Dobbies Garden Centre, Ayr

Stopped at Dobbies Garden Centre on the way to the Country Living Christmas Fair recently and felt I had to sample their Rocky Road. The cafe was very busy as they had a two for one deal on the cooked breakfasts. Ignoring the lure of a bacon roll we looked at the cakes. There is the most amazing cake selection, we had to stop ourselves pressing our noses up against the glass like excited children. For research purposes I had to go for the Rocky Road but, decisions, decisions, there were two a white chocolate and milk chocolate. We went for the white chocolate and I have a great picture but at the moment it's refusing to transfer onto the blog! Argh technology! 
We expected the white chocolate Rocky Road to be eye wateringly sweet but surprisingly it wasn't. It was good but like many Rocky Roads there was the promise of cherries but it turned out just to be a bit of a tease. The content was ok but not outstanding and I was left wishing that I'd had something else - maybe the milk chocolate one! 
(For meringue fans, the one at Dobbies is fantastic, rather overwhelming but amazing. Had it before, I wish to add, didn't have it on top of the Rocky Road!) 

Nona Lous, The Old School, Dumfries

No Rocky Road to review I'm afraid but I was assured that it is frequently available amongst their cakes and traybakes. I'm hoping to go back and sample it soon. I need to go back to Dumfries soon to do some research, so that's a good excuse. 
My daughter and I did sample the soup, which was great, and the salad, which was excellent. We also tried the cakes which were also of an equally high standard. The two young women who have opened this cafe are doing an excellent job. The decoration is wonderful and a treat for anyone interested in that Cath Kidston cottage style. They use old china crockery and are keen to receive donations if anyone is thinking of throwing any out - in good condition only I would guess, not anything chipped. They told me that the bake things fresh every day. Their only difficulty that I can see is that the building, The Old School, is not easy to find. I think people in and around Dumfries probably know where to find this new centre that houses an art room, drama studio and hairdressers along with the tea room. But casual visitors are not going to chance upon it. I lived in Dumfries for seven years so have some understanding of the little warren of roads where The Old School can be found, and the one way system that sweeps you passed it. It is well worth working out how to get there though if you're going to Dumfries. There's a treat in store. 

The Alexandra Coffee Shop, George Street, Stranraer

This is a very small cafe almost opposite the Museum in Stranraer (which is well worth a visit). The cafe was warm, welcoming and delightfully bright and sunny when we visited. The Rocky Road looked good, marshmallows, cherries, chocolate with white chocolate drizzled across the top and a fluttering of almonds. And it didn't taste bad either. But, and sorry but there is a but, I'm just not a fan of this style of Rocky Road even though it is a pretty common recipe. It's the kind of Rocky Road that has a crumbly bottom (not good for anyone!) made from crushed biscuits with, I suspect, some cornflakes or something in there. This gives it a good crunch but when it's combined with a hard chocolate topping it makes for an eating disaster. This combination of really solid top and crumbly bottom means that most of the base just disintegrates when you bite it and scatters across the table. You lose a good 10 per cent of the traybake in crumbs and it also makes you look like a really messy eater. There's also something about this hard chocolate top, is it a mixture of real and fake chocolate? It does something weird to marshmallows, it takes away that delightful softness and replaces it with something chewy. I have to say the coffee was good and the rest of the extensive cake and traybake selection looked great. The Rocky Road was fine, but it will not make my top ten for 2012. 

Madigan's Food Emporium

There was still a whiff of fresh paint at Madigan's Food Emporium - it's that new. This cafe and delicatessen has taken over from the Burgh Coffeehouse in Castle Street, Dundee. It was so fresh and new that the food for the delicatessen section hadn't arrived! We were not able to sample any Rocky Road sadly but I was assured that they do often have it on offer, so there's an excuse to go back. We did have some really nice food, ciabatta's with lovely fillings and my son had the special of the day which was crab - his favourite. We felt it was important to try the cake selection to see what kind of standard they're achieving and we were impressed. I had a Mars Bar chocolate bun which was very chocolatey, my daughter had an excellent Millionaire's Shortbread and my son said the Toffee Cake was very good. One of the main attractions is the fact that their tea and coffee come from the very wonderful Braithwaites which is further up Castle Street. If you're ever in Dundee you must call in.  This unassuming traditional shop looks like it belongs to another century but it contains a treasure store of fabulous teas and coffees.  

