Snow Log

My favourite dessert recipe. Also known as "Chocolate Ripple Cake" but my mother always called it "Snowlog" and I think that sounds more delicious.

Category: Desserts

Ingredients

  • chocolate-ripple biscuits (1)
  • cream
  • sugar (optional)
  • vanilla (optional)

Equipment

  • beater
  • bowl
  • large very flat serving plate
  • room in the refrigerator for the serving plate

Instructions

Whip the cream (optionally adding sugar and vanilla to taste).

Layer chocolate cookies with cream, into a small stack. Lay the stack down like a log on the serving plate. Add more cream-covered cookies until you (a) run out of room or (b) run out of cookies. You'd better not run out of cream, because you then have to cover the outside of the log with cream. Leave in the refrigerator overnight. Cut slices diagonally, so as to get striped cake!

Some people stand up glasses and cover the snowlog with plastic wrap (not touching the snowlog, just around it) so as to protect the snowlog from refrigerator odours.

Variations

  • peppermint in the cream
  • coffee in the cream
  • cocoa in the cream
  • ginger-snap cookies instead of chocolate
  • spread jam on the cookies as well as cream
  • decorate the finished cake with chocolate shavings, coconut, and the like.

[1] Note On Chocolate-Ripple Biscuits

This dish is so popular in Australia that the biscuits for making Chocolate Ripple Cake are called "Chocolate Ripple" biscuits. But that's not the case for the rest of the world. So what biscuits (or cookies) can you use instead?

For Americans, I think Oreo Cookies will do. To be more certain it will work, you will need to separate the cookie-sandwich and scrape off the filling and just use the separate cookies. This is because, if you don't separate the cookies, the moisture from the cream is only coming in from one side, so the cookie may not soften enough to give it a cake-like consistency.

For everyone else, I'm afraid I have no idea what a good substitute would be. If you can find a plain chocolate-flavoured biscuit, with no icing or cream or chocolate coating, then try that.