Nobody should blog this cake – it’s that easy. A 3-year old could make this cake. So why am I blogging it?
Well, firstly because I can but most importantly because of what John’s dad said when I brought out the cake.
“Who’s birthday is it?”
“Huh?”
“That cake is for birthdays because all kids like to eat it,” he said.
“It’s nobody’s birthday and I didn’t know it was a special occasion cake. I’ve never made this before — I found it on Pinterest,” I mumbled.
“That pinning place has some good food and I like this cake. Do we have ice cream?”
Rob is the cutest old man in the world with the most mischievous grin and twinkly eyes when he thinks he’s getting away with something. He’s nearly 93 and lots of his bits and bobs don’t work very well (or at all) so he needs help doing many things. His mind is as sharp as it was 40 years ago. He’s a lot of fun to have around and I learn something from him every day.
The other night I was finishing work about midnight and went downstairs to take the dog out for the final pee before bedtime and there’s Rob, hunched over his computer with his face just a few inches from the screen
“I’m going to bed,” he said, as if he was expecting to be scolded for being on the computer at midnight.
“You don’t have to go to bed for me but I’ve never seen you on the computer in your flannel jammies before.”
“Oh, I was reading a book on Einstein in bed and there was a concept I didn’t know much about so I thought I’d come in and look it up.”
:eyeroll:
Back to my cake. This cake is cookies and cream. Yep. That’s all. Buy a package of chocolate cookies and whip some cream and you’ve got cake. You have to keep it in the fridge for 8 hours and best if kept overnight but once you do that – it’s really good. (You can make any sort of homemade crunchy chocolate cookies if you don’t have access to Arnott’s Chocolate Ripple Biscuits and they’ll work just fine.)
This cake reminds me of the graham cracker cake my friend’s mother used to make when we were kids. My mother refused to make one because it wasn’t a *real* cake. She thought that was just lazy if you didn’t have to bake it. I thought it was just good.
When I asked John if he had ever had one of these cakes before he said, “Everyone has had a chocolate ripple cake, Maureen.”
“So, do you want one?”
“Does it have cream? Yes, I want one.”
I bought some Cadbury Flake bars the other day and made some vanilla ice cream and crumbled the Flake into the ice cream once it was frozen. It was the perfect accompaniment to the cake.
Even if it wasn’t anyone’s birthday.
When I asked Rob if he enjoyed his dessert he said, “There weren’t any candles on the cake.”
- 1½ packages Arnott's Chocolate Ripple Biscuits (cookies)
- 400 ml cream
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons icing (confectioner's) sugar
- The day before you want to eat this cake:
- Whip cream until thick and nearly at the soft peak stage and then add vanilla and icing sugar.
- Whip to full soft peak stage. (don't make butter)
- Spread each cookie with whipped cream and place on a cake plate in a single layer.
- Smooth cream and add another layer, but move the cookies over the gaps in the lower layer.
- Continue until you don't have enough cookies to make another layer.
- Top with remaining cream and then crumble one cookie and sprinkle on the top layer (or you could grate chocolate but I had the cookies in my hand)
- Refrigerate overnight.