Last weekend we visited Cornwall. Not our standard weekend out of London, after all it is a rather hefty 270 miles away, so not a distance to be taken lightly with the little people in tow.  A family wedding beckoned, and importantly the blue one had had the call up to be a page, his first outing I may add, and a brave call for the bride. As for Cornwall, I haven’t been to that part of the country for a good 8 years so it was bit like visiting some long-lost relation. There were bits I remembered but what I had completely forgotten is how utterly stunning that particular coastline is. The weather was pretty British, slightly unpredictable, Saturday was mixed but Sunday was heaven. In parallel with the weather we were all ‘very British’, pretending it was ‘just fine’, when actually the north wind was ice, not that that stopped the surfers, swimmers or indeed bride from venturing into the sea.

The wedding it self  was enchanting and the ‘page’ was pretty well-behaved, with the exception of being caught on video saying ‘I WANT to go home’, he really excelled himself. Needless to say his angelic behavior did not last the entire duration, crucially he managed to survive the church, latterly he was fished away from the wedding cake bubble gun in hand, and extracted from undoing the guy ropes on the tent. Clearly wearing a kilt was the highlight but the real icing on the cake (dreadful pun) was the chocolate biscuit cake that was cleverly disguised as part of the deceptive looking, traditional ‘fruit’ wedding cake!

What is there not to like about this devilishly easy slab of naughtiness? No cooking needed, a little melting I agree, and as soon as you bite into it, Pandora’s box of childhood nostalgia envelopes you. It is supremely addictive and great picnic fare, even if picnicking is a little ambitious right now. Also it is the obvious ‘delectable delight’ to make with toddlers, a good bit of bashing of biscuits is somewhat more appealing to me than the blue one doing the equivalent to his sister. In an ideal world that can keep the ‘blue one’ occupied for at least 10 minutes, rolling-pin in hand, biscuits cascading around the kitchen. It is also the magic canvas for going ‘off piste’, you can add whatever you want, popping candy, marshmallows, hundreds and thousands, nuts, sultanas, any crazy creation goes, as long as the ‘little people’ feel they have been involved. We kept ours boringly text book, I ended up using some half opened packets of chocolate and throwing in a couple of handfuls of raisins but that was as adventurous as we got, though we did wrap the slabs in brown paper tied with twine, very rustic!

As you can see I have deviated completely from the Cornish wedding, but the point of all of  my chatter is one of the many things I loved about the wedding in question, is that as one left the tent there was a tower of charming little boxes filled with said chocolate biscuit cake and the fruit wedding cake, what a wonderful remedy to ease the slog back to London. The second thing I really loved, is at lunch on the Sunday some genius had revved up the local vintage ice cream van (and man) to serve the most indulgent creamy ices, such attention to detail and so very lovely. Ice cream and chocolate to fuel us home – happy sleepy ‘little people’, relief to Mr.P!

Chocolate Biscuit Cake with White Chocolate Drizzle

400gms plain digestive biscuits

100gms milk chocolate

50gms dark chocolate (75% cocoa solids)

3 -4 tablespoons of golden syrup

2 handfuls of sultanas

75 gms of butter

40gms white chocolate

40gms dark chocolate

1.First bash your biscuits. If you have no toddler to do the bashing for you (rolling pin in large bowl if you do!), a magimix does a fine job. Try to get a combination of fine crumbs and some slightly broken up biscuits to create a little texture.

2. Now melt the butter, chocolate, golden syrup together, either in a microwave or on the hob, till completely melted.

3. Add the melting chocolate ‘goo’ to the biscuits and stir thoroughly together. If you think the mixture is too dry add a little more melted butter and golden syrup.

4. Line a baking try with baking paper and press the biscuit mix into the tray. Leave to set in the fridge.

5. Once the biscuit slab has set melt the white chocolate and dark chocolate and drizzle over the cake letting one set first before drizzling the second.

6. Once the drizzle has set slice the chocolate biscuit cake.