CHOCOLATE RIPPLE CAKE

STEP ONE: For the cake above, you will need roughly 4 x 200g packets of chocolate biscuits, and 3 x 600ml cartons of cream.

Before you start, whip the cream until it is stiff, but don't add any sugar as the finished cake will be sweet and rich enough.

If you live in Australia, this cake is classically made with Arnotts chocolate biscuits, if you live overseas, look for Oreo-type cookies without any cream centers, chocolate coating or frosting. You'll also need some sprinkles.




STEP TWO: Take your serving plate and spread a circle of whipped cream in the center.

This serves as a guide to keep the cake centered as you put it together, and it will also help 'glue' it to the plate and keep it stable...




... I also placed one biscuit dead center as a starting point, and just to make doubly sure I wouldn't have a wonky cake :)




STEP THREE: Sandwich a few biscuits together with the cream, and place them on that centered one from before.




STEP FOUR: Then cover the outside of the stack with cream.





STEP FIVE: And keep doing more stacks, making sure there is cream between each biscuit, and around the outside of each stack, making seven in total in a flower pattern.

Push them together a little bit to make sure the stacks are all sitting tightly together and straight.






STEP SIX: I wanted my cake to be a bit higher than it was so far, so, I put a layer of cream over the top to fill in all those holes between the stacks, and then built it up with more stacks.




STEP SEVEN: When you're happy with the height, add more whipped cream to the top and sides, completely coat the cake....




...like so. Then pop the cake in the fridge overnight to let the biscuits soften and absorb the cream.

Now, I forgot to get a photo of this, but when you take it out of the fridge the next morning, the surface will be cracked, and it probably won't look that pretty.

It just means the biscuits have absorbed lots of cream - which is what you want.

All you need to do is put another layer of cream on the outside - it doesn't have to be terribly thick - just to give it a nice appearance! You can see the difference in texture from the image above and below, what a few hours in the fridge will do.




Coat the top and sides with sprinkles just before serving - I found this was a case of less is more.




Just on a side note, I made the '3' topper from a piece of pink craft foam. I used my iPad to blow up the number nice and big (the font is Lobster by the way), then traced it onto a piece of baking paper, and from there onto the foam.

I then taped a skewer to the back, painted the number in PVA glue, and dipped it in sprinkles. This gave a medium/ok coverage. So I got out my giant can of hairspray, gave it a spray (not too much or the colors will run), and pressed on more sprinkles. I repeated the hairspray/dipping in sprinkles a few more times until I was happy with it.

If you look closely, you can see I could have pressed a few more on, and also, I shouldn't have used blue pen when I was tracing it out... :(  Ats, you live and learn!




But Missy loved the whole thing, so I'm happy with that :)




When the Chocolate Ripple cake is cut, you can see where it gets it's name, with lovely rippling stripes all the way through.

It's also often made in a log or square shape, which makes serving a crowd nice and easy, and as it's no-bake - just refrigerated - it's great for summertime too.


Part One - White Chocolate Crackles 
Part Two - Sweet Sprinkles Popcorn
Part Three - Classic Fairy Bread

I'll be back with more Quick Tips and Home Organizers again tomorrow :)

All the best,

Eliza.