Chocolate-Biscuit No-bake Cake

Sunday afternoon at home, post lunch. I was trying to get my daughter to take her usual afternoon nap. But she wanted to listen to music and watch youtube videos and dance. "I am not sleepy, mummy", followed by a yawn... I was very sure that in half an hour or so she would get so tired trying to ward of sleep, that she would get whiny... That is typical Tania on weekends. You see, she wants every waking moment with mummy and daddy, since she misses us so much while we are at work... So instead of insisting that she sleep, I promised her some kitchen activity. This is one way to keep her off the whiny tantrums that accompany deprived sleep... I decided to make something quick and interesting, where she could help too.


Biscuit cake was one of my very first cakes/no-bake cakes. I used to make it regularly on weekends when I was at school.
The procedure is very simple, powder a packet of marie biscuits and a 1/2 cup of sugar and make a paste of butter-sugar powder with softened butter. Form a square or rectangle on a plate and refrigerate for a few hours to set.

I did not find the above simple recipe when I tried looking it up on the internet a while back. There were many different versions that involved chocolate and condensed milk... I do not remember the source now, but I had just jotted down a modified recipe from the internet, in my book a year back. I was looking through the book and I decided to make it as I had all the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:

Marie/digestive biscuits - 1 - 1 1/2 pack (300 g)

Condensed milk - 1 tin (400 g)

Butter - 1/4 cup (50 g)

Eating Chocolate - 200 g (I used dark chocolate)

Prepare a 8" round baking pan with greased aluminum foil.

First task for my daughter was to unwrap the chocolate and put it in the bowl. I gave her a scoop of chocolate ice cream to keep her interested in the job. These are small incentives we need to give ;)

 

The next task for her, was to break up the biscuit and put them into the bowl. I left some chunks just as my daughter had given me and crushed some into a coarse powder, with my fingertips.

I used McVites biscuits and some leftover eggless chocolate cake.

In a saucepan, on low heat, add the butter, chocolate and condensed milk. Stir together combine into a smooth paste, and when it comes to a boil, turn off the flame immediately. Add the crushed and crumbly biscuits and the chocolate cake to the butter, chocolate and condensed milk mixture.

Pour the mix into the prepared baking pan and allow to cool. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

Invert onto a plate and remove the foil carefully. Slice and serve chilled.

 

Verdict:  Well after the ingredient list there is hardly any doubt about what the cake tastes like. If you like a gooey cake, powder the biscuits well. More lumps yield a firmer cake and more powder yields a gooey cake. This is very heavy on the palette. Once piece of this loaded cake and you will be too full to eat anything else for the next couple of hours.
Tip: One word of caution. The condensed milk quickly heats up and the sugar content can actually form a layer at the bottom of the saucepan. So it is important to have the saucepan on low heat. If you happen to have a layer of black hard carbon in the bottom of the saucepan, then do not fret; just remove the top layer without scraping the bottom into a different bowl and combine the biscuits. Clean the saucepan with water to remove the pasty portion leaving the hard layer. Boil water with a tablespoon of salt in the saucepan, pour the water out, and when the pan is still hot, using a wire scrubber scrub the pan. I had ended up with the black carbon layer at the bottom of the saucepan and I was thinking that I would have to discard the utensil. But my domestic help came up with this idea to clean the saucepan. She scrubbed it clean and it looks as good as new now.