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Choc Ripple Cake

An Aussie dessert tradition that involves a little magic!
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chocolate ripple cake

The Choc Ripple Cake is perfect for those who want to impress with minimum effort and maximum impact. 

You will, however, need to plan ahead a little.

This dessert needs at least 6 hours standing time in the fridge, preferably 12 hours. 

Provided you’re organised, though, this is a simple, versatile and decadent dessert. And the best thing? There’s absolutely no baking involved!

chocolate ripple cake

What’s so magic about Choc Ripple Cake?

So, you may be wondering how on earth you get those lovely strips of chocolate cake without baking.

Well, this “cake” involves a little trickery.

As the name suggests, the cake is really softened chocolate ripple biscuits. If I hadn’t made it myself, though, I’m not sure I’d suspect that the “cake” is really just biscuits softened by the cream filling. It really is very cake-y.

An Aussie tradition

Choc Ripple cake recipes started appearing in Australian newspapers in the 1930’s.

chocolate ripple cake ad
An advertisement appearing in Mebourne’s The Argus newspaper on 22 July 1954.

The biscuits, which are now made by Arnott’s, were originally made by Brockhoff.

After acquiring Brockhoff in the 1960’s, Arnott’s has continued to manufacture this popular chocolate-y biscuit. Which is good news, since it’s the star ingredient in this recipe.

And as you can read in the ad, if you like Chocolate Ripple biscuits, then “you’ll go crazy” over the cake.

The ad also suggests you sprinkle your cake with chopped walnuts, just as Nana Ling suggests in her recipe.

The great thing about this cake is that there are plenty of variations you can try, both in the flavouring you add to the cream and the added flavour sprinkled over the top of the cake.

And if Chocolate Ripple biscuits aren’t available in your country, just use any sweet chocolate cookies that come in a packet. 

Variation ideas for ripple cake

Nana Ling suggests wine or passionfruit juice to flavour the cream.

I’ve opted for Baileys Irish Cream here but you could add a number of other things, including vanilla essence or freshly brewed coffee.

Cream flavouring ideas

  • Bailey’s Irish Cream
  • Kahlua
  • other wines or liquers
  • vanilla essence
  • passionfruit juice
  • cinnamon
  • cocoa
  • rose water
  • coffee
  • chai
  • maple syrup
  • lavendar
  • mint.

Topping ideas

  • chopped walnuts
  • chopped almonds
  • chopped candied fruit
  • passionfruit pulp
  • shaved chocolate
  • rose petals
  • hundreds and thousands
  • lavendar
  • mint leaves
  • chopped strawberries
  • toasted coconut
  • sugar flowers (from cake decorating aisle at supermarket).

A great cake to make with kids

Miss Z made her own kids version of the Chocolate Ripple Cake, using vanilla essence to flavour the cream and grated chocolate to decorate.

kids chocolate ripple cake variation

Assembling your Chocolate Ripple Cake

The hardest part of this recipe – and it’s really not that hard once you see it done – is putting the cookies together with the cream. You also need to slice the cake diagonally to reveal the striped pattern.

Check out the short video in this post to see the easiest way to assemble and slice the cake. 

Nana Ling’s Chocolate Ripple Cake recipe

Keep scrolling for the tested and tweaked version.

choc ripple cake recipe handwritten
chocolate ripple cake

Chocolate Ripple Cake

An Aussie dessert tradition that involves a little magic!
4.93 from 14 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Australian
Keyword: Chocolate Ripple Cake
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Resting time: 6 hours
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 8 people
Calories: 159kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 packet Arnott's Chocolate Ripple biscuits (or 250 grams of any other sweet packet chocolate cookies)
  • 300 ml thickened cream
  • 2 Tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream (or wine, passionfruit juice or another other flavouring – adjusting the amount of flavouring depending on what you're using)
  • 2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts (or shaved chocolate, toasted coconut or another topping)

Instructions

  • Whip cream and Baileys (or other flavouring) until peaks form.
  • Smear cream along serving plate. Dollop cream on biscuits (generously) and sandwich the biscuits together with the cream so that they stand on their edge to eventually form a long log.
  • Cover the log with remaining cream and sprinkle with walnuts or your topping of choice.
  • Let stand overnight in the fridge (or at least for 6 hours).
  • Slice diagonally to serve.

Video

Notes

Nutrition value is calculated using Bailey’s Irish Cream and chopped walnuts version.

Nutrition

Calories: 159kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 15mg | Potassium: 39mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 550IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 27mg | Iron: 0.1mg
Recipe Rating




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Tonya

Monday 20th of September 2021

I tried this same recipe once with butternut snap biscuits (Australia), as my niece can't have chocolate or chocolate flavoured foods, with crumbled butternut snap biscuits as the topping. It's a bit like a Golden Gaytime cake, very nice. Just a suggestion/variation.

Libby Hakim

Monday 20th of September 2021

Hi Tonya - yum! I'll have to try that for sure and add it in as a variation idea. Thanks!

Sarah

Saturday 14th of December 2019

First time using Baileys. Delicious. Never would of thought of it. Thanks you.

Libby

Sunday 15th of December 2019

Hi Sarah. You're welcome, glad you liked it with Baileys! Thanks for the 5 star review, much appreciated ?

Kasey Thompson

Thursday 5th of December 2019

Absolutely fantastic I have been making the Choc Ripple Cake for my family for the past 5 years but just the traditional recipe! This year I am definitely doing this one thank you so much.

Libby

Friday 6th of December 2019

Awesome! Thanks for commenting, Kasey โ˜บ๏ธ

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