Nardini's, Byres Road, Glasgow

In the summer I'd had a disappointing experience at the new Nardini cafe which I mentioned in a previous posting. It had been busy and disorganised and when the assistant had finally got round to serving she'd served the next person in the queue and not me, so I'd flounced off and taken my custom elsewhere (you're spoilt for choice on the Byres Road). 
However, on Saturday night - when I had to spend three hours waiting for my daughter who had gone to see Benjamin Francis Leftwich at the Oran Mor which I had been assured I'd be able to buy a ticket on the door to but discovered it had sold out, am I digressing? - I was very glad to see it's bright lights shining in the dark of the Byres Road. It has a lovely shiny Italian style interior and was doing a great trade in ice creams even at nine o'clock at night. As I looked like Jilly no mates on my own, I took a quiet table where I could read my newspaper rather than looking like some sad middle aged woman looking for company - which I most definitely was not. Ok I'm middle aged but not sad or looking for company. Am I digressing again? 

The rocky road. It was fantastic and has gone straight up to being one of my favourites so far - along with Reading Lasses in Wigtown and The Cream Puff in Denholm near Hawick. Not only was it a very generous piece but it had big chunks of biscuit, great chocolate content, marshmallows, cherries AND pistachio nuts. Of course I had it with a great cappuccino which only added to the whole experience. I was a big fan of Nardini's years ago after visiting the magnificent cafe in Largs so I'm delighted that they seem to be back on track now. 

 Doesn't that Rocky Road look amazing? 

Biggars, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow

I came across this great little cafe earlier this year when my daughter went to see a play at the King's Theatre which is nearby. Lovely selection of cakes, teas and coffees in a relaxed atmosphere. I was on my own this time and I was quite happy to sit in one of their bucket chairs and read the paper. For research purposes I decided to try the rocky road. 

The rocky road was good. It was made with the crushed biscuit method, so a layer of biscuit and chocolate as a base with a top layer of chocolate with small marshmallows. No fruit or nuts just the occasional large marshmallow. Good chocolate taste though. Think I'll go for cake next time though. 

Nuts!

At each meeting of knitting group someone brings along the refreshments (cake). This time Lorraine brought my two favourites - Lemon Drizzle Cake and Rocky Road. Bliss! You may wonder how I find the time to go to knitting club but when there's free cake I'll find time to go anywhere! I'm hoping to get Lorraine's recipe as it was quite different to previous samples of Rocky Road. It was nutty! It had chocolate - obviously - chopped nuts, marshmallows and some dried fruit. Interesting. Anyone come across a nutty Rocky Road before? Feel free to leave a comment or any pointers to places that have great Rocky Road. 

Rocky Road Spotted!

Lovely Blog reader Hazel tried Rocky Road - purely for research purposes. I look forward to hearing what it was like. Looks good! 

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/173662/Rocky-road-bars

Tried this recipe today!

The Coffee Booth, Cambridge Street, Glasgow

A friend and I were in Glasgow to see The Mousetrap at the Theatre Royal but we needed refreshments before the matinee. We parked in the multi storey in Cambridge Street where you are spoilt for choice when it comes to restaurants and cafes. As we didn't have a lot of time we plumped for The Coffee Booth. It proved to be a good choice, quick friendly service and plenty of free tables which was a surprise as the food was very reasonably priced, cheaper in fact than most of the cafes in our local town. 
Happily for this blog they had Rocky Road which we sampled, for research purposes only. This Rocky Road had the crushed biscuit combined with chocolate base topped with marshmallows and more chocolate. We felt the topping was a little miserly and there was no sign of any cherries but it did taste good, it was chocolate rather than chocolate substitutes that you sometimes find. 
So, little disappointing though we also tried the muffins which we can thoroughly recommend. 

