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Prince William Squares

Prince William Squares. A downsized version of the no bake UK favourite, chocolate biscuit cake, but made into smaller portions as cookie squares.

Prince William Squares close up image on white serving platter.

Prince William Squares.

I first wrote about chocolate biscuit cake around the time of the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. That was way back in April of 2011. It was chosen by the prince as the groom’s cake at the wedding reception. Read that post here.

The full recipe makes quite a large “cake”, which in reality is more akin to a giant sliceable chocolate bar. It is great to have around at the holidays to be enjoyed in small slivers, like fruitcake.

Prince William's Chocolate Biscuit Cake

The full chocolate biscuit cake is perfect for dessert for a large group or to be enjoyed over the course of a week. This favourite of the entire royal family is rumoured to be required to return to the dinner table every day until finished.

Most dessert leftovers, apparently go to the palace staff but not this one. I can definitely see why. With all that creamy smooth chocolate interspersed with crunchy cookie chunks, it is pretty irresistible.

Dark Chocolate Chips, to melt and dip the biscotti

Dark Chocolate Chips at 50% cocoa, is my preference, but you can use whatever chocolate you like best.

Prince William Squares are a new holiday favourite.

This year during the holidays, I again wanted to serve this delicious, super easy, no bake treat on Christmas day. With my Pecan Pie already on the dessert menu as well as my simplified Christmas Pudding, a full cake would just be overkill.

In order to downsize the recipe, I decided to do what I had thought about for a while. Make the recipe as no bake cookie bars! I figured making them at half the height of the cake would be ideal for more bite sized treats.

Prince William Squares shown on parchment paper

Prince William Squares, ready to cut.

With a little applied geometry was required to adjust from a round 9 inch springform. I figured making a half batch in a 9×9 square pan would work well. It worked out beautifully.

The original cake recipe calls for a covering of ganache over the whole cake. That layer is really nice for presentations sake. I did not feel it was necessary in this case so I omitted that step in the recipe.

The cookies/biscuits in this recipe.

McVities Digestive Biscuits.

McVities Digestive Biscuits. This recipe uses about half a 400 g package.

The digestive biscuits (cookies) in this recipe could be substitutes for any crisp cookie you like if they are not available in your area. McVities Digestive biscuits are what I used and they are readily available across Canada.

My Christmas guests loved these little squares, particularly my daughter Olivia, who may have eaten half the batch over a few days!

If you liked this recipe you many want to check out this great collection of No Bake Cookies that was incredibly popular during our last Holiday season.

No Bake Christmas Cookies Collage with title text for Pinterest

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Prince William Squares image with title text for Pinterest

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Prince William Squares close up image on white serving platter.
Yield: 36 cookie squares

Prince William Squares

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Prince William Squares. A downsized version of the UK favourite, chocolate biscuit cake, but made into smaller portions as cookie squares.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound dark chocolate, roughly chopped (or 2 2/3 cups chocolate chips)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • small pinch salt, (omit if choosing to use salted butter)
  • 2 tbsp whipping cream
  • 3 tsp golden syrup, or corn syrup
  • 1/2 pound digestive biscuits, broken by hand into postage stamp sized pieces

Instructions

  1. Lightly grease a 9x9 inch pan and line with parchment paper.
  2. Melt the butter over medium low heat.
  3. Add the chocolate and salt and continue over medium low heat until the chocolate is fully melted.
  4. Remove from heat and stir in the whipping cream and golden syrup until smooth.
  5. Fold in the broken biscuits and pour into the prepared pan that has been lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper.
  6. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
  7. Remove from pan and cut into 36 small squares or 24 cookie bars if you prefer them larger.

Notes

NOTE: I have made this recipe with salted butter. Just omit the pinch of added salt in the recipe.


Total time includes chilling time for the squares. They will need a couple of hours to chill and set.


The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

Nutrition Information

Yield

36

Serving Size

36 cookie squares

Amount Per Serving Calories 128Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 9mgSodium 25mgCarbohydrates 13gFiber 1gSugar 9gProtein 1g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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Margaret

Monday 14th of November 2022

The recipe for the full cake calls for pound of butter but the above recipe is for half the batch and all ingredients are half the full cake EXCEPT the butter which is 1/2 cup (above). Shouldn't it be a half pound, which is 1 cup? These are expensive ingredients and I don't want to ruin it, so if you could clarify it would be appreciated. Thanks!

Steph

Sunday 16th of October 2022

Does this freeze successfully? I very much enjoy this site- having first come across it with a recipe for "Moose Farts" that got me hooked .Thanks.

Sheila Ferguson

Wednesday 27th of April 2022

I first made this in 1970s I had a small mcvities paperback book of theirs and it was lived by my then small daughters. I always added a few chopped nuts for extra texture.havnt made it in years as I forgot about it. But will surprise my now grown daughters and grandchildren by making it.

Wendy

Sunday 18th of April 2021

I make a similar recipe that my Aunt gave me 40 years ago topped with coffee buttercream. One of my favorites.

Heather Oswald

Monday 21st of December 2020

I'm wanting to make this for Christmas but I notice some big differences between this and the version posted by The Royal Chef. Yours doesn't use an egg and doesn't include creaming butter and sugar together at the start. Can you advise why the differences so I can decide which direction would be best for me?

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