Easy no bake Christmas wreath cake ready in under 30 minutes. This fudgey chewy cake is filled with whole pistachios and dried cranberries for that Christmas taste.
Traditionally in Malta every year every family does the Christmas log, check out the recipe here. However this year I wanted to slightly change things up, but still keep things similar. For this year, I chose to serve this cake in the shape of a wreath. The other change I made is the filling. Unlike the most commonly used nuts; hazelnuts and walnuts, I opted for pistachios. Apart from adding that signature green colour, they make it delicious! And, what goes great with pistachios? Cranberries! They are also right in season, although here I use dried ones. For me, these two together scream Christmas.
No bake
Unlike other cakes, this cake is a no bake one. For this reason, the texture is more like that of a fudge with a chewier consistency. However, as it is no bake, it’s so easy to whip together and quite foolproof. All that’s needed, is to mix together crushed butter biscuits, condensed milk, pistachios, cranberries and rum (optional). Shape it up in a circle and generously cover it with melted chocolate.
Decoration
Here is where you can have fun. For this wreath I chose natural decorations as I used fresh rosemary and pomegranates, which can be easily be replaced by cranberries. You can also use synthetic decorations, however, remind the person eating it about this. If you don’t want it to be shaped as a wreath, simply shape it as you wish. It would be great shaped as a snowman, Santa Claus or a Christmas tree. The texture of this cake is easy to play with.
Make it vegan
This recipe here isn’t technically vegan. However, it’s so easy to make it vegan! All you need is to choose vegan biscuits and substitute the condensed milk. Great substitutes for condensed milk are vegan condensed milk, coconut cream, cashew cream or date paste.
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No Bake Christmas Wreath Cake
Ingredients
- 500 g Morning Coffee/Petit Beurre biscuits
- 100 g pistachio
- 100 g dried cranberries
- 400 g condensed milk
- 150 g white chocolate melted
- 125 ml Rum liquor optional
- fresh rosemary, fresh cranberries, pomegranates, etc to decorate
Instructions
- Start by roasting the pistachios until fragrant. Let them cool.
- In a food processor finely crush all the biscuits.
- In a large bowl, add the crushed biscuits, pistachios and dried cranberries. Combine together.
- Add the condensed milk and the rum, if desired. With your hands mix everything well together until you achieve a sticky mixture.
- Roll this mixture in a cylindrical shape and then close together the edges to create a circle. Set aside for now.
- Melt the chocolate and cover the dessert completely. Decorate with rosemary and pomegranates or cranberries to form a wreath.
- Let the chocolate harden before slicing through it.
If you have any questions, feedback or comments on this recipe, please leave a comment below. Please also rate this recipe by double clicking on the stars below. If you did make this recipe, tag @apronandwhisk and hashtag #apronandwhisk, as I’m curious to see what you create!
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Hi again Yesenia
Hope you are well.
In regards to the No Bake Christmas Wreath cake unfortunately in Australia it is impossible to find Morning Coffee or
Petit Beurre biscuits.
Are Arnott’s Malt-O-Milk Biscuits a possible substitute? Please see link for ingredients which includes wheat and malt similar to the Morning Coffee biscuit.
https://www.arnotts.com/products/plain-biscuits/simple-pleasures/malt
Also, I would like to make the cake with the most commonly used nuts; hazelnuts and walnuts as you mentioned. For the recipe would this then call for 50grams of each nut, with a total 100 grams?
Also what dried fruit would you recommend for these types of nuts?
Sorry for the numerous questions. I just love your recipe and would very much like to make it for a Maltese Christmas in Sydney.
Many thanks for all your wonderful recipes. The Maltese Imqarrun is an all time favourite in our household, thanks to you!
Take care
Warm regards
John Zammit
Hi John,
Thank you so much for your comment. Yes, I googled the biscuits and I think that they will work pretty well!
So, for the nuts you can either use 50g of each or even 100g of each. This will greatly depend on how much nuts you like in your log. In the traditional one, I use 100g of each for example. Both options will work great. If you are going to use hazelnuts and walnuts; apricots, dates and dried figs will work great.
If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask away.
Hope that you enjoy this recipe as well 🙂 I’m really glad that the Imqarrun is a favourite!
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
Yesenia