Anzac caramel ripple cake

So the Anzac is a simple biscuit. Oats, coconut, flour, sugar etc etc. It's to be enjoyed with a cup of tea or an instant coffee. It's not fancy or ostentatious. Until I went and did this.

Have you ever enjoyed a chocolate ripple cake? Chocolate ripple biscuits sandwiched together with cream, then slathered with even more cream? That always seemed so indulgent to me, but then I had a brainwave. I could out-indulge the over-indulgent. Mega indulgent, so to speak.

This idea must be credited to a lovely lady I worked with a few jobs ago. Pat was such a gem: reliable, great bawdy sense of humour and totally calm in very stressful situations (she may have been my exact opposite, except for the bawdy part). She was even more beloved when she brought a gingernut caramel ripple cake to work. It was out of this world: soft, a little spicey and so, so creamy.

I figured Anzacs would make a fantastic alternative to gingernut biscuits. As much as I love Anzacs, I can never eat an entire batch. This makes light work of around 15 biscuits and two, count 'em: two, other ingredients.

The caramel is pretty simple to make, but can be dangerous. We don't need a faceful of hot caramel now, do we? A couple of simple rules: put the tin into cold water, then turn on the heat. Boil for about three hours and only take it out once the water has cooled. Don't boil to fast and keep the water topped up. Or you could just buy a tin of caramel topping (cheat).

So, this may not be what the was intended when the Anzac was first created. Quite the opposite, in fact: the Anzac's most prized quality was that it kept for so long. Sandwiching them with cream and caramel may go against that grain just a little. But when you see this log of loveliness every time you open the fridge door, it won't be long before it's in your belly. You may take pride in your willpower (go you! Not a hint of sarcasm here!) but this will push you to your limits.
This is Anzac to the power of cream. You don't stand a chance.

Ingredients

15 Anzac biscuits
600ml cream
1 tin condensed milk

Fill a large pasta pot with cold water. Put in the sealed tin of condensed milk and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer slowly for 3 hours and turn off the heat. Allow water to cool before you remove the tin from the water. Fill a piping bag with the caramel in the tin.

Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Take an anzac biscuit and pipe a round of caramel onto the biscuit around the size of a 50 cent piece. Repeat with each biscuit and spread across until one size is completely covered.

Spread a layer of cream on your presentation platter. Spread one side of a biscuit with cream and stand on its side on the cream on the platter. Repeat with the remaining biscuits, sandwiching them sideways across the platter.

Once all biscuits are completely covered in caramel and cream, slather with the remaining cream across the top and sides of the log. Top with grated chocolate if desired.