Secluded Habitat

Heya all,
This little dish is something that you can put together quickly and easily, and would have to be one of the *easiest* desserts to put together, it is also extremely tasty too. The only thing you have to note is that you will need to do this at least 6-8 hours before you wish to serve the dessert, however letting it sit overnight is preferable.

This recipe comes off the side of a packet of Arnott’s Chocolate Ripple Biscuits. I can remember as a young child my mother making this for me… I always enjoyed the flavor immensely. (As a side note it is not at all the healthiest of desserts one can make… but hey we only live once ).

So, what you will need is:

• 500ml Thickened Cream (the recipe calls for only 300ml however I always seem to run out with 300ml so I recommend 500 ml instead)
• 2 tsp Caster Sugar
• 2 drops of Vanilla Essence
• 1 Packet of Arnott’s Chocolate Ripple Biscuits (example pictures below)
• A few squares of chocolate that you can grate over the top of the cake
• A long plate like the one displayed below

Method:
As I said earlier this one is really quite easy to do. First put the cream, sugar, and vanilla essence into a bowl and whip until stiff.

The below to images show what the result should look like, if the cream looks like the first you need to keep whipping it until it looks like the second image. The cream needs to be stiff enough so that it will hold the biscuits together.

Next take 2 biscuits and spread cream on the base of one and squish them together, below is an example of the result. As a note you should use approximately 1 tsp of cream in between each biscuit. Keep repeating this process until you have completed all the biscuits as below:

Once this is completed cover the “structure” with the remaining cream. This is where you will be greatful that you used additional cream. Ensure the whole cake is covered, including the sides and the ends. The layer of cream should be thick enough so that you cannot see any of the biscuits underneath:

Finally take the chocolate blocks and grate chocolate over the cake:

You will need to refrigerate the cake for at least 6-8 hours, however it is preferable to do so overnight. The cream will soften the biscuits so that they will be the texture of a cake so the longer the better.

And here is the final result, when cutting the cake rather than a vertical inscision (lol sounds really crude I know but it gets the point across), cut at a 45 degree angle instead, this will mean that you will end up with alternating layers of cake and cream (apologies for the crudeness of this photo, needed to show the layering properly):

So there you have it, a quick and easy Chocolate Ripple Cake, total preparation time should be no longer than 25 - 30 minutes at most.

Let me know your thoughts and especially if you give it a go.
Until next time *waves goodbye*
Stuart