Desserts Down Under: Chocolate Ripple Cake

I believe that Arnott’s is the best-known, most beloved brand of biscuits in Australia. They are the makers of the famous (amongst my foreign friends) Tim Tams, and many of their products have been Australian icons for decades. Today, I want to share a popular Aussie dessert, the Chocolate Ripple cake.

This is one of the easiest desserts you will ever make. No cooking required, and infinitely customisable, it’s great for BBQ’s as well as dinner parties.

Ingredients:

Pack of Choc Ripple biscuits (or other hard biscuit if you can’t get these)

500ml Thickened cream

2 Nestle Peppermint Crisp chocolate bars

The Backbreaking Work:

Whip the cream with an electric beater until stiff peaks form. Then, simply make a log by sandwiching cream and biscuits until you have enough or run out of biscuits. A long, rectangular or oval platter is best. It can help to lay a snail trail on the platter first, both to help the first few biscuits stand up and so that you don’t have to move the log to make sure it is covered.

Image courtesy of Chocablog

Use the remaining cream (you should have plenty left over) to cover the outside. Crush the Peppermint Crisp bar(s) and sprinkle the top of the log with as much as you think is appropriate. Then cover with aluminium foil and refrigerate overnight for best results, although 4-6 hours may be enough. Slice diagonally to serve, with fruit as a garnish or on the side. As it is fairly rich, you usually don’t want the slices to be more than about 3-4cms thick.

Image courtesy of Taste.com

That is the very basic recipe. As I said, very much customisable. My usual tweak is to fold one of the crushed Peppermint Crisp bars into the cream before I build the log. You could try coffee, crushed nuts, all sorts of candies, different flavours of biscuits – I think ginger snaps would work really well – even alcohol like Bailey’s Irish Cream, Kahlua, Tia Maria, or Frangelico. Or let your imagination run wild!