make the rules!

I then melted 500g of milk chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water.  It's very important to do this slowly and make sure no water gets into the bowl, not even a drop.  Water will cause your lovely melting chocolate to split, go grainy, and basically no use to anyone.  Also make sure your bowl isn't touching the water.  The best thing to do is once the water starts to boil, turn off the heat and, leaving your bowl on top of the pan, carefully stir until all the lumps are gone.  

Now for the fun part.  Pour your delicious melted chocolate into your bowl of marshmallows, biscuits and chocolate treats and mix, mix, mix until everything has a nice generous coating of chocolate.  Then pour this amazing, gooey mixture into a baking tin.  I lined mine with cling film to make the end result easier to remove from the tin.  Spread the mixture evenly in the tin, pushing down with a teaspoon, and ensuring the mixture goes right into the corners. Sprinkle on some chocolate sprinkles if you so wish, then just pop in the fridge and leave to set for a couple of hours.  Once hardened, simply cut into squares and enjoy!