Chocolate Mint Squares

When I tasted the butter cream for these, I honestly thought 'Mrs JoyOfBaking.com, what on earth were you thinking?'

The recipe calls for two tablespoons of custard powder to be added to the buttercream - I'm guessing as a stabiliser.  I was convinced it wouldn't work as I've previously experimented with putting uncooked custard  powder into buttercream frosting for my Trifle and Rhubarb & Custard cupcakes but it just gives a nasty cornflour after-feel (not taste) to the mixture.

From full to empty in thirty seconds

Previously, I've only tested the custard on small bowlfuls of buttercream but as Mrs JoyOfBaking.com has a fantastic reputation, I just sheepily followed the recipe to the letter, trusting her judgement.

And do you know, it actually works once it's sandwiched between the chocolate base and top.  Maybe it's because you're so busy noticing the lovely chocolatey-ness of the rest of the cake that you don't pay too much attention to the buttercream.  Or maybe the gravelly texture of the base helps to scrape the cornflour-fur off of your tongue?  Who knows.  And those musings make these little squares sound less than savoury.

But the tin was cleared faster than I could shout 'I have homemade cakes here' so they must be good!

One word of warning - don't add the egg to the hot chocolate mixture when you have a toddler and two dogs underfoot.  Chocolate scrambled egg is...well...erm....an interesting tasting experience.  Thankfully, once it was added to the biscuits and nuts, you couldn't tell that it was a lumpy mess just a few minutes earlier.

The recipe does say that it's no cook which isn't strictly true - it's not baked, but I'd say that avoiding chocolate scrambled eggs does involve some vague degree of cooking.  But I'll let you off this once Mrs JoyOfBaking.com as it's yet another lovely recipe.

Recipe can be found here.  Enjoy.