chocolate rice krispie cakes

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old woman, do young people not know how to use vowels anymore?  My 11 year old cousin's facebook wall is a case in point.  'Ys!!1!! Summr hlls r gr8!!!' appeared this morning.  Whilst I admit that there is a 'u' in that sentence (as far as it can be called a sentence), there are at least 7 other vowels that are missing.  It pains me.  On another note, it amuses me that she has obviously been through everything that I have ever 'liked' on facebook and has 'liked' it too.  I hadn't realised she was a fan of Fiona Apple and the films of Christopher Guest.  

Also, what is this obsession with tiny shorts?  It's not exactly been warm here recently and when I saw her on Tuesday, she was wearing the tiniest pair of shorts known to man.  To spend the day at an open air theatre.  I was wearing black tights, a long sleeved t-shirt and a cardigan and I'd spent all day either on public transport or in my non air-conditioned office.  

It was fine when my cousin was younger.  Now that she is approaching her teenage years, it makes me realise how out of touch I am and how much work I have to do if I'm to maintain the illusion of being the cool older cousin.  I should probably just give up right now.  I'm not sure she has recovered from my admission that I don't own any Abercrombie & Fitch clothing.  

When I got back home on Tuesday, I entered one of those irrational spirals of craziness about how aged I was, culminating in me being absolutely certain that my feet were shrinking and that this was the sign of my impending decrepitude.  I asked my boyfriend if he thought my feed had shrunk and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was wondering if it was too late to back out of our plan of moving in together.  He told me to go and eat some cake.  Which I did.  More specifically, I went and ate a chocolate rice krispie cake

I think I was on a bit of a nostalgia kick when I made these.  We used to have two fridges in our kitchen.  One big fridge contained most of our usual food - vegetables, meat, cheese.  Another fridge, tucked away in the corner, was mainly filled with booze and chocolate.  My kind of fridge. My mum worked four days a week but she was normally at home on a Friday or, more accurately, in the supermarket for the weekly shop.  On those days, I would race home from school and head straight to the fridge to inspect the weekend.  If there was a giant slab of chocolate rice krispie cake in the little fridge, I knew she was in a good mood.  

Rice krispie cakes are not particularly hard to make.  Even my ex-flatmate who once served a raw potato salad could make them although as he used golden syrup, marshmallows and white chocolate to bind his rice krisipes together, the end result had to be eaten to be believed.  

In this version, I used proper good quality dark chocolate (75% cocoa) and as little golden syrup as I could get away with.  These treats therefore aren't too sweet and feel a bit more grown up.  I also added some raisins to the mixture to give a bit of a different texture and in the vain attempt to convince myself that these are a healthy snack.  It was also a completely gratuitous excuse to use my excellent new cucpcake cases.  I  have matching bedding.  

Chocolate rice krispie cakes (makes 12)

75g dark chocolate

1-2 tbsp golden syrup

30g rice krispies (or any other cereal)

50g raisins

1.  Melt the chocolate and 1 tbsp of golden syrup together either in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water or in a microwave.

2.  Add the rice krispies and raisins to the chocolate and stir to combine.  If you want these chewy, use some more golden syrup.  

3.  Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and leave to set (at least half an hour).