This Week, Roy needed to make a spectacular dessert, but it had to be able to be carried in the car for a couple of hours. Making things even trickier, he only had a very short time the day before to make the dessert, so it had to be quick and simple but look and taste spectacular. His Grandma suggested Roy try making a dessert her mother used to make when she was little, a Chocolate Ripple Cake. Apparently, this is a very old, award winning recipe, though Roys Grandma has made a few alterations. The resulting dessert was perfect - easy, delicious and great looking! So this week Roy Creates An Easy, Spectacular Chocolate Ripple Cake.
Note: Roy made a big cake - you can easily halve this recipe to make dessert for a smaller group.
You Will Need:
- 2 packets of chocolate ripple biscuits
- 600 millilitres of thickened cream
- 2 teaspoons of castor sugar
- 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 'Red' jam. Roy used fruit of the forest, but you could use cherry (thereby making black forest chocolate ripple log) or any other flavour you liked.
- A block of chocolate (you won't need all of it, it is to grate over the top!)
Optional: If you are making this cake for adults, the original recipe Roy was following calls for a little sherry, slowly poured over the cake before you cover it with cream. Roys Grandma thinks 1/4 of a cup would be about right. Otherwise use orange juice, or leave it out altogether.
Method:
- Pour the cream into a large bowl and add the sugar and vanilla essence. Beat the cream (with electric beaters to make it faster) until it is thick. We needed to carry the cake, so Roy whipped the cream until it reached stiff peaks (when he lifted the beaters out, it left little mountains of cream behind)
- Spread a thin layer of cream onto the plate you plan to serve the cake on. You want the layer of cream to help the biscuits stand up.
- Spread a little jam onto a biscuit, then add a little cream. Sandwich the biscuit with another biscuit and repeat.
- When you have a couple of biscuits, sandwiched together with jam and cream, stand them upright in the cream on the plate.
- Continue until you have used all (or as many as you want) of the biscuits. If you are making a double sized cake, spread some cream down the side of the biscuits, so the other row of biscuits has some cream to stick to. Make sure you have about half of the cream left to cover the cake!
- If you are using sherry, pour it slowly over the biscuits, allowing it time to be absorbed before adding more.
- Spread all of the remaining cream over the biscuits, so that they are completely covered.
- Allow the cake to set in the fridge overnight. This also allows the biscuits time to go soggy.
- Use a vegetable peeler to grate some chocolate over the top of the chocolate log.
- Cut on an angle so you can see the layers of biscuits, jam and cream.
- Enjoy