Photo courtesy of Hello! Magazine.
For a long time, I’ve thought that one of the most endearing things about Queen Elizabeth is that her favourite cake is a simple no-bake chocolate biscuit cake. It’s always refreshing to find out that someone with access to personal chefs and the finest ingredients from around the world loves a simple recipe that we can all easily make at home.
I don't know about you, but I don't trust myself to bake without wearing an apron (especially with Etta around!) so will be wearing my Queen's Platinum Jubilee apron to do all of my Jubilee baking.
INGREDIENTS
Cake:
- 225g/8oz Rich Tea biscuits
- 115g/4oz softened unsalted butter
- 115g/4oz golden caster sugar
- 115g/4oz dark chocolate, 53% minimum cocoa solids, chopped
- 2 tablespoon warm water
Ganache:
- 125g/4.5oz dark chocolate, 53% minimum cocoa solids, chopped
- 125g/4.5oz whipping cream
- Butter and line a 15cm (6") loose bottom cake tin and set to one side. A loose bottom tin is essential for easy retrieval, or you’ll make a bit of a mess!
- Break the Rich Tea biscuits into small pieces, about 1 to 2 cm in size. Try not to break them up any smaller than this, as crumbs will just get lost in the cake.
- Soften your butter to room temperature and then cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Soften your butter in the microwave if you need to, but make sure it doesn’t melt!
- Melt your chocolate using a bain marie (in a bowl over a pan of boiling water), or in the microwave if you prefer. I personally like to use a bain marie because your chocolate is less likely to burn.
- Once the chocolate has melted, pour it over the butter and sugar mixture, and mix thoroughly.
- Next, add the water, the chocolate mixture, and the broken biscuits and then mix them well, being careful not to break up your biscuit into smaller pieces. All of your biscuits need to be covered and coated in the chocolate mixture.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and press down gently to create an even texture and surface. Place the cake into the fridge and allow it to chill for 30 minutes.
- While your cake is cooling, make the chocolate ganache. Break up your chocolate into a bowl and set it to the side, before pouring your cream into a pan and bringing to a simmer.
- Pour the warm cream over the chocolate and mix well, stirring constantly until the chocolate has melted and you have a glossy and shiny ganache. If needed, place the ganache over another bain marie to encourage the final chunks of chocolate to melt.
- Leave the ganache to cool for about 10-20 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. This when I like to tidy up a bit.
- Remove the cake from the fridge and turn it out, placing it in a wire rack with a tray underneath. Once the ganache has cooled, spoon over the cake making sure it is all coated, including the sides of the cake. You can add extra decoration now, such as more crushed biscuits or chocolate curls. Allow to set before placing it on a serving platter.
- Enjoy with a cuppa!
2 comments
I am puzzled on reading the recipe for this cake, as it seems to be a ‘no bake’ recipe. Is this correct? There is no mention of timing, or oven temperature, though after the mixture is put in the fridge for 30 minutes, the recipe tells us that the ganache goes on when the cake is cooled??? More explanation please?
Would love to see recipe translated out of metric for us American fans! Was it?