Kate was an art history major in college, as was I, and she wrote her masters thesis on Lewis Carroll's photography. I also wrote a major paper on Lewis Carroll's controversial photography (of nude little girls, by the way) while studying at The George Washington University. It was one of the highlights of my academic career, as GW's wonderful DC location afforded me the opportunity to do all of my research at the Library of Congress, which had some of his actual photographs in its collection.
Besides these similarities, Kate and I both scored our Prince Charming. In what I consider a Southern American tradition, Kate's prince has requested a groom's cake. When I came across this article with the recipe, I just had to make it! William's Chocolate Biscuit Cake requires no raw ingredients or baking, making it a perfect recipe to do with my son.
Here are the ingredients, slightly modified from the original recipe linked above:
10 oz butter tea biscuits (the recipe calls for 7oz, but I thought we needed more)
1 cup half and half (the recipe called for heavy cream)
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 stick butter
16 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (the recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Plus the following for the glaze:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup half and half (the recipe called for 1/4 cup heavy cream, but this amount made the glaze too thick to pour)
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (again, the recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate)
I couldn't find butter tea buiscuts, so I used these instead:
I microwaved the butter, half and half, and honey while my son had fun breaking the cookies in quarters.
Then, we added the chocolate chips and vanilla to the hot half and half/butter mixture and stirred until the chocolate melted.
Then we stirred in the cookie pieces and poured it all into a Pam-sprayed springform pan. We had to finesse the mixture around to get it flat on top, but then we put it in the fridge to solidify.
Three hours later, we popped the springform pan open and put the cake on a wire rack with wax paper underneath. It was a little difficult getting it off the bottom of the pan, but a long knife helped.
Then we mixed the glaze ingredients and poured it over the cake, the wax paper catching the drips.
We put it on a nice plate and placed it back in the fridge to further solidify until serving.
Prince William must love chocolate, because this cake is really rich. To serve, we plated a small piece with strawberries and vanilla ice cream.
If the royal wedding reception is anything like ours, the bride and groom will be too busy talking to everyone to have the chance to enjoy thier wedding cake. That is always a shame, but maybe they follow the American tradition of freezing some for their first anniversary. We were surprised how much we loved our cake a year later!
Tonight, my husband loved the Chocolate Biscuit Cake, so it will be long gone by Will and Kate's wedding day. Maybe we should mix up another one to have for breakfast while we watch the wedding on April 29th!
