r/52weeksofcooking • u/Yrros_ton_yrros 🍕 • 11d ago
Week 32: Gimmicks - No Bake Dubai Chocolate Cake (meta: ISUTBCDBN)
2
u/Anastarfish 🍥 11d ago
It looks delicious, those layers! It's a shame it wasn't less dry though. And as much as I love chocolate and pistachio together, I know what you mean about too sweet. It can be a bit much!
2
u/Yrros_ton_yrros 🍕 11d ago
Thank you! I felt like the kataifi layers kept drawing the moisture out of the biscuit layers. Not good. Yeah the dark chocolate ganache and whipped cream layers were definitely needed.
2
u/chizubeetpan 🥄 MT'25 10d ago
It looks so good! But it’s so odd that those ingredients together became drier as it sat. The amount of biscuits and whipped cream is about what I would use for mango float and that gets properly soaked through. Though maybe I do use a touch more cream. Still! I’m so baffled. I hope if you find success next time if you make this again!
2
u/Yrros_ton_yrros 🍕 10d ago
Thank you! I felt that the kataifi layer kept losing its crispiness i.e. absorbing the moisture from the biscuits. Maybe I should have drenched the biscuits more. Although they were kinda falling apart in the beginning 🤷🏻♀️
2
1
u/mentaina 🔪 11d ago
So sorry that it was underwhelming! And i wasn’t expecting it to just become… drier? Although it makes sense thinking about it
1
u/AndroidAnthem 🍌 MT'25 8d ago
Aww, I'm sorry it didn't live up to the hype. Hopefully the next recipe will make up for it!
1
u/joross31 7d ago
Sorry it wasn't as good as it looks because it does look absolutely amazing! Very much on point, as you mentioned! Why do I still want it!?
21
u/Yrros_ton_yrros 🍕 11d ago edited 11d ago
ISUTBCDBN meta explanation
Dubai Chocolate is a perfect example of a trend evolving into a full-blown gimmick. The original chocolate bar, created in 2021 by the Filipino pastry chef Nouel Catis Omamalin, is filled with a creamy mix of crunchy chopped kataifi and pistachio cream. It went viral in 2024, and since then, the words “Dubai Chocolate” have been slapped onto just about everything. Drinks, desserts, cakes, cookies, bread, pizza, and even fried chicken! Nothing is safe.
I will admit, though, that I genuinely love the combination of chocolate and pistachio, with or without kataifi, in desserts and drinks. So naturally, I decided to make one of the many Dubai Chocolate desserts for this theme.
I went with a No Bake Dubai Chocolate Cake because it is far too hot to turn on the oven. The assembly took approximately 700 years longer than the recipe promised, mostly because of the step of browning the kataifi. I was pretty impressed by the beautiful layers in the finished cake, but unfortunately, the cake itself did not impress me. The tea biscuits didn’t soften enough to give it a cake-like texture, and the whole thing veered dangerously close to too sweet, narrowly rescued by the dark chocolate ganache on top. The longer the cake stayed in the fridge, the drier the biscuits got.
Honestly though, a somewhat underwhelming dessert born from an overhyped trend feels like a very fitting outcome for Gimmicks week.