Tweedie Squares Recipe & Video

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My Mom liked to bake, especially bars and squares. This three layer bar, which my Mom called a Tweedie Square, was a favorite in our family. Not sure how this name came about, but maybe it's because of the "tweed" look of the bottom layer. The tweed color comes from folding grated dark chocolate into a white cake batter. Once this layer is baked and cooled it's followed by a layer of rich vanilla buttercream. The Squares are then finished with a delicious coating of dark chocolate.    

Tweedie Squares start with a layer of white butter cake. To achieve that pretty "tweed" look, grated semi sweet chocolate is folded into the batter. The trick to getting a nice 'tweed' look is not to over mix the batter as you want to see flecks of chocolate in the white batter.  

The second layer of these Squares is a rich buttercream made with dried custard powder, which was the invention of an Englishman, named Alfred Bird. He invented this powder because his wife loved homemade custard but was allergic to eggs. Alan Davidson in his "The Oxford Companion to Food" tells us that this powder is not, in fact, a dried form of real custard but is just cornflour (cornstarch) and sugar that has been colored and flavored. When the dried custard powder is used in this buttercream it adds a nice flavor and color. Custard Powder (Bird's Custard Powder is the most popular brand) can be found in some grocery stores, in specialty food stores or online. But if you are unable to find it, just substitute it with an equal amount of instant vanilla pudding or you could leave it out completely and just add a little more powdered sugar.  

The finishing touch to these squares is a coating of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate. I use a good quality chocolate, one that you would enjoy eating out-of-hand. I do like to add a little shortening or butter to the melting chocolate as I find it makes it a little easier to spread.