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Heart of the home: Chocolate peanut butter icebox cake

smashed pretzels on chocolate peanut butter iceberg cake by dissection connection
smashed pretzels on chocolate peanut butter icebox cake by dissection connection
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.

chocolate peanut butter icebox cake by dissection connection

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 by dissection connection
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
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Dissection Collection: reproductive dissection is serious science fun

bovine testicle being dissected

I just wanted to let you know how much serious, Science fun we had last day of term.
We had a teacher who was a vet nurse do the dissection so she knew a lot about it all. We had many guest students, teachers and staff come to observe as everyone was so fascinated.
Definitely a worthwhile science activity!!

– Jo Kerry, Miami SHS

At this time of year it can seem like the entire curriculum is falling down on top of you.  It’s a few weeks until the end of the year, you’ve got content to finish teaching, revision to fit in, exams to write and mark, graduation ceremonies, reporting…. the list is endless and you still have to turn up for rostered playground duty.

It is very easy to decide not to squeeze in an extra activity and nobody would blame you.  But sometimes something special is just what the school needs at this time of year.

We had a couple of very large porcine uterus arrive unexpectedly.  I couldn’t tell if they were pregnant, but they were certainly bigger than anything I had seen before.  One school made the time in their day to include a dissection of the uterus and a bovine penis specimen as well and the response was fantastic.

As word spread about the impending spectacle other classes asked to come.  When the reception staff were forewarned about the delivery they asked if they could watch too.  On the day questions were thrown thick and fast and every single person in the room went away with at least one piece of information about their reproductive system that they didn’t know before.  Can you imagine the conversations at dinner tables all around the coast that night?  “What did you do at school today, son?”…..

 

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 30 Nov 2015

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Gold Coast Mini Conference REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

Science mini conference in cairns featuring Miss Vivi and Rockhoundz

toad euthanasia workshop by Dissection Connection

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.

Click here to register

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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.

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