Chocolate Biscuit Cake a la Prince William's Groom Cake....and it's no bake!!

Here is a picture of the finished cake...if you like fudgey, chocolate, flourless cakes then this is the cake for you but with an added crunch of biscuits/cookies. Prince William choose this as his Groom cake for the recent Royal Wedding and the Queen herself is said to be very fond of it and is quite miffed if any slices are missing so the staff has to keep leftovers under lock and key.

First of all you should either buy the McVities Rich Tea Biscuits the cake calls for although I myself prefer  McVities Digestives  - graham crackers will work also and even better yet shortbread - there's a recipe for Earl Grey shortbread on this blog - you'll have to do a search in the box in the column on your right as I can't do a link to a post within this blog - just leave out the tea in that recipe - I baked the biscuits/cookies myself....here's the recipe for Digestive Biscuits:

Biscuits and a glass of milk anyone?

DIGESTIVE BISCUITS:

6oz/3/4 cup 100% wholemeal flour

1 1/2oz/1/2 cup medium oatmeal (I could only find normal size so I whirled it in the coffee grinder for a little bit...that worked)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3oz/3/4 stick butter

2oz/1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons of milk

1. Mix all dry ingredients together.

2. Rub in the butter...

3. Stir in the milk until the dough comes together.

4. Roll out fairly thin on a lightly floured surface.

5. Cut into 3" rounds

6. Bake at 350F until nicely browned...allow to cool.

I have a terrible tendency to overbake my biscuits/cookies so do err on the side of them being lighter rather than darker - mine were a little too dark and therefore a little too hard.

And now for the cake...so easy!!

1 egg whisked

4oz/1 stick butter salted

1 tablespoon sugar

6oz plain/semi sweet chocolate

1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup if you have it otherwise use honey which I did

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2oz/1/2 cup chopped walnuts

8oz digestive biscuits or rich tea if you are using them.

1. Melt 4oz of the chocolate, butter and whisked egg in the top of a double boiler until hot and well blended.

2. Add crushed biscuits, walnuts, sugar, cocoa powder and honey gently until well blended.

3 Line a 7" cake tin with greaseproof paper on the bottom and sides and pour in the choccy mixture...smooth the top and....should look like that below only smoother.

The 'cake' poured into the pan and sitting atop a copy of a new idea I am working on which will be revealed in the next post.

Allow to cool and set in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Remove from the pan and take off the paper, set on a cooling rack.

Melt the remaining 2oz of chocolate and pour over the cake as below...there's little Eleanor in the background observing the goings on! No chocolate for you...it's bad for doggies!!

I think perhaps I over baked my biscuits, which I have a tendency to do with biscuits, and they were little hard for this cake as it was difficult to cut and doesn't look as professional as some of the other versions of this cake I have seen so maybe you should invest the time in procuring yourself some Rich Tea biscuits to make your cake look like this!!

This is a 'cake' that tastes better the longer you wait before eating it  - the longer you wait the softer the biscuits/cookies get which is nice!

I have to be completely honest I have been looking forward to this cake for ever so long but either because I didn't do a good job on the Digestives OR because I am not that big a fan of chocolate (it's true!!) I just wasn't that thrilled with it...glad it didn't take too much effort. The next recipe coming along is FANTASTIC and I was thrilled with the results so do check back or look in the right hand column of this blog and sign up for the posts by e-mail which means each time I post you will get an e-mail that links right to the blog...no checking back anymore....yea!!!

The rain in Maine....

When the humid shadows hover
Over all the starry spheres,
And the melancholy darkness
Gently weeps in rainy tears,
What a joy to press the pillow
Of a cottage-chamber bed,
And to listen to the patter
Of the soft rain overhead!

Every tinkle on the shingles
Has an echo in the heart;
And a thousand dreamy fancies
Into busy being start,
And a thousand recollections
Weave their bright hues into woof,
As I listen to the patter
Of the rain upon the roof. 

                                        First 2 stanzas of "The Rain Upon the Roof"

by American poet Coates Kinney

FYI "woof" here means weft as in the warp and weft of a fabric

 As I look out the window the world is GREEN, the skies are grey, the rain is falling and the mist is rising. Maine is enveloped in a cloud of dank and drear.....cozy for a few days but please don't let there be a repeat of the summer of 2009 where we had, and I kid you NOT, 7 straight weeks of rain, rain, rain. 

It does look pretty on the lupine leaves but all the plants are bowed low and are patiently waiting for the sun which is not due 'til this coming weekend.