Here at the University of Roehampton we've been celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight – two weeks of events and awareness raising about improving social and environmental standards, particularly in developing nations.

The fairtrade movement aims to help producers achieve better trading conditions and to promote sustainability – just by choosing to purchase products certified as Fairtrade.

Closer to home, throughout our own Fairtrade Fortnight we have so far organized a range of events from fair trade lunches, tea parties, photo competitions, discussions and a fair trade market day all aimed at engaging with our student and staff audiences.

The Hive Café has also been running a special promotion for the entire fortnight with a daily Fairtrade product of the day special. We’ve had discounts on our range of fairtrade products including coffee, tea, cold drinks and chocolates.

We’ll be running another promotion at this week’s market day tomorrow – Cooking Cacao with Celia! Celia will be making raw chocolate fudge brownies using fair trade ingredients and will have samples to give away. Her fudge brownies are so easy you just need to mix all the ingredients together and let it set – super easy, super delicious and it contains wholesome ingredients that are good for you! Yes, a healthy brownie. The market happens every Thursday from 1-2pm outside The Hive Café on the University campus, and all readers of this blog are welcome to visit.

Here is Celia’s Raw Fudge Brownie recipe:

  • 1 cup raw cashew nut butter
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup cacao powder
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, mix nut butter and coconut oil until smooth (works best if ingredients are slightly warm or use a food processor). Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir until smooth and creamy. Transfer the mixture to a baking tray lined with plastic film for easy removal. Place in freezer and let it set for up to an hour before slicing and serving. It’s unlikely, but if you have leftovers, you can store them in the freezer.

Well there you have it, delicious, healthy and ethical fudge brownies.

Joel

Joel Williams is the Grower for the University of Roehampton Students’ Union’s Growhampton project