Bolo de BolachaNo-Bake Biscuit and Coffee Cake

Almost every Portuguese person has a childhood memory of bolo de bolacha at a birthday party. It needs no oven: you dip round Maria biscuits in strong coffee, stack them with layers of coffee buttercream, cover the whole thing and leave it in the fridge overnight. By morning the biscuits have softened into something close to tiramisu.

It's also one of the easiest cakes you'll ever make.

The recipe

Bolo de BolachaNo-Bake Biscuit and Coffee Cake

Maria biscuits dipped in strong coffee and layered with buttercream. Portugal's favourite no-bake birthday cake, assembled in 30 minutes and chilled overnight.

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Prep30 min

Cook0 min

Total30 min

Serves10

Ingredients

MetricUS

Serves

10

½×1×2×3×

• 2 packs Maria biscuits (about 400 g), the round, plain kind
• 300 ml strong coffee or espresso, cooled
• 250 g unsalted butter, very soft
• 200 g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp of the cooled coffee for the cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 2–3 extra biscuits, crushed, to decorate

Method

1. Beat the soft butter with the icing sugar for 4–5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in 2 tbsp coffee and the vanilla. It should taste strongly of coffee.
2. Pour the cooled coffee into a shallow bowl.
3. Dip a biscuit in the coffee for 1–2 seconds, just long enough to moisten it without it breaking. Place it on a serving plate. Repeat to make a flower of 7 biscuits (one in the middle, six around it).
4. Spread a thin layer of buttercream over the biscuits.
5. Repeat the layers of dipped biscuits and buttercream until you run out of biscuits, finishing with a layer of biscuits.
6. Cover the top and sides with the remaining buttercream and sprinkle with crushed biscuits.
7. Chill for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight, so the biscuits soften all the way through.

Notes

Clear ticks

Tap ingredients and steps to tick them off. Scaling changes the quantities at the start of each line; check the rest by eye.

Coffee matters

Use proper strong coffee: espresso or a moka pot brew. In Portugal, the obvious choice is a Delta or Nicola blend, the same coffee served in most cafés.

From the shop

What you’ll need

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Portuguese

Delta Cafés ground coffee bundle

Portugal's best-known coffee brand, the one in most cafés. Brew it strong for a bica after dinner.

Tip: Ground coffee, so it works in a moka pot or filter.

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Portuguese

Delta Q Quick espresso machine

A compact capsule machine from Delta, Portugal's biggest coffee brand, for a bica at home.

Tip: Uses Delta Q capsules only.

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Portuguese

Bordallo Pinheiro lemon dessert plate

Bright yellow lemon-leaf plate from the same Caldas da Rainha workshop. Perfect under a pastel de nata.

Tip: 20 cm across: dessert and side-plate size.

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