Harbour Lights, St Cuthbert's Street, Kirkcudbright

Lovely cafe, prompt friendly service, good and interesting menu but sadly no Rocky Road. 

Newton Stewart, Chatterbox and The Belted Galloway

Warning - no Rocky Road again!
Newton Stewart has a number of cafes, many are very close to each other and you would think, because of this close proximity, that they would try to make themselves very different from each other. That does not seem to be the case though to be fair I haven't tried them all. So for research purposes I decided to treat my husband to a cuppa and some Rocky Road. We tried Cinnamon but it was 4.25pm and we were told the kitchen closed at 4.30pm so we ended up next door at The Chatterbox. No Rocky Road but my husband tried the apple pie which turned out to be a more elaborate apple cake style thing and he said it was very good. 

Today I tried the Belted Galloway with a friend. I was told that they do usually have Rocky Road but not today. So, I'll have to go back another time. We had scones instead which were very good. 

In conclusion, no Rocky Road as yet in Newton Stewart. But I'll keep looking!

My first Rocky Road Recipe

Decided to make some Rocky Road this weekend. I normally throw things together but I actually took note (well, my daughter took note) of what I put in in case it was any good. The family ate it all so I'm assuming it was good. Here it is.

Rocky Road #1

12 oz milk and dark chocolate
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 tablespoon double cream
8oz ginger nuts
1 oz butter 
4 oz marshmallows (I had large and small)
4 oz cherries 

Melt the chocolate - we do it in a bowl over a pan of hot water, but use your usual method, I know some people use a microwave. Add the syrups, cream and butter. Melt together then add the biscuits, broken into small pieces, and the marshmallows and cherries. Place in a baking tin (I lined mine with baking parchment/greaseproof paper) and allow to cool. Once it's cool you can put it in the fridge. Cut into pieces when cold. 

This is a straightforward recipe. My son and daughter were in the kitchen at the time so wouldn't let me put in any extras like stem ginger or nuts. If you try it let me know what you think. If you've got recipes feel free to share them here. Let's celebrate Rocky Road!

Marks and Spencers and John Paul Jones Bakery, Kirkcudbright

These Rocky Road bars were sadly lacking in similar ways. The Marks and Spencers bar, available from most food stores, had good marshmallow, biscuit and cherry (yipee) content but fell short on the chocolate. My family helped with the tasting, very kind of them, and they all complained that there was too much cocoa as opposed to chocolate. They didn't like the flaky consistency of the bar and felt it needed to be firmer. There was a powdery mouth feel!

The traybake from the John Paul Jones Bakery was a disappointment. This bakery is one of my favourites and when I'm working at the bookshop in the town (Solway Books), I always go home laden with loaves, pies and cakes. They are one of the few bakeries in Dumfries and Galloway to still make eccles cakes, and they're fab. They have a wonderful range of traybakes and I could recommend most of them but sadly the Rocky Road lacked chocolate content. The composition of the bar was good, nice crispy biscuit and small marshmallows, but the chocolate tasted like chocolate flavour rather than the real stuff. 

Have to confess that I had a ginger tiffin traybake at Reading Lasses this week and because of their use of Montezuma chocolate, their traybakes really are outstanding. 

Nardini's, Byres Road, Glasgow

You cannot imagine how excited I was to see that Nardini's have opened a cafe on the Byres Road. I was a huge fan of Nardini's at Largs before they closed down and was delighted to hear that the company had been resurrected a few years ago. As I haven't yet made it to the refurbished cafe in Largs, I was thrilled to see that they had opened a place in Glasgow. It was to be our last stop before heading home as we were parked nearby. The Rocky Road looked fantastic. It looked as if it was going to tick all the boxes in terms of marshmallow, biscuit chunks and most importantly - cherry pieces. But.. I never got to taste it. Nardini's need to get their act together. We arrived at a particularly busy period. There were seats but a long queue had formed at the counter. We eventually realised that we were in the takeaway queue so we moved to a sign further along the counter that said order here if you're eating in. So I stood. A member of staff smiled several times but was obviously harrassed and didn't plan to take my order any time soon. A man, who seemed to be in charge and was equally flustered, discovered that the next person in the takeaway queue had made the same mistake as me but took his order and eventhough it was just for coffee and cake, told him it would be ten minutes. He then served the next person leaving me standing at the correct area like a large lemon. So, I gave up. I didn't really want to sit around for, perhaps, 15 minutes waiting for a coffee and traybake. So, here's hoping that they improve their service by the next time I visit, because the Rocky Road looked great. I had lemon cake, no Rocky Road sadly, next door at Three Steps to Heaven instead.

