Chocolate Ripple Cake and Crochet

Near my house is one of my favourite cafes in Melbourne, Porgie and Mr Jones.  Their food is truly divine - worth travelling for, especially their breakfasts, such as the decadent toasted banana bread with creme fraiche, berry compote and pistachios.

Sometimes, after dropping my little sister at school, my mother brings me a McPorgie for breakfast.  A McPorgie is a toasted English muffin (from an excellent local artisan bakery) with Gruyere, free range thick-cut ham and some herbs.  It is a good way to start the day.

I have four friends who are due to have babies towards the end of the year.  I tell you, I am super-busy with wool craft.  Knitting and crochet - it is nice to have at least one project of each on the go, because the movements required are different, so you can have a break and switch to the other if your hands are getting fatigued.

Here is something I am working on for one of the babies - I can only show you a snippet, in case the recipient looks at the blog!  Three of the babies who are arriving are girls, and one is 'unknown' at this point.

I had some cream to use up the other night, so I made a chocolate ripple cake.  For any overseas readers, this is an Aussie Classic, similar in principle to many 'icebox pies' of the US, in that it involves softening cookies in the refrigerator.  Chocolate ripple biscuits are fairly rich, dark and crispy cookies.  

You sandwich them together with whipped cream (whip 500ml thickened cream with a tablespoon of vanilla caster sugar or a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla), cover the whole lot in more cream, and then chill overnight (or for at least six hours).  You can then decorate with a dusting of cocoa, some crumbled 'Flake' chocolate bar or some shaved chocolate.  Probably the Flake is the most authentic Aussie Backyard BBQ method.

Note:  Always cover the log with far more cream than you think it needs - because overnight, the biscuits really soak up the cream, so if you don't have a terribly thick covering, you will find brown parts of biscuit soaking through, ruining the pristine effect:

Have you seen the episode of The Simpsons, where Marge had decorated a beautiful cake for a special occasion?  Homer comes in and starts attacking it, picking off the icing letters and dipping his fingers in the frosting.  Marge exclaims, "Homer, no!  I made you a cake to ruin, it's over there!"  This happens in our house - see below, the mini chocolate ripple cake for The Daddy to pick at:

Here you go - this is the cake in the morning.  No nasty brown bits poking through:

To serve, slice the cake on an angle, so you get a striped effect.

Delicious.  And might I say - this is excellent for breakfast, though you didn't hear it from me...