Parle-G Biscuit Cake (no-bake)

This epic ‘biscuit cake’ is something I grew up eating, but about once a year because thankfully, my Mom knew what was good for us and didn’t give in to our incessant demands to make this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s 95% butter, so I get where she was coming from. Even with that once-a-year occurrence, whether it was for a birthday or we had guests over, she became faaaaamous. This cake was intensely popular among everyone she knew, I knew, and everyone they knew.

What I love most about it, is it brings together Parle-G glucose biscuits, with Bru instant coffee. Two things I adore (my mornings still begin with a giant frothy mug of Bru) and if you grew up in India, chances are you had them in your home too. So this cake is memories, it’s Indian, it’s fabulous.

It’s super simple to make and is basically an icebox cake, meaning the fridge does all of the work, the oven remains off, and you walk around impatiently waiting till the moment you can cut into it.

What it really is, is this. The biscuits are soaked in a basic water-coffee solution, and layered with a silky buttercream frosting. There are also no real fixed ingredient amounts for this cake. You can use a little more or less of all of the frosting ingredients as you like, more or less coffee based on how much you love the flavour. And you can make a smaller or larger cake and change the number of biscuits too.

The only small change I made to this was to add a little bit of whipping cream for a lighter, fluffier frosting. It’s completely optional of course, but I liked the very slight difference it made. If it’s warm where you live, the frosting may need a little bit of chilling before you can spread it on the biscuits and you may need to also chill the cake between layers. Once it’s all ready, the biscuits, the coffee and the frosting will have merged into a an amazingly soft, but not soggy ‘cake’. It’s not too sweet, given that there is cocoa and coffee in there, but it certainly is rich. Because butter.

So make this! It needs to be kept refrigerated at all times but also makes the perfect make-ahead dessert if you have friends and family over! I hope you’ll try it 🙂

Parle-G Biscuit Cake (no-bake)

A decadent no-bake cake with coffee-soaked glucose biscuits and silky chocolate frosting!

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

Makes: 8 pieces

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Ingredients

  

• 375 gms unsalted butter at room temp
• 3/4 cup icing sugar (85 gms)
• 4 tbsps cocoa powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsps cold whipping cream, optional
• 70 Parle-G biscuits, or other glucose biscuits (see notes)
• 1 cup water at room temp (250 ml)
• 1 and 1/2 tbsps instant coffee powder (I like Bru)
• Chopped or grated chocolate for topping, optional

For an alternate whipped ganache frosting, see notes

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter with a hand mixer on medium speed until light and creamy.
• Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa. Stir gently to combine (so it doesn't fly everywhere), before continuing to beat with the hand mixer until smooth. Taste as you go and you want to add more sugar or cocoa. Parle-G biscuits are quite sweet so personally, I like the frosting a bit under-sweetened.
• Add the salt and whipping cream and beat again until light and fluffy.
• If the frosting now seems too soft, keep it in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Keep your biscuits ready along with the platter or tray on which you plan to assemble the cake.
• Mix the coffee and water together in a small bowl until smooth.
• Working with one biscuit at a time, dip each one into the coffee solution for just a couple of seconds, without turning it over. Place it on the plate. It will continue to soak and soften as it rests. I made 7 layers of 10 biscuits each (therefore 70 biscuits total), with five biscuits in each row. Repeat the dipping till the first layer of soaked biscuits is ready.
• Now spread about 1/3 cup of the frosting in an even layer on the biscuits. Make a second layer of soaked biscuits on top of the frosting. Repeat till all the biscuits and frosting are used up.
• Smoothen the sides with the frosting that would be seeping out through the layers, and spread more on as needed till the cake is completely covered. If you're working in a warm kitchen, you may have to chill the cake in-between layers.
• Top with chopped or grated chocolate and chill the cake for at least 4 hours before cutting into pieces but preferably overnight. The flavour and texture gets better the after a day or even two. Let individual pieces sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before eating but otherwise keep the cake refrigerated in an airtight tin, and it'll be good to eat for 5 to 6 days. Enjoy!

Notes

Shop this recipe: Parle-G biscuits, Bru, Cocoa, Dark Chocolate

*Glucose biscuits are recommended here for the best flavour, but if you don't have them, you can use a different kind of biscuit too, adjusting the number of layers depending on the size. Preferably, use square or rectangular biscuits.

*Prep-time does not include chilling time.

*I recently tried a whipped ganache frosting instead of buttercream for two reasons: the texture is soft even straight out of the fridge unlike buttercream which hardens and the flavour of chocolate is definitely more pronounced. I loved this slightly grown-up version! But the whipped ganache does mean the cake is less sturdy so for neater slices, wipe down the knife between each cut. See the photo below for the airy, mousse-like layers of frosting.

Here's the way I made this whipped ganache for a 40-biscuit cake (5 layers; 8 biscuits per layer in a 4x2 pattern):

Heat 1 cup whipping cream until hot but not boiling and pour it over 100 gms of finely chopped dark chocolate (50% to 55% dark). Let it sit for a few minutes, then stir gently into a smooth ganache. Refrigerate for 3o minutes to 1 hour until completely cold and thickened. Then using a hand mixer on medium-high speed, beat the ganache until it becomes light and fluffy with soft rounded peaks. Stir in 1 to 2 tbsps sifted icing sugar if needed along with 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Keep chilled till you assemble the cake and then spread 1/3rd to 1/2 cup between each layer and around the sides and top as written in the recipe above. As with the buttercream version, this will taste best after an overnight chill.