Cake sale beauties: Nanaimo bars

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to spend a sunny morning with the infectiously energetic sibling team, Callie Maritz and Mari-Louis Guy. They’re the authors of the brand new book, Cakebread, Pudding & Pie, and they’re mad about baking which, in the grand scheme of things, is an excellent thing to be mad about.

They shared this recipe for Nanaimo bars, a cake sale (or bake sale as they would say in Canada) bestseller. Watch the video, try the recipe and discover what a winner it is.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V1CwwxszwE[/youtube]

Ingredients for 12 bars:
125g butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
5 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg, beaten
2 cups biscuit crumbs
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup desiccated coconut

For the custard filling:
65g butter
3 tbsp milk
2 tbsp instant vanilla pudding powder
2 cups icing sugar

For the chocolate topping:
100g semi-sweet chocolate
15g butter
Method:
1. Grease and line a 23cm square pan.
2. In the top of a double boiler, combine the butter, sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla essence. Stir well until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat. Stir a little bit of this into the egg (this will raise the temperature of the egg without scrambling it), then pour this back into the main melted butter mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the biscuit crumbs, walnuts and coconut. Add this mixture to the wet  mixture and blend well. Spread mixture evenly into the prepared pan, packing tightly. Set aside.

For the custard filling:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream the butter, then add the milk and vanilla pudding powder. Blend in the icing sugar. Spread the mixture evenly over the chocolate base and allow to harden for 15 minutes.

For the chocolate topping:
1. In the top of a double boiler, set over moderate heat, melt the chocolate and butter together, or microwave at 10-second intervals, stirring after each interval.
2. Spread this over the custard filling and allow to set before cutting into squares. Keep refrigerated.

Make these and your cake sale stall is sure to be a sell-out. Download print-friendly version of this recipe.

For another winner from Callie and Mari-Louis, try their bangers and onion puff.

A hearty thanks to Cakebread, Pudding & Pie.