Saturday, September 09, 2017

Royal Focus: The Royal Chocolate Biscuit Cake



Behold, the Chocolate Biscuit cake. This cake may sound familiar to royal watchers as it is a royal favourite of the Queen and Prince William. He even chose it as one of the royal wedding cakes!

The 'groom's cake' at the royal wedding reception was made by McVitie's Cake Company using a royal family recipe. Now part of United Biscuits, the Royal Warrant holders have been making cakes for royal weddings and christenings since the wedding of Prince George, Duke of York and Princess May of Teck in 1893. The company, then known as McVitie and Price Ltd, also made the official royal wedding cake for Princess Elizabeth in 1947 and the official cake for the Queen and Prince Philip's 60th wedding anniversary in 2007.

This cake is no bake and super easy to make. As you can see, my icing and moulding skills need some work but luckily it doesn't affect the taste. You can find this recipe in Darren McGrady's excellent cookbook, Eating Royally: Recipes and Remembrances from a Palace Kitchen. Note that Darren has said that his book will be coming out in seventh printing soon for $24.99

This recipe is reproduced with kind permission from Darren McGrady.

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon butter, for greasing pan
8 ounces McVities Rich Tea biscuits (I found them at the Bulk Food Barn in Canada)
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 ounces of dark chocolate
1 egg, beaten
8 ounces dark chocolate, for icing
1 ounces white chocolate, for decoration



Instructions:

Lightly grease a small (6 x 2/1/2-inch) cake ring with 1/2 teaspoon of butter and place on a parchment-lined tray. Break each of the biscuits into almond-sized pieces by hand and set aside (do not process the biscuits). Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is a light lemon color.

Melt the 4 ounces of dark chocolate in a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler you can use a metal bowl on top of a pot of simmering water. Add the butter and sugar mixture to the chocolate and stir constantly. Ad the egg and continue stirring. Fold in the biscuit pieces until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.

Spoon the chocolate biscuit mixture into the prepared cake ring. Try to fill all of the gaps in the bottom of the ring, because this will be the top when it is unmolded. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

Remove the cake from the refrigerator, and let it stand while you melt the 8 ounces of dark chocolate for the icing. Slide the ring off the cake and turn the cake upside down onto a cooling/wire rack. Pour the 8 ounces of melted dark chocolate over the cake, and smooth the top and sides using an offset-spatula. Allow the chocolate icing to set at room temperature. Carefully run a knife around the bottom of the cake where it has stuck to the cooling rack, and transfer cake to a cake dish. Melt the white chocolate and drizzle on top of the cake in a decorative pattern.

Cut and serve!




© Marilyn Braun 2017

Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.

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