Mum's Chocolate Fudge Cake

This time around my Mum was here to help me make one of her favourite recipes, chocolate fudge cake (Mum is staying with me on her very first trip to Melbourne & indeed Australia!).  This was one of my favourites growing up but sadly I've not eaten it in years & I'm not sure I've ever made it myself!  Now that I've made it - I'll definitely be making it again as it's super easy & despite the fact that it has sultanas in it (not a fan of dried fruit!) - it's very tasty indeed.

Apart from melting the butter & sugar over the stove, the fudge itself is then refrigerated & iced with a very simple chocolate icing.  Now, one thing I will say is that this is a New Zealand recipe so for all my fellow Kiwis, you'll have no problem finding a packet of Griffin's Wine biscuits.  However, for the rest of us - I need to explain what Wine biscuits are so you can find alternatives wherever you might be living!

Wine biscuits are a plain, sweet vanilla biscuit.  In Australia - Arnotts Marie biscuits are very similar so I opted for those.  Mum has also suggested using Arrowroot biscuits as an alternative.  I think basically any type of plain vanilla biscuits would do & you'll need a 250g pack. 

On to the recipe...

Ingredients for the fudge

4 ounces of butter

8 ounces of white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup sultanas

1 250g packet of crushed Wine biscuits

2 tablespoons cocoa

 

Ingredients for the chocolate icing

 

2 cups icing sugar

Around 1/4 teaspoon melted butter (or a knob of butter as my Mum would say!)

1 or 2 tablespoons cocoa (depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have!)

Enough hot water to make a spreadable consistency

What to do...

1. Crush your biscuits either by hand (place biscuits in a large clear plastic bag with no holes then bash them with a rolling pin) or in a food processor.  It's up to you how fine to crush the biscuits - my Mum usually blitzes them in a food processor until they resemble fine breadcrumbs but you could always leave a few small bits of biscuit amongst the crumbs to add some crunch to the fudge.
2. Prepare a tin for your fudge by lining it with some baking paper.  To give you a rough idea of the size of tin to use, mine was 28 x 18cm with a depth of 3.5cm.
3. Melt the butter & sugar in a saucepan on the stove until the sugar has dissolved.  Remove from heat.
4. Whisk the egg & add to the butter & sugar mix.  Stir quickly to combine.  Next add in the vanilla essence 
5. Add the crushed biscuits, sultanas & cocoa & mix until well combined.
6. Pour fudge mix into your tin & pack down very tightly with your hands until the fudge base is level.  Set in the fridge for an hour or so.
7. To make the icing, sift the icing sugar & cocoa together.  Add the vanilla essence & melted butter.  Carefully add small amounts of hot water at a time, stirring well between each addition until you have a spreadable consistency.  You don't want the icing too runny or else it will run off the sides of the fudge. 
8. Remove the fudge from the tin & place it on a chopping board.  Remove the baking paper.  Ice the fudge & leave it out at room temperature for the icing to set.  TIP: If your icing starts to thicken up too much & becomes hard to spread, just wet your knife with some hot water first & this will make it easier to spread evenly.

Cut the fudge into pieces & keep it in an airtight container.  YUMO!