This no-bake cake is a British favorite. In fact, Queen Elizabeth liked a piece at afternoon tea most days. Prince William chose it for his groom’s cake at his wedding.
It’s amazingly easy to make. The hardest part is waiting for it to chill!
The Brits use digestive biscuits, which are a lightly sweet cookie made to eat with tea. If you can’t find them there are several substitutes you can use.
Belvita, Marie Biscuits, Biscoff, Burton Rich Tea Biscuits and Maria’s Gamesa are a few suggestions. You could even use graham crackers, shortbread or vanilla wafers.
Here are the basics.
If you don’t have a springform pan you can use a round cake pan. I would suggest lining the pan with cling wrap to help remove the cake from the pan.
Start by melting the butter, karo syrup and salt.
Chop chocolate into pieces to enable melting.
Stir into melted butter along with cocoa powder.
Whisk in Nutella.
Break the bicuits up by hand…don’t make them too small.
Stir the broken biscuits into the chocolate. Stir until all the biscuits are well coated.
Spoon into a buttered 8-inch springform pan. (Or a round cake pan lined with cling wrap.)
Press down on mixture with large spoon. Cover with cling wrap and press down on top with hands. You really want to make sure it is packed in there!
Throw it into the refrigerator for 5-6 hours or overnight.
This is what it looks like after removing the sides of the springform pan.
Flip it over onto the serving plate and remove the bottom of the pan.
Make ganache by melting the chocolate, karo and cream until it just comes to a bubble around the edges. Remove from heat and drizzle onto cake. Use a spatula to spread on top and allow to drip down the sides.
The ganache will set in about 30 minutes.
Allow cake to sit out for an hour before cutting to serve.
ENJOY!
Chocolate Biscuit Cake
Equipment
- 8-inch spring form pan
Ingredients
- 2½ sticks butter **1¼ cup
- ⅓ cup light karo syrup
- ¼ tsp salt
- 6 ounces Semi sweet or dark chocolate, roughly chopped **or chocolate chips
- 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ⅓ cup Nutella
- 14 ounces digestive biscuits (British tea cookies) **Can be purchased at Indian food stores. Substitutes: Belvita, Marie biscuits, Biscoff, Burton's rich tea cookies, Maria's gamesa
Ganache
- 4 ounces semi sweet chocolate
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp karo syrup
- chocolate bar for garnish
Instructions
- Butter 8-inch springform pan.
- In saucepan combine butter, karo and salt. Cook over medium heat stirring until just melted.
- Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate, cocoa and vanilla. Stir until chocolate is melted. Whisk in Nutella.
- Break biscuit/cookies into pieces roughly ½-1 inch. Mix into chocolate stirring to coat all the biscuit pieces.
- Pour into buttered springform pan and press down with spoon. Cover with cling wrap and use hands to press firmly into pan. Refrigerate 5-6 hours or overnight.
- Take from refrigerator and remove cling wrap. Release latch on springform pan and remove the sides of the pan. Turn face down on serving dish and remove the bottom of the springform pan.
Ganche
- Make ganache by heating the chocolate, cream and karo syrup in a saucepan over medium-high heat just until bubbles form around the edges.
- Pour ganache over the cake. Use a spatula to smooth around the top allowing it to spill over the edges.
- Use a sharp knife to make chocolate curls to decorate around the top of the cake.
- Allow the ganache to set 30-40 minutes. Remove cake from refrigerator 1 hour before serving. Use a sharp, thin knife to cut into wedges.