Biscuit cake (no bake chocolate biscuit cake)

Biscuit cake is an awesome & delicious no bake dessert made with biscuits, milk, sugar, cocoa & chocolate. Chocolate biscuit cake is a classic dessert made in many countries & is served as a tea time cake. This post shares the recipe details to make one of the best biscuit cake, the simplest way with almost pantry staples except for the chocolate.

Chocolate biscuit cake is very popular as a royal dessert and is said to have been a favorite of Queen Elizabeth II & Prince William. Australia’s Hedgehog slice and Malaysian batik cake are also similar & are well known.

If you love snacking on cakes & cookies then you need to try this. It is so good, delicious & easy to make. It is eggless & needs no oven!

Last year during the summer holidays I made this biscuit cake a few times for my kids & loved the way it turned out. This week I got to make it again on demand so thought of sharing it here.

You can make it for a potluck, tea party or kids party & amaze your guests.

This biscuit cake can be served plain or with ice cream or tea.

How is biscuit cake made?

The recipe shared here is not a traditional or an authentic one. It is my own version I make for my kids. I try to keep the recipe as healthy as possible. So I have not used ingredients like condensed milk or margarine.

But you can use them if you prefer. I have also shared many tips & substitutes. The entire recipe is divided into 3 easy steps.

1. Make the chocolate syrup.
2. Mix it with broken biscuits and press in a cake mould.
3. Melt the chocolate and frost it.

What you need for biscuit cake?

Biscuits: Any kind of tea biscuits that are thick will go well to make this biscuit cake. I have used digestive biscuits this time. But you can also use any other lightly sweetened biscuits of your choice.

If you use salted biscuits, then your cake will have the taste of salt in it.

Cocoa powder: A good quality cocoa powder is needed to make a good chocolate syrup.

Milk: I use full fat milk to make the syrup. You may substitute it with water and add 2 tsp butter.

Sugar: You can substitute sugar with jaggery, palm jaggery or coconut jaggery. I have made this syrup a lot of times with these unrefined sweeteners. The flavor & taste will be the same.

Vanilla: I use vanilla extract, you can also replace it with essence or vanilla bean powder.

Chocolate: Any good quality chocolate is needed for the frosting. I used chocolate chips, you can use any kind of sweetened chocolate. You can also use little white chocolate for decorating.

Size of cake pan

Since this is a no bake cake recipe feel free to use any pan you have. But a 6 or 7 inch cake pans will be better.

This recipe can be easily halved and still be made in a smaller pan or tray.

Pan type

You can use any kind of cake pan to make this biscuit cake. But spring foam pans or cake pans with removable bottom are more convenient to handle the cake.

I used a 6 inch steel cake pan with removable bottom. If you do not have one then, just line your cake tray with foil or parchment paper. You can easily lift up the biscuit cake holding the paper once it is set.

Making chocolate syrup

1. Mix together 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, ½ cup organic sugar, 1 cup milk & 2 tbsps unsalted butter. You can skip butter but it adds flavor.

2. Whisk until the cocoa dissolves well and turns to a smooth liquid. It should not have any lumps.

3. Begin to boil on a medium heat stirring often until the mixture thickens slightly. You can also add butter if using.

4. Turn off when it turns thick. Check by dipping a spoon. The chocolate syrup has to coat the back of a spoon. This is the right consistency. It will thicken further upon cooling. Set this aside to cool down slightly.

How to make biscuit cake

5. Meanwhile break 250 grams thin digestive or any tea biscuits to half by 1 inch sizes. Too large chunks will remain dry in the cake. This will make the cake crumbly and dry. Chop ¼ cup chopped nuts and add. You can also skip them. I went ahead using almonds. You may also pulse them in a grinder and add.

6. Pour the syrup in 2 batches mixing well. Avoid pouring all of the syrup at one time as it makes some pieces soggy while the others will not have enough syrup.

7. The biscuit pieces must be well coated with the chocolate syrup.

8. Transfer this to the pan and press down with the base of a cup. Some pieces of biscuits will break, it is just normal. Then level it with a spatula.

9. Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. You can also leave it longer.

Prepare frosting

10. Since I did not have chocolate in hand, I went ahead using semi sweet mini chocolate chips. Add ½ cup chocolate chips or 100 grams chopped chocolate and 3 tablespoons milk to a bowl. Melt it and mix well until smooth.

You can microwave it for a min, stirring every 30 seconds until it turns smooth. I followed double boiler method and placed this bowl over a pot of hot water. Whisked it well.

11. The melted chocolate has to be very smooth & spreadable.

12. Remove the biscuit cake from the pan gently. The sides will look crumbly & ugly. Just ignore it and smoothen with a spatula.

13. Pour the melted chocolate and spread it.

14. Smear some chocolate on the sides and smoothen it as well.

15. Refrigerate the biscuit cake until set. It just takes a while for your chocolate to set. I melted some white chocolate and transferred to a piping bag. Squeezed to draw some lines over it. You can make any design or decorate it.

Slice the cake and serve plain or with Ice cream. Biscuit cake keeps good for about a week if refrigerated.

More easy cakes,
Eggless chocolate cake
Cooker cake recipe
Best chocolate cake
Tutti frutti cake
Eggless black forest cake

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