If you’re looking for an easy chocolate recipe, I’ve got a great one for you. No-Bake Chocolate Truffle Cake has become one of my new favorites. It’s incredibly easy to make, and can be served either as a delicious dessert or in bite-sized pieces as an alternative to chocolate truffles.
Why I Love this Recipe!
I’m always a fan of anything that sounds both yummy AND simple to make! Just stir the ingredients together, and leave it to set in the fridge? No baking? Count me in! It tastes like an upmarket Nutella, which makes it popular with children. But the butter gives it a delectable and luxurious texture, and the fact it’s made with dark chocolate lends a richly adult flavor— making it equally suitable for grown-ups too.
So Easy— and No Dirty Hands!
You’ve probably already seen some of my former recipes for chocolate balls of one type or another, like my chocolate peanut butter balls. I love serving them in place of chocolate truffles at the end of dinner. They’re all quite easy to make, but there’s no denying that rolling all those little balls out by hand can get a little messy sometimes! Step forward no-bake fridge cake! Instead of rolling by hand, you cut individual pieces with a sharp knife. This not only keeps your hands relatively clean, it also means you get beautiful, clean, straight edges, showing off the biscuit and nut filling.
Where Does It Come From?
I started reading up more about the history of no-bake chocolate cakes, and found out it’s a close cousin of Chocolate Salami, which I covered here, a while back. It’s not clear exactly where it originates, but it was probably somewhere in eastern or northern Europe in the early-mid twentieth century. Makes sense, right?—people didn’t have fridges before that!
But way more exciting is that it’s got a whole range of weird and creative names.
Some people call it Hedgehog Slice. In Britain, it’s known as Fridge Cake or Icebox Cake. The Germans call it a “Kalter Hund” or “Kalte Schnauze”, meaning a Cold Dog or Cold Snout. In Sweden, it’s called “Radiokaka” — Radio Cake, although no one is quite sure why. Possibly because it looks like an old-fashioned radio; maybe because it’s possible to eat it silently, without disturbing anyone listening to the radio! But to my ears, the Turkish and the Greeks have the most appetizing-sounding name of Mosaic Cake.
And I also found out that it is Prince William’s favorite cake, and he requested to have it served at his wedding to Kate Middleton. How cool is that?
How To Make It?
This recipe is about as simple as it gets! Trust me, it’s hard to get this one wrong. There are really only two possible ways that it might go off-piste (and one of them isn’t even very important.)
Firstly (important): Be sure not to burn the chocolate. We melt the butter in the pan first to give the chocolate a warm base in which to melt, rather than coming directly into contact with the hot base of the pan. But if your heat is too high, or you leave it too long, it can still scorch, and give an unpleasant bitter flavor. The key here is just to turn the heat off much sooner than you think. If I’m not going to be standing directly over it watching, I usually flip the heat off as soon as I see the chocolate just starting to melt. There’s almost always enough residual heat to melt the chocolate entirely— and if not, it’s no problem to turn the heat on again for 30 seconds later on.
Alternative methods
- You can melt the butter, chocolate, and honey in a double boiler (AKA bain-marie). This takes longer, which is why it isn’t my preferred method— I’m too impatient! But the heat in a double boiler is more controlled and it’s almost impossible to burn anything.
- You can also melt the ingredients in a microwave-proof bowl at low power for about 30 seconds – 1 minute. I don’t normally use this method, but only because I like to watch my food as it’s cooking— it just gives me more of a hands-on feel!
Cutting the Cake
When you come to cut the no-bake truffle cake into slices or squares, be sure to use a sharp knife. That way, you get nice clean, sharp edges.
But as I said before, this isn’t very important, and that’s because it doesn’t affect the flavor at all. It’s only for presentation purposes. (Also, I’ll let you in on a little secret: you can always improvise with your description! If you end up with a pile of wonky pieces, just pile them up on the plate and call it Chocolate Rubble like this is what you always intended. After all, weird and creative names are an integral part of this recipe!)
Ingredients Notes and Substitutions
You can make this recipe with 100% milk chocolate if you prefer, but I think it’s WAY better with dark chocolate. Milk chocolate has a lot more added sugar, and with all the honey in this recipe as well, I just find it too sweet with milk chocolate.
But you can definitely play around with the filling. It doesn’t have to be hazelnuts, and it doesn’t have to be graham crackers. You can try any type of crushed cookies, and any type of nuts. Some people add dried fruit as well, like raisins, prunes, or sultanas. No-bake chocolate fridge cake is a fickle beast, and basically gets along with everyone.
For vegans, you can even use nut butter, and you can substitute the honey for a vegan sweetener as well. Prince William’s wedding fridge cake allegedly used Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup. That can be hard to find in the USA, but if you can find light treacle, that will work as well. Alternatively, maple syrup is also a good substitute, but because the consistency is a lot thinner than honey, use less of it.
Storage Notes
Chocolate fridge cake keeps really well in the fridge for up to a week. Be sure to cover it well or put it in an airtight container, to stop it picking up any fridge smell.
I doubt you’ll have many leftovers (in my house this disappears from the fridge FAST!) But you can also freeze it if you want to, well-covered with plastic wrap to stop frost forming on the outside.
And More…
If you have children, this is a fantastic recipe to cook with them. You’ll need to supervise for melting the ingredients, but other than that, you can give the kids free rein to crush the biscuits, choose the fillings, stir everything together, and tamp it down in the dish. Just be aware that the No Dirty Hands benefit might not apply when cooking with kids!
More Chocolate Recipes
Looking for more amazing no-bake chocolate recipes? Check out some of my other recipe posts!
Healthy No-Bake Chocolate Energy Bites
No-Bake Chocolate Oreo Rum Balls
Chocolate Salami
Homemade Dark Chocolate Hummus
Orange Chocolate Date Protein Balls
Conclusion
Whether you’re looking for a new easy family favorite, or to make something fancy for a dinner party, No-Bake Chocolate Truffle Cake is a great choice. Get stuck in and give it a try! Be sure to let me know how you got on in the comments.
No-Bake Chocolate Truffle Cake
Ingredients
- 8 oz digestive biscuits or graham crackers
- 1 stick 125 g butter
- ⅓ cup honey
- 5 oz chocolate with hazelnuts milk or dark, with at least 50% cocoa solids
- 2.5 oz dark chocolate at least 70% cocoa solids
- ⅓ cup whole toasted hazelnuts
- 1 pinch flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Line a shallow dish of about 10 x 8 inches (25 x 20 cm) with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Leave an overhang on each side, so you will be able to lift the fridge cake easily out of the dish later on.
- Roughly crush the digestive biscuits or graham crackers into small pieces.
- Put the butter in a medium pan over low heat. As soon as it starts to melt, add the honey and both chocolates. Keep over the heat until you can see the chocolate melting into a puddle, then turn off the range, and leave for about 5 minutes. Everything should melt smoothly in the residual heat. Stir gently to mix.
- Add the digestive biscuits or graham cracker pieces, the hazelnuts, and a pinch of flaky sea salt. Stir until everything is well-coated in the chocolate.
- Tip into the prepared dish, and use a potato masher to tamp it down, until roughly flattened. Cover, and put into the fridge for at least 2 hours, or until solid.
- Turn out carefully, peel off the parchment paper, and cut into squares or long slices. Eat quickly, cold from the fridge, before it melts.
No Comments