CafePop, Great Western Road, Glasgow

Came across this little cafe by way of facebook and as I was going to Glasgow I thought I'd give it a try. There are so many cafes in the Great Western Road, Byres Road area that anyone trying to run an eaterie here really has their work cut out. My daughter's pretty fussy about where we eat but really liked the art work and design of this cafe. The food was great. The service was friendly and quick. We were given tasters of the soup which proved to be very good. I really liked the fact that the owner brought a dish of salsa with my pitta sandwich because he thought it would go really well with it. My sandwich contained falafel, red onion and some hummus (again at the owners suggestion.) My only regret is that we didn't have tea and cake here too. I'd seen there was a new Nardini's cafe on Byres Road and wanted to try this later in the afternoon. To be honest we were pretty full. So, Rocky Road lovers, I don't know if CafePop does Rocky Road but I can recommend the rest of the menu.

The House for the Art Lover, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow

I have wanted to visit this wonderful example of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh for years. As it's a good two hour journey from Galloway to Glasgow I was ready for a coffee and, if possible, a slice of Rocky Road at the cafe before I went into the house. The cafe is lovely, proper table cloths and a sophisticated feel. A restaurant rather than a cafe really. The staff were happy for us to order a coffee even though it was almost lunchtime. Sadly they did not have any Rocky Road but they did have Chocolate Brownie, which was good. The coffee was ok but quite expensive for a relatively small cup.
The house itself did not disappoint, well worth the visit. It is simply beautiful.

Hula Juice Bar, West Bow, Grassmarket, Edinburgh

Warm day at the Edinburgh festival and my daughter and I were glad for a seat in the shade outside the excellent Hula Juice bar. Daughter ordered a whirling dervish juice with added immune booster, which she said was great and I had a green tea. I was going to sample the Rocky Road but I have to say that it looked identical to the piece I'd had at Biggar earlier in the day so I changed my mind. Made me wonder if they were bought in from a local wholesale bakery. As we were enjoying our drinks we were able to enjoy the passing parade that is the Fringe which included a young man dressed as the devil who serenaded us with his singing and ukelele playing. He sang, "I can't set the world on fire" ! 

Aroma, Biggar

Friendly cafe on the main road going through Biggar. There was a lovely looking chocolate cake in the display cabinet but for research purposes I ordered the Rocky Road. Wish I'd tried the chocolate cake. Perhaps it was just because the previous Rocky Road was so good (it was the Reading Lasses one with the montezuma's chocolate) but it was a little disappointing. It did have large marshmallows, so thumbs up for that, and I had seen a little bit of cherry on the slice but sadly that little hint was all there was, on that piece anyway. There were no chunks of biscuit and the chocolate was a little too sweet for me. I realise that saying the chocolate in a rocky road is a bit too sweet is like finding the water in a swimming pool is a bit too wet. But there you go, it was milk chocolate and didn't compare well with the bitter richness of the Reading Lasses version. Also, finding that there was no more cherry than the tiny sliver so my expectations hit the floor. I would recommend the cafe though, the coffee was good. 

