Public service announcements don’t need to be sombre and serious. Even the serious stuff needs a little lightening up. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia nails it in this video about the importance of hand washing to the tune of Uptown Funk. Awesome stuff for the lab safety unit at the beginning of the year especially if you combine it with the Glitter Handwashing Experiment and our free downloadable Hand Washing and Glove Removal posters here.
So, channel your inner Bruno Mars, and don’t believe me – Just Wash!
smashed pretzels on chocolate peanut butter icebox cake by dissection connection
A few weeks ago icebox cakes entered my zeitgeist. Suddenly they seemed to be everywhere and my brain was coming up with endless tasty combinations that I could experiment with. Who knows where these things come from, but since I would eat cardboard if it was slathered in whipped cream I ran with it.
First there was the gingernut apple pie icebox cake I made when mum and dad came for Sunday lunch. This was shortly followed by a strawberry shortcake version which was good but a bit less of a success. The entire time, though, I had a chocolate peanut butter creation building itself in my head. I let it brew for a couple of weeks and this weekend I was ready to give it a go. Mr Vivi rates it the best one yet.
Icebox cakes are layers of biscuits and whipped cream interspersed with any kind of flavouring you fancy. Fruit, syrup and jam are all popular options. The assembled cake is left in the fridge overnight to let the biscuits soften to a cake-like consistency. Icebox cakes have a tendency to look like a cowpat on a plate if you don’t decorate them. Some crushed biscuits, a drizzle of syrup or some extra fruit on top will make them look a treat and you’ll be the belle of the ball.
These are the kinds of recipes that are great for this time of year. It’s hot, you’re time poor and you have to show up to the party with something. This is the recipe you can throw together out of anything that takes your fancy in the supermarket. The only downside is that it does need to spend overnight in the fridge before you eat it to let the layers blend and meld.
If you’re feeling up to it you can make your favourite biscuits from scratch, but I’m too busy and lazy for that. So tell me, Vivsters, what is your favourite go to recipe for the summer bring-a-plate party merry-go-round?
Chocolate Peanut Butter Icebox Cake
an original recipe by Miss Vivi
1 pack plain chocolate biscuits
peanut butter
600mL bottle of cream
salted pretzels
1. Glop a couple of spatulas of peanut butter into a bowl. I used about 1/3 of a big jar of smooth peanut butter. Next time I will use crunchy for a bit of added texture.
2. Slop in a dollop of cream from a 600mL bottle. Blend with a hand mixer and keep adding cream until the entire bottle has been blended into the peanut butter. Beat to a stiff whip.
3. Make a layer of biscuits on a plate. I stick them to the plate with a smear of cream to stop them moving around during the next step.
4. Glop some peanut butter cream on the biscuits and smoosh it around until they are all covered with a nice thick layer of cream.
5. Make another layer of biscuits. Cover with cream and keep building up the layers until you have a nice pile of chocolate-peanut butter goodness. Cover the pile with the last of the cream. Try to ignore the cowpat look of the cake.
6. Refrigerate overnight. Decorate with crushed pretzels for some crunch and some saltiness to offset the richness of the cream.
Delicious rating: Lock up your husbands
chocolate peanut butter icebox cake; my Mum’s fridge must have more airflow than mine because this one looks a bit dried out but it was creamy delicousness on the inside
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
Monday 19 October for
Workshops at Varsity College
Welcome to Term 4. It will be over before we know it 🙂
Registration for the workshop day at Varsity College on the Student Free Day is now open. Block out the 19 October on your calendar, check out the program and get registered because places are limited.
Cost includes morning tea, workshop notes and the opportunity to pick our brains at will for an entire day. Usual cost for a single workshop by Dissection Connection or Rockhoundz is $40 per person so this represents excellent value for your professional development dollar.
All lab techs, teachers and sciencey people are welcome to join us. We are hoping to see some Yr 7 teachers among the participants too. These workshops will also be useful to a parent who is home schooling so please share this with your networks so no-one misses out.
Free tickets are available for the 3D Printing sessions with Kellie from Berwicks if you only have time to pop over and see that on the day. Anyone who would like to see the MakerBot in action is welcome to join us.
The program for the day and all the gory details are over on the Eventbrite registration site.
ps. You will be free to bring your own toads to euthanase if you wish. We’ll be in touch with everyone who has signed up for the toad euthanasia session separately with protocols on bringing live toads to the workshop.
