Marie biscuit choco logs, good for celebration(s) - no baking needed

Hey folks,
First off, wishing all of you, Sattvaa readers, friends, well wishers a wonderfully joyous, healthy, peaceful New Year 2015! May you all keep evolving into better people and make the world around a better place to live in. Hope you all had a great time celebrating in your own personal ways to usher in a new calendar year and made some resolutions too :-). I wish you strength to live through those resolutions if that was your original resolution :-)

Having seen a few decades go by under my feet (Na, not telling you how many), I am smart enough now to not make resolutions, but enjoy every step and every small change as an achievement. Isn't that what life is supposed to be? to be alive I mean, so here is another wish coming your way to be alive and make the most for yourselves and those around you.

We are currently on vacation (and hence why there have been no posts for the last week or so :-)), did some cruising around some great, warm beaches, ate & ate till the mid line split (almost :-)) and now walking till the legs give up every night in magical lands. I am sure that is enough information for all you smart folks to guess what I have been doing, having a wonderful time of my life. I may do a separate post with some pictures on it later. Here is one for the road taken on the road until then..

And something magical happened too on this vacation, I broke out of my fear of whatever it was and braved the odds with DD & BH on every single one of the stomach churning, free fall rides through blazing sun & chilling water. There was no pre resolution here but just the mommy instinct to be with the little girl who is so quickly growing up in the hopes of catching a few more moments together. I have been patting myself on the back for all the bravery I have been showing for last 2 days (and the patting also seems to alleviate pain in the aching neck & shoulder muscles a little bit :-))

Now that I have wished you all a Happy new year, it is time for you guys to wish me Sattvaa. The blog baby completes 3 terrific years and steps into a fun filled fourth. Still a toddler but trying to be grown up. I have said this before and I say it again that when I wrote my first post on that cold Dec night breaking into the dawn of a new year, not in my rarest of rare imaginations did I think I would keep posting recipes and sharing tales with you all this long. It continues to give me pleasure to come back and write here always. It has been a great journey with ups (from 3 posts a week) & downs (shameless disappearances for days), and thank you all for staying with me and cheering me on. I have lot more recipes and tales to share, keep visiting, share the joy with friends and keep the circle growing.

Back home in India, most everyone knows and enjoys tea time. I think it is a left over from the colonization effect. Many families gather around to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea with a plate of biscuits, rusks and other snacks. 'Marie' biscuits are slightly less sweet compared to other Indian brands and favored with the hot, brewed drinks as a 'dip in'. There is something special about a biscuit dunked in hot coffee or tea and eaten before it crumbles up into a soft mass.

Here is a no brainer dessert that turns this childhood treat into is a coffee lover's piece of heaven that requires no cook time or bake time. I have a strange relation to coffee, I love, love the smell of freshly brewed coffee and that is about it, I never drink coffee since I don't enjoy the taste. At the most, my system accepts a sip or two of the cold coffee. So this dessert was perfect for me and welcome for the family who unlike me enjoy coffee. If you don't like coffee, don't get misguided by what I have said so far, the taste is very subtle and I am sure you will get carried away by the gooey chocolate and the wafer like biscuit layer in between.

I know I had a lot to say about this recipe but I am missing most of them as the thoughts are a bit 'roamy' today and I am not finding it in me to be reflective. Though the post itself may not be as juicy to read, I promise the recipe will not be a disappointment. I will see you all again in a few days as we finish up our vacation and return back home. Shall we start?
What do you need to make biscuit cake?
12 biscuits, I used Marie but any tea biscuits will do
2 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 Tsp vanilla essence
1 Tsp cocoa powder
1 Tsp instant coffee, I used a starbucks single serve sachet
1/2 cup cold water

How to make biscuit cake?

• Pour the coffee powder into a bowl and add cold water into it. 

• Let it settle & brew for a couple of minutes.

• Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl, add sugar and beat them together with a spoon. 
• Add cocoa powder and fold it in. 
• Add vanilla essence and mix. 

• Lay a sheet of aluminium foil or parchment paper on a working surface. 
• Take a biscuit, dip in the brewed coffee and immediately take it out. 

• Lay it on the foil and spoon a tiny bit of the butter mixture and spread it gently. 
• Dip the second biscuit and stack it on top of the first one, repeat spreading the butter mixture. 

• Continue to do this for 6 (or as high as you want) biscuits. 
• Take a generous spoon of butter mixture and apply all around the biscuits log evenly. 

• Fold up the foil and refrigerate for 2 hours or until it hardens. 

• Repeat for the remaining 6 biscuits.
• Cut crosswise and enjoy the wafery, cocoa biscuits. Cover and freeze back remaining portions. 

Notes: 

• I used nutella once but it is harder to spread. 
• Use milk to brew coffee if you want richer taste.
• Add finely chopped or coarsely ground roasted nuts of choice to the butter cream for a nutty crunch. 
• Add coffee to cold liquid, as otherwise biscuits will start to crumble as soon as you dip. 

• You can substitute the butter mixture with melted chocolate.
• Use flavored (orange, lemon etc) tea biscuits to go adventurous.