This no-bake chocolate cake is a delightful dessert that brings together the rich taste of chocolate in a moist and soft cake. Its easiness to prepare is as much a treat as its scrumptious taste. Here’s how to make it.
This No Bake Chocolate Cake is also known as a Chocolate Biscuit Cake, a Refrigerator Cake, and a Chocolate Tiffin (‘Tiffin’ being an Anglo-Indian term for lunch or afternoon snack). It is a popular English cake that reminds me of a chocolate bar. I love how it looks with all the pretty flecks of nuts and biscuits encased in dark chocolate. It is so easy to make. Just melt some really good chocolate with butter and golden syrup (or corn syrup, honey, agave or brown rice syrup) and then fold in lots of chopped nuts and crushed Digestive Biscuits (or Graham Crackers). That’s it. Pour into a pan and let it chill, preferably for a day or two, before indulging. The chilling not only makes the cake nice and firm but it gives the flavors time to soften and mingle into one delicious cake that you won’t be able to stop eating.
Whenever you are making a dessert where chocolate is the dominant flavor, it is important to use a good quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate that you enjoy eating out of hand. Some choices you may want to try are Guittard, Lindt, Newman’s Own, Scharffen Berger, Valrhona, and Ghirardelli, to name a few. Besides the chocolate there are also choices of what type of nuts to add to this cake. Almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia, peanuts, pecans and/or walnuts are excellent choices and you can use just one nut or have a variety. The one ingredient that some people may not be unfamiliar with is Digestive Biscuits (McVitie’s Digestive is the most common brand found in North America). This is a British cookie that has a slightly sweet flavor and a wonderfully crisp and sandy texture. You can find them in some grocery stores, specialty food stores, and on line. However, Graham Crackers are a very good substitute as are shortbread cookies, butter cookies, or even ginger cookies. For a little trivia – Alan Davidson tells us in ‘The Oxford Companion to Food’ that the word ‘Digestive’ cannot be used in the States so other names like ‘sweetmeal’ or ‘wholemeal’ are often used for this type of cookie.
Ingredients:
For the Cake:
180g All-Purpose Flour
4 Eggs
40g Cornstarch (Maizena)
250g Sugar
40g Cocoa Powder
5g Baking Soda (or 15g Baking Powder)
10g Chemical Yeast
180ml Hot Water
180ml Seed Oil (Peanut Oil)
Sprinkles or grains for decoration
For the Chocolate Sauce:
100g Cream (Sweet)
125g Whole Milk
60g Sugar
15g Butter
20g Cocoa Powder
For the Topping:
15g Butter
592g Condensed Milk
200g Cream (Sweet)
40g Cocoa Powder
Instructions:
Add eggs, sugar, cocoa powder, hot water, and seed oil into a blender. Blend everything until you get a homogeneous mixture (about 5 minutes).
Pour the mixture into a sufficiently large bowl and sieve in the flour, baking soda, and cornstarch. If you don’t have baking soda, baking powder is also fine. Mix everything with a whisk to incorporate the ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F).
Grease and flour (or brush with oil) a 20x30cm (height about 6cm) baking pan and pour in the mixture.
Spread evenly and bake for 35/40 minutes at 180°C (356°F).
Each oven is different, it may take 30/35 minutes or more. Check the cooking with the classic toothpick test.
For the Topping:
In a pan, pour the condensed milk and cocoa powder. Mix to incorporate, then add the butter and cream. Stir and put on high heat, stirring continuously until it gets a not too dense creaminess.
As soon as it starts to boil, lower the heat and continue stirring for another couple of minutes.
Remove from heat.
For the Chocolate Sauce:
In a small bowl, mix sugar and cocoa powder.
Pour the whole milk into a saucepan and add the previously prepared mixture. Stir and put on medium heat, continue stirring.
As soon as it starts to boil, stir for another minute by lowering the heat and remove from heat. The sauce must not be too dense because it must be absorbed by the dough.
Assembling the Cake:
Leave the cake in the pan, cut it into squares and pour over the chocolate sauce which will penetrate into the cuts and be absorbed.
Help the passage by widening and lifting with a fork (or with the spatula).
It’s time for the topping.
Pour it over the entire surface, starting from the edges and moving towards the center.
Even out with the spatula and then retrace the previous cuts, to let it slide inside as well.
As a final touch, decorate the surface with sprinkles or grains.
Retrace the cuts one more time to let the decoration slide between the pieces and serve your exquisite no-bake chocolate cake!