According to Royal chef Darren McGrady, this was the late Queen Elizabeth’s favourite cake.
McGrady cooked for the royal family for fifteen years and said that the Queen liked to have a slice of this cake with a cup of tea every afternoon. “If there was any left when we moved from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle we took it with us, so she could finish it there”, he explained. “I use to travel on the train from London to Windsor Castle with the half-eaten cake in a tin on my knees.”
Make it in a six inch (15 cm) cake tin if you have one, so it’s nice and deep. For a larger tin you could double the recipe. If preferred you could use a loaf tin.
A cake that’s good enough for a Queen is definitely worth trying. We thought it was delicious.
Cake:
1 packet plain sweet biscuits such as Rich Tea or Marie (about 250g)
150g dark chocolate
150g butter at room temp
150g caster sugar
1 egg
Chocolate Icing:
250g dark chocolate
Spray cake pan with oil and line with baking paper. A small six inch (15cm) pan will result in a deeper cake but you can use an eight inch (20cm) pan if you like. A tin with removable sides or a cake ring makes it easier to remove the cake.
Break the biscuits with your hands into pieces a bit larger than almonds and place them in a large mixing bowl. Don’t crush them completely. See photo for how big. Melt chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric beaters until light and fluffy, then mix in the egg and lastly the melted chocolate. Scrape the chocolate mixture into the bowl containing the broken biscuits and mix well so that all the biscuit pieces are covered in chocolate.
Scrape into the cake tin, pressing down so that you have a flat top and there are no air pockets. A flat-bottomed glass is useful for pushing the mixture down. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Next day, remove the cake from the pan and remove the paper. Place it on a rack over a sheet of baking paper. For the icing, melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. Slowly pour the the icing over the top and sides of the cake, using a spatula to smooth it out. Use most of the icing but leave a small amount. Allow the cake to set at room temperature.
Reheat the remaining chocolate icing (and any you can scrape up from below the cake rack) and put it into a piping bag. Pipe this over the cake, back and forth in a zig-zag pattern. When set, carefully remove the cake from the rack and place it onto a serving plate. Serve with a cup of tea and some whipped or thick pouring cream, if you’re feeling really decadent!
Serves 12
Note: if preferred, use a small amount (25g) of white or milk chocolate to do the zig-zag pattern on the cake, so you get more of a contrast.
