The great Chocolate Biscuit Cake debacle

Royal Wedding Chocolate Biscuit Cake (picture via The Mirror)

There seems to be a great debate raging over the correct recipe for Chocolate Biscuit Cake, the cake Prince William requested for his wedding. Here is Darren McGrady's recipe from his book Eating Royally. McGrady was Princess Diana's private chef and this is apparently the cake Prince William enjoyed with the Queen every Sunday at teatime:

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Serves 8

From Eating Royally by Darren McGrady

1/2 teaspoon soft butter

8 ounces McVities rich tea biscuits

4 ounces soft butter

1/2 cup sugar

4 ounces dark chocolate

1 egg, beaten

8 ounces dark chocolate for icing

1 ounce white chocolate for decoration

1. Line the base of a springform pan with silicone paper, and butter the sides. Break the biscuits into almond-sized pieces and set aside.

2. Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl. Melt 4 ounces dark chocolate and mix with butter, add the beaten egg and mix well. Add biscuits and coat well.

3. Pour into the pan, making sure the bottom is well covered as this will be the top of the cake when it is unmoulded. Let set in a fridge for three hours. Let partially warm outside of the fridge while 8 ounces dark chocolate and white chocolate are melted. Flip cake and drizzle chocolate on top.

However, the recipe I favor includes Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup and Digestive biscuits (not Rich Tea). And it's not iced. But it's much more chocolatey, dangerously so.

Here it is  (and I owe a lot of credit to my friend Katy, who always brought the best chocolate biscuit cake back to school on Sunday nights after weekends away, and it was she that solved the Digestives versus Rich Tea conundrum):

Chocolate Biscuit Cake Redux

150g (2/3 cup or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

275g (1 1/2 cups or about 3/4 of a tin if you're pouring) golden syrup
400g milk chocolate *
250g dark chocolate *
200g white chocolate *
275g (just over 3/4 of a packet) digestive biscuits or graham crackers

* Chocolate has to be of very good quality; I'd suggest English or Swiss chocolate as it is of a higher percentage milk fat and cocoa butter and is therefore more lush, delicious and fattening.  I used two large bars of Cadbury's Fruit & Nut because it was all the Canyon Store had, with a bar of Lindt dark chocolate and some white chocolate from Trader Joe's. But it's up to you, according to your taste.

Bring a saucepan of water to a simmer. Break the chocolate into a mixing bowl and put it over the simmering water. Add the butter and golden syrup and melt it all together.  Break up the biscuits by hand or in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, and fold them into the chocolate mixture.  Pour the whole lot into a pre-buttered pan, either a square loaf tin or a round pie dish, and stick it in the fridge to set/chill. 

Cut it into squares, like brownies, as opposed to slices, like cake. 

If you have a favorite family recipe for Chocolate Biscuit Cake and would care to share it, please do!