On my mind...friendships, left-overs and 'old' recipes

Last night I needed to make something as a contribution to a Morning Tea that we were having at school for a colleague who had received a 'forced transfer' and the end of the school year 2010. Being so sudden, we'd not been able to organise anything in December last year. Meg had been the Physical Education (P.E.) at the school for many years and her outstanding work with the children, her friendship and her sense of fun were appreciated by those who worked with her. I knew her for a number of years before my posting to Stafford Heights as, she was the PE teacher at the school my older daughter went to, and when I returned to work after my girls had both started school, Meg worked at 2 of my schools. Any way today we wanted to show Meg how important we thought her work has been and how much we valued her friendship. As well as telling her all that, we also got her a Pandora gift card so she can indulge herself in the jewellery she loves!  And just like Allan the year 5 teacher did for me, he also wrote a poem especially for Meg!

Our guest of honour after receiving a large card signed by all the students.

Yes we laughed...and we also cried....

Any way back to the 'plate of food'...Yesterday morning I had one of those 'remembering times past' events. I had been thinking about the number of packages of biscuits I had been given as Christmas gifts and still had in my pantry. I had 'fed' them to guests, I'd taken plates-ful to school on the pupil free days...but I still had lots left. I remembered a recipe that I had gotten from a friend's mother probably in the early 1970s. It was called 'Hiker's cakes' and it was actually a slice which used crushed biscuits. Rather than go through my untidy recipe drawer to find the piece of paper on which Mrs Hardy had written the recipe all those years ago, I thought I'd try my luck by googling 'hiker's cake'. And I found it! (plus a lot of other things which weren't what I wanted lol!) So I made it last night and iced it and cut it into squares this morning.

The biscuits I used

Unfortunately I still have lots of biscuits left, but maybe a cheescake with a crushed biscuits' base?

Here's the recipe for 'Hikers Cake'.
125g butter (about 4 oz)
1 teaspoon cocoa
125g sugar
1 cup mixed fruit
1 pkt glace cherries, red
1 egg, beaten
1 pkt wine biscuits, crushed
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups icing sugar
50g butter
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Place butter, cocoa, sugar and mixed fruit in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a moderate heat
Add the egg whilst whisking and boil for another two minutes
Remove pan from the heat and add biscuits, vanilla and halved cherries
Press mixture into a lamington tin and let cool
Mix together the icing sugar, melted butter and lemon zest, add enough juice to make a smooth icing, spread over the slice then chill  (I used chocolate icing)

(my old recipe used a packet of arrowroot biscuits which weigh 250grams or just over 8 oz. This time I used a mixture of chocolate coated biscuits and store bought shortbread. At first when I added the crumbs to the butter mixture, it was still too runny so I crumbed some more biscuits. The mixture should be quite damp but not ‘wringing wet’.)

Iced and cut into squares ready to go!

Last time I went to buy cocoa, I couldn't get my usual Cadbury Bournville; this one has turned out to be a winner! 

The slice has made it to the table in the school library!