Today’s recipe is for a no-bake dessert. Interesting choice for a baking blog, right? Lol. 😂 But no-bake desserts and cakes can be an absolute lifesaver sometimes! For example, they’re great if you can’t use your oven but still want to make an impressive homemade dessert. Or if you live in a hot climate and turning the oven on is too overwhelming.
This cake is called a kiksekage, or a cookie cake. More precisely, it’s a “biscuit cake,” in the sense of the British English meaning of “biscuit.” It consists of 4-5 layers of a chocolate and egg mixture (with a texture almost like chocolate ganache you would use for truffles) and vanilla butter biscuits/cookies. When you slice into it, it reveals all the impressive layers, and it tastes absolutely amazing!
This is definitely an old-fashioned Danish cake. We didn’t have it much growing up, as it was more popular in the 70s and 80s. There are variations of this dessert all over Europe, so if this looks familiar to you, then there’s probably an equivalent in your country! Its origin can most likely be traced back to Italian chocolate salami confectionary, which is a sweet that consists of crushed-up biscuits covered in a chocolate mixture and rolled into a log. When sliced, it looks like salami!
In Denmark, it’s traditional to make kiksekage with palmin instead of butter, which is a vegetable-based shortening made of coconut fat, and cocoa powder. Our recipe allows for the use of either butter or palmin, and includes both regular chocolate and cocoa powder! As recipes go, this one is seriously so simple. Melt your fat, whether it’s butter or palmin, and once melted, add the chocolate and cocoa powder. Stir until you have a smooth chocolate mixture. Mix the egg and powdered sugar together in a separate bowl. Then, slowly stream the chocolate into the egg, whisking constantly. This will create a slightly thickened chocolate mixture that you can then layer with the biscuits. Leave this to set in the fridge for a few hours, then slice and enjoy!
Order the biscuits we like to use:
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Kiksekage (Chocolate Cookie Cake)
Ingredients
- 170 grams (12 tbsp) unsalted butter or palmin
- 100 grams (about one bar or 2/3 cup chocolate chips) dark chocolate (70% or higher)
- 50 grams (1/2 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 100 grams (1 cup) powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 sleeve RECTANGULAR vanilla butter cookies (we use these* [this is an affiliate link] but any from the grocery store will do!)
Instructions
- Melt the butter/palmin in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Once the butter/palmin is completely melted, turn off the heat and add the chocolate and cocoa powder. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and you have a smooth mixture.
- While the chocolate mixture briefly cools, whisk together the powdered sugar and egg in a separate heat-proof bowl or saucepan.
- Next, add the chocolate to the egg mixture. Pour in slowly and continually whisk so that the egg doesn’t curdle/cook.
- Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, line a loaf pan with cling film – make sure it covers everything so that the chocolate doesn’t leak out!
- Now, it’s time to layer the cookies and chocolate. Start with the chocolate mixture on the bottom, then add cookies, then chocolate, cookies, and continue until you run out of chocolate. The number of layers you get will depend on the size of your loaf pan, but we usually get at least 4-5 layers of cookies!
- Put the loaf tin in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours (the longer the better, overnight works best!).
- Once fully set, you can slice and enjoy! Tip: if you want clean slices, take the cake out of the fridge and leave it at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before slicing!