Reading Lasses, Wigtown

Reading Lasses is a wonderful bookshop and cafe in Scotland's National Booktown, Wigtown. The cafe has expanded in the last year and there is now seating throughout most of the bookshop. The menu has maintained it's high standard and there are also bistro nights held mainly at weekends but every night during the annual Book Festival in the autumn. 
   I have to be honest, here, and own up to the fact that this is one of my favourite tearooms in the area. They have a great array of cakes including gluten free. I usually have the ginger tiffin but, for research purposes only you understand, I ordered the Rocky Road yesterday. It did have unusually large pieces of biscuit, digestive I think, and small marshmallows. It was good but not outstanding in terms of content, the rest was a bit of a mush, but what saves this Rocky Road from the ordinary is the fact that Reading Lasses use Montezuma's chocolate. This is high quality, fairly traded cocoa rich chocolate and they make the most ordinary traybake into something to be slowly savoured. 
So top marks for the chocolate but once again, there were no cherries. Sorry, but I do like cherries in Rocky Road. 

London

Visited London for the first time in years and sadly didn't come across any Rocky Road at any of the cafes and eating places I visited. Had a very interesting (and tasty) eastern European savoury pancake stylee thing with goats cheese inside it at a tiny little place on Craven Terrace in Bayswater, around the corner from the hotel I stayed at. Also had a lovely almond croissant with my coffee but this did not help with my ongoing nationwide survey on rocky road. 

Polda Dot Vintage Tea Rooms, Castle Street, Dumfries.

Tried this relatively new cafe in Dumfries about a month ago. Sadly I was in a real rush as just as I arrived my son texted to ask if I could collect him from the bus. But there was no Rocky Road on offer anyway. Not sure if it's usually amongst their traybake offerings but it certainly wasn't to be found that day. I did have the lemon meringue tart which I can thoroughly recommend. The cafe's decor was lovely and their use of vintage china, but found the leather chairs a little incongruous. The shop upstairs looked very interesting but sadly had no time to explore. 

Ebbs Carr Cafe, St Abbs.

This little cafe sits right down at the harbour in St Abbs, a lovely village on the east coast of Scotland just north of Berwick upon Tweed. It's a great destination for bird watchers and divers.
The cafe serves a great Cullen Skink soup and fresh crab sandwiches. In the interests of the nationwide survey of Rocky Road I sampled their version of the popular traybake. This particular sample was the kind that has a base and then a separately applied topping. Good chocolate in the base but not sure what else was in there it was all pretty much mushed together. No cherries sadly. The top consisted of large marshmallows. So top marks for general taste and for marshmallow but the lack of cherries or any chunks of anything else means that I can only give it a 6/10.

Warning for anyone visiting. Seagulls. Seriously. The waitress warned me to keep a close watch on my Rock Road or the seagulls would steal it - we were sitting outside I hasten to add. I thought she was joking but two particularly menacing gulls never took their eyes off our food and one managed to twice steal the butter from my husband's plate. We found it quite funny but small children, or anyone with a phobia of birds would find it pretty alarming. My advice would be to sit inside the cafe because it would be a shame to miss the excellent Cullen Skink and Crab sandwiches.

Rocky Road Traybake

Rocky Road, is there a definitive recipe? I think not. There are such variations in this traybake and, of course, in the end it's down to personal taste what you put in. I've decided to blog about my findings. Some may say this is just a poor excuse to eat more Rocky Road and, well, they could  be right. Who cares.


Cream Puff Cafe, Denholm, 


So, for my initial post I would like to introduce you to the Rocky Road I sampled at the Cream Puff cafe at Denholm near Hawick in the Scottish Borders. I was on my way home from a few days away with my husband and as usual I was on the look out for somewhere to have a coffee and a cake. Luckily this little cafe is right next to the main road through this picturesque village so it caught my eye. The cafe itself is quite delightful, full of all the lovely shabby chic, Cath Kidston style that may be all over the place in the Home Counties of England but is far from common in the Borders. My husband had lovely sweet potato and red pepper soup and a ham sandwich made with some fabulous bread but we're not really interested in that.
Let's get to the point. I had a piece of Rocky Road and it was very good. Made with good chocolate it had a generous cherry content which goes down well with me. It also had a crunchiness to it and suspect there were cornflakes in it. Not sure about that in a Rocky Road but it did taste good. Only criticism was that it was a little light on marshmallows. However I would give it 7/10.