NO-BAKE 10 LAYER CAKE for our 10th!

I knew one thing for sure this year... I wanted to make a 10 layered cake for our 10th wedding anniversary. I somehow didn't want to stand by the oven baking layers after layers this year since we were all going through a round of fever,cold and cough and cake baking,even if it was for our anniversary was the last thing on my mind at that time. Even though I tried to push the thought of making a 10 layer cake away as much as I could, it came back to me with double the force! So I knew, I would be disappointing myself big time if I didn't put my plan into action!

This cake is a no-bake layered cake which you can customize to the number of layers you want it to be! I needed 10 and this particular measurement gives you 10 with enough frosting to cover it up. So if you need to build a bigger or a smaller cake, please scale the recipe accordingly. There's absolutely nothing to go wrong here,even a child can make it! It's super simple and extremely delicious!

So you basically need graham crackers and a good frosting. I chose the chocolate graham cracker because our kids love chocolate cakes and I was pretty sure it would do down well with them as well. You can choose to use regular graham crackers or even honey flavoured. This recipe is inspired by the Russian Honey cake where you make a batter first and then make several layers of cake by baking them separately.I've made the original version quite a few times before when we had friend's over and it was a massive success!

Given a choice, I would have gone for the longer route but with all what was going on at home, I just wanted to do the quick version and literally be done with it and have a cake for ourselves to enjoy the next day! So this cake barely needs 15 minutes of your time to be put together but it needs some good amount of chilling time so that the crackers get the the time to soften up and become cake like! It absorbs the moisture from the frosting and becomes really soft and a bit plump. No one can ever tell they were made using graham crackers!

NO-BAKE 10 LAYER CAKE
Serves 12-15

Ingredients:
4 sleeves of chocolate graham crackers (1 box + 1 sleeve from another box)
Frosting:
16 ounce / 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
One 8 ounce packet cream cheese, room temperature
4 ounce unsalted butter, room temperature
One 14 ounce can condensed milk
Topping:
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup heavy cream
Crumb:
4 extra crackers

Method:
Frosting: In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks and set aside.
In another large bowl, beat the butter along with softened cream cheese till it's smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the condensed milk and beat until it's well incorporated, about 1 minute.
Fold the whipped cream into the butter mixture carefully in 2-3 batches. Your frosting is ready!
Topping: Gently melt the chocolate and cream together in a microwave oven for about 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Set it aside.
Crumb: Crush the crackers into a fine powder using a rolling pin
Assembly : Take a large platter and dab a small amount of frosting in a rectangular shape. Place three chocolate crackers over it. Cover it with some frosting and repeat till all 10 layers are done. You will need 30 crackers in total for a 10 layered cake. Cover the top and sides with the frosting. Pour the ganache carefully just to cover the top. Gently press the crumb mixture to the sides of the cake. Let it chill for a minimum of 6 hours before serving.

This cake tastes absolutely delicious! Just look at that list of ingredients...how can it go wrong! :-)
It is a heavy, rich cake mostly because of the frosting, so serve them in small slices. Ian kept saying this is the best cake I've ever made and then he corrected himself saying...'Well, it's always like that!'