Cakey-biscuits?

It has been a busy few weeks involving a lot of travel for both work and pleasure, all great, but it was nice to finally find myself at home this weekend. And what a weekend! It finally feels as if Spring has sprung and it was Craft Club, so there was no excuse not to get creative.

My Craft Club contribution was due to be cake although what I ended up making was a bit of a cross between biscuit and cake. The recipe was an adaptation from a Hemsley and Hemsley recipe, adapted out of necessity because of the paucity of stock held by my local supermarket. In spite of that, the results went down well with our mid-afternoon cup of tea so I thought I'd share my version of the recipe with you.

Melt 75g of butter with half a teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda and a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste. Place 175g ready-to-eat, pitted prunes in a food processor and pulse until well chopped. Pour in the melted butter mixture and combine, then add 250g ground almonds and mix until everything is well combined.

Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and form into balls, squashing each to a fat disk about 5-6cm in diameter. Place on a large baking tray lined with baking parchment. You should get about 14 'cakey-biscuits' from your mixture.

Pop them in the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes whilst you pre-heat the oven to 160C or gas mark 3. Cook for 15-18 minutes and allow to cool on the tray.

Meanwhile, melt 30g dark chocolate to drizzle on the top. I found the easiest and least messy way to do this was to place the chocolate pieces into a disposable piping bag - the sort that you snip the end off when you are ready to pipe. Don't snip the end off yet but place it in a mug, twisting the open end of the bag and tucking it through the mug handle. Pour over not-quite-boiling water and leave for the chocolate to melt.

Once your bakes are cool, remove the piping bag from the mug (the chocolate should now be melted), dry the outside of the bag, snip off the tip of the bag and slowly drizzle the chocolate over your bakes.

Once the chocolate has set, make yourself a nice cuppa, sit back and tuck in!

Whilst in the relaxing environment of Craft Club I made a second attempt at a crochet project that had previously defeated me. It's going well so I hope to be able to 'show and tell' next weekend!