Chocolate fridge cake (aka biscuit cake or rocky road) is one of my favourite treats. Biscuit, dried fruits, nuts and pretty well anything that adds colour or crunch are bound together with lashings of chocolate.

It takes minutes to prepare but make sure you leave enough time for the couple of hours’ refrigeration it needs to set up.  

• Line the base of a 22cm spring form tin with baking parchment.
• Break the white chocolate into pieces and place in a microwaveable bowl. Add the syrup and melt the chocolate gradually in 30 second bursts, stirring gently with a spatula between bursts so it doesn’t burn, until smooth.
• Reserve a tablespoon of the pistachios and a teaspoon of the raspberries for decoration.
• Break the biscuits into a large bowl and mix in the 100g cranberries, apricots, cherries (if using), raspberries and pistachio nuts.
• Pour in the chocolate and mix until the dry mix is completely coated.
• Spoon the mixture into the tin, pushing it right down and smoothing the surface as much as you can. Scatter with the reserved pistachios and dried raspberries .
• Chill for 2 hours. Either serve it whole – it has more impact — and slice it at the table into thin wedges or squares. Give it a little time out of the fridge before eating so it softens a little, and dip your knife in hot water (wipe the knife dry) before slicing. Or you can slice before serving. It will crumble but you’ll be fighting to scoop of those nuggets of deliciousness.
• If you can restrain yourself, it will last for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge.

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Photo: Victoria Prever

First published in the JC July 7 2017