The British Cookie That Adds Extra Crunch To Your Chocolate Cake

When it came to the cakes Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed with her afternoon tea, the late monarch was all too happy to share the leftovers with her staff, with one notable exception. If the royal chef had baked chocolate biscuit cake, the queen made sure that her staff brought the cake to her day after day until she had finished it all herself, even sending her page to find out who had taken a missing slice. The queen's grandson, Prince William, shared her love for this unique confection, so much so he requested it as a groom's cake at his 2011 wedding to Princess Catherine. What made chocolate biscuit cake so special to the royal family may have been the biscuits themselves: the iconic McVitie's Rich Tea Biscuits.

McVitie's biscuits (the word "biscuits" being the British term for what Americans would call "cookies"), have been a U.K. grocery store staple since 1892. These dunkable, slightly sweet treats are meant to be enjoyed with tea or coffee. Made with flour, sugar, vegetable oil, malt extract, and leavening agents, they have a distinctive malt flavor. Adding a bit of extra crunch to every bite of dense chocolate, these biscuits can transform any ordinary chocolate cake into something worthy of royalty.

As alluded to above, one of the queen's favorite desserts (if not her absolute favorite) was a no-bake cake made with butter, dark chocolate, sugar, one egg, and McVitie's biscuits broken up into almond-size pieces and folded into the batter. If you want to recreate this at home, here's a vital tip: The batter is poured into a round cake ring and refrigerated for at least three hours. According to former Royal Chef Darren McGrady, it is best served right out of the refrigerator.

Another no-bake option — but one requiring a little more work than the royal recipe — is a multi-layered chocolate cake made up of thin layers of biscuits, cream cheese filling, and chocolate frosting. If you want to put your own spin on the biscuit cake, try using the cookies between layers in a baked cake or use the cookies as a base, giving you a little bit of crunch in that last bite. If you like the idea of disbursing the cookies inside the cake but don't want as much crunch, use fewer biscuits — or soak the biscuits in milk for a few seconds before adding them to the layer or breaking them apart.

McVitie's is one of several brands of Rich Tea biscuits, including those from British stores like Marks & Spencer and Tesco. Several are available at Amazon and World Market and in the international food section of some U.S. supermarkets. But if they'll help you make a chocolate cake that's fit for a royal, perhaps they're worth a quick trip to the U.K.