Chocolate biscuit cake?

Lucyxxx

Hi, I'm making a chocolate biscuit cake and I was wondering which is better to use - rich tea or digestives?
The recipe I'm using is:
1 can condensed milk
packet of biscuits
1/2 dark chocolate bar, 1/2 milk chocolate bar
2 oz butter.

Melt the butter in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
Add the chocolate until all melted
When chocolate is melted take off the heat and stir in the two tins of milk.
Stir in the broken biscuits.

Should I melt them in a saucepan without putting them over water?

Should I do half and half for the chocolate? I don't like chocolate to be very dark or rich so I was going to do half and half but I don't know what it'll turn out like?

Which biscuits should I use - rich tea or digestives?
Thanks!

Acoshla

Why don't you use both? Most recipes say to use both, digestives are very salty so you don't want to use just them anyway.

A whole can of condensed milk seems like a lot, but if the recipe says it I guess it tastes ok. Actually the instructions then say two tins? How many grams of biscuits are you using? Two tins would be a LOT, I only use a few spoonfuls of condensed milk when I'm using it.

What percentage cocoa solids are your chocolates, are they good quality? I like my choc bisc cake to have slightly more dark chocolate but a good quality milk chocolate can make just as nice a cake, poor quality milk chocolate makes the most horrible concoction I've ever seen, like bad fudge, gross.

Do melt them in a bowl over a saucepan of water, this way they can't burn, if you melt them in just a saucepan they can.

Lucyxxx

Hi, thanks for your reply.
I ended up using a different recipe (Odlums - golden syrup) halving it. Used half dark and half milk chocolate and both rich tea and digestives. Was really nice but quite heavy. Thanks again for your reply.

Acoshla

That's the recipe I always use. In fairness though, it's almost pure chocolate and butter, it's bound to be heavier than a normal cake!

CurranBun

Hi All,
Im a little late coming in on this, but chancing it...
I have use the Odlums recepi, however i find it quite moist... i plan to decorate with Rolled Icing..
Is there any tricks to get a dryer cake?

Acoshla

CurranBun, how do you mean moist? What chocolate are you using? Chocolate biscuit cake that has been in the fridge is always a bit tacky, which is perfect for getting the icing to stick to it. Normally people are trying to get it sticky/tacky not dryer!

CurranBun

Ah your a star for coming back to me..
I used a high Cocoa Content base chocolate, i think that might be the issue..
It never got hard, if you know what i mean. it tasted nice though...
My concern is that i need to mould a peppa pig cake and afriad that the cake being moist it will be hard to cut to shape?

Also to add, the Odlums recipit says to add 1/4 pint of Golden Syrup - all the other recipis i have checked say 2tlbs.... so maybe that is it???

Acoshla

Well if you want the cake to be more cuttable golden syrup is what helps that, I use that recipe too and don't use exact measurements of golden syrup and have never had an issue. Chocolate with a high cocoa solid percentage is the best to use so that wasn't wrong, using crappy milk chocolate is what makes awful chocolate biscuit cake.

Did you put it in the fridge yeah? Might be an obvious question but just trying to find the problem! I normally shape that recipe into shaped cakes too and I've never had an issue with it, if little chunks come out I just shove them back in again, because it's tacky they stick right back. If you have some chocolate ganache etc (which you'd probably need to give a shaped cake an even surface for icing) you can use that to fill any dents etc.

If all else fails give it half an hour in the freezer!

CurranBun

Thanks again for helping me out...
I got cadburys choc this time to use, do you reccomend i dont?
Il stick with it so... as everything your saying seems correct and spot on, and exactly how the cakes looks... i might just reduce the sryup a little!!
Il pop it in the freezer i think to give it an extra burst of coldness....
thanks again...

Acoshla

Don't use the Cadbury's, eat it!! It should be listed as eating chocolate, not for use in any sort of baking! Use Lidl or Aldi 60%+ chocolate, I use 75%. Cooking chocolate (W*nderbar etc)again is misleading, because it's awful crap, don't use it in baking.

Good Luck, if you need any more help I'm baking myself all day so have the laptop here