"Cookless" Cakes.

I am (if all goes according to plan) arriving in England today. Blogger willing, this weeks short (very) stories will pop up as instructed as if I never left the keyboard.

I know a lot of you have a particular fondness for the small cookbooks put out by community groups or companies promoting their products. This week I will give you a selection of recipes from some Aussie examples.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about the mysterious (outside the US) product called Crisco. Today it is the turn of the mysterious (outside Oz) product called Copha. An equally luxuriantly fatty product made from coconut oil. One hundred percent fat, 98% saturated, and very hydrogenated. We feed it to our children.

Copha exists for one main reason. To make Chocolate Crackles. These are an Australian institution. I do believe it may be against the law to hold a children’s birthday party without them. I am not sure you are allowed in the country if you cant give the Immigration Officer the recipe off the top of your head, on request. To assist you to visit, I therefore give you the recipe. It is from the Copha Cookbook (1950’s?) of course, which includes another 99 recipes just to pad out the book. The recipe is from the section called Dainty Temptations from the Copha “Cookless” Series. It is OK to use cornflakes if you don’t have Rice Bubbles, they don’t revoke your visa or citizenship. Remember to only just melt the Copha, don’t get it hot or you will cook the cereal which (a) breaks the cookless rule and (b) makes them soggy and they are meant to be crackly.

Chocolate Crackles.
5 oz. Rice Bubbles
2 ½ oz. Cocoa (3 tablespoons)
2 ½ oz. fine Coconut (1 cup)
8 oz. Icing Sugar
8 oz. Copha.
Mix dry ingredients, melt Copha and pour over them. Mix thoroughly, spoon into paper cup containers, and allow to set.
The above quantity makes from 2 ½ to 3 dozen.

Quotation for the Day …

Always serve too much hot fudge sauce on hot fudge sundaes. It make people overjoyed, and puts them in your debt. Judith Olney.