Cornflake Tart Rock Cakes

No rocks were harmed in the making of these cakes!

Done in 2 hours

Serves 4

Dish by Chris Cahill

Ingredients

Cornflake Topping:

65gGolden Syrup

25gButter

15gDark Brown Sugar

50gCornflakes

Rock Cakes:

225gSelf Raising Flour

75gCaster Sugar

1 TspBaking Powder

125gUnsalted Butter

100gBaked Strawberries

1Egg

1 TbspMilk

2 TspVanilla Essence

100gStrawberry Jam

Extras:

Custard

The last time the humble Rock Cake took center stage was during the Second World War and we salute it for it's service. But we think we can give it the tasty glow up it truly deserves, so were fusing it with another icon - The Cornflake Tart!

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

In a large pan, melt the golden syrup, butter and brown sugar. Once completely melted, remove from the heat and stir in the cornflakes. Stir really well until all the cornflakes are coated

Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the cubed butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then mix in the baked strawberries.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg and milk together with the vanilla extract.

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until the mixture just comes together as a thick, lumpy dough. Add a teaspoon more milk if you need it to make the mixture stick together.

The texture should be a thick, lumpy dough - don’t be tempted to add too much liquid.

Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Leave space between them as they will flatten and spread out to double their size during baking.

Using a spoon, mould a deep crater in the centre of each rock cake and fill with jam. Make sure your craters are nicely deep and big or the jam will overflow EVERYWHERE.

Spoon some cornflake mixture onto each rock cake, covering the jam centre.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown (this is based on 4 large rock cakes, smaller cakes will bake quicker!). Allow to cool for a couple of minutes on the tray before using a flat spatula or fish slice to remove them to a wire rack for cooling.

Finishing off with a large dollop of custard is considered optional, but in reality would be criminal if you didn’t!