Chef Joost
Borstplaat (Dutch Sinterklaas Fondant)
Borstplaat began as sugar for the chest and ended as Sinterklaas candy: a pale slab of cream, crystals, and winter thrift that sets before you can change your mind.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Bokkenpootjestaart
Created by
Goat-hoof biscuits made into a whole taart: almond meringue, chocolate, advocaat, and cream, the Dutch bakery counter quietly becoming a dinner-party secret.
Desserts
Dutch
Make Ahead
Celebration
Dinner Party
35 min
Active Time
0 min cook•4 hr 35 min total
Yield10 slices
The name already tells you this cake is not pretending to be grand. Bokkenpootjes means little goat's feet, and once you see the biscuit, two almond-meringue halves joined with cream and dipped at both ends in chocolate, the joke is obvious. Dutch bakers have always had a talent for giving elegant things plain little names. For obvious reasons, this pleases me.
In my grandmother's second notebook, celebration cakes are often less about baking than assembling. A bought biscuit was not a confession of weakness; it was a perfectly respectable building block if you chose the right one. But let me tell you a secret: bokkenpootjestaart works because the biscuit already carries three textures before you begin: crisp almond meringue, soft filling, and dark chocolate at the feet. Add advocaat, that thick Dutch egg liqueur with its old holiday smell of yolk, vanilla, and brandy, and the cake becomes less a recipe than a clever piece of household architecture.
So we keep it honest. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. A pressed biscuit base, a cream-cheese and advocaat filling firm enough to slice, broken bokkenpootjes folded through so every forkful finds almond and chocolate, then a long cold rest. The refrigerator does the work while you set the table, which is exactly the sort of kitchen wisdom no academy improves by naming it.
Bokkenpootjes became a familiar Dutch bakery biscuit in the twentieth century, though their structure belongs to the older European almond-meringue family: crisp nut meringue, a cream filling, and chocolate-dipped ends. The name means little goat's feet, a practical baker's joke about the split shape and dark chocolate tips rather than a grand origin myth. Bokkenpootjestaart is a later home-kitchen refrigerator cake, especially suited to birthdays and dinner parties, where ready-made biscuits and advocaat turn Dutch pantry staples into a make-ahead celebration dessert.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
digestive biscuits or Dutch biscuitjes
Quantity
250g
unsalted butter
Quantity
100g
melted
bokkenpootjes
Quantity
300g
some chopped, some reserved for decorating
full-fat cream cheese
Quantity
400g
at room temperature
whipping cream
Quantity
250ml
cold
advocaat
Quantity
120ml
icing sugar
Quantity
80g
sifted
vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
gelatine sheets or powdered gelatine
Quantity
5 sheets or 10g
cold water (optional)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
for powdered gelatine
dark chocolate
Quantity
50g
shaved or finely chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| digestive biscuits or Dutch biscuitjes | 250g |
| unsalted buttermelted | 100g |
| bokkenpootjessome chopped, some reserved for decorating | 300g |
| full-fat cream cheeseat room temperature | 400g |
| whipping creamcold | 250ml |
| advocaat | 120ml |
| icing sugarsifted | 80g |
| vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| gelatine sheets or powdered gelatine | 5 sheets or 10g |
| cold water (optional)for powdered gelatine | 3 tablespoons |
| dark chocolateshaved or finely chopped | 50g |
Equipment Needed
- •20cm springform tin
- •Baking paper
- •Electric hand mixer
- •Mixing bowls
- •Small saucepan
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the tin
Line the base of a 20cm springform tin with baking paper. Crush the plain biscuits to fine crumbs, stir in the melted butter, and press the mixture firmly into the base. Use the bottom of a glass to make it level; a loose base gives you crumbs where a slice should be. Chill for 20 minutes.
- 2
Soften the gelatine
Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water for 5 minutes, or bloom powdered gelatine in the measured cold water. Warm 2 tablespoons of the advocaat gently in a small pan, then take it off the heat and dissolve the softened gelatine in it. Let it cool until just lukewarm. Do not boil it; advocaat is egg-rich and sulks under rough treatment.
- 3
Make the filling
Beat the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla, and remaining advocaat until smooth. In a separate bowl, whip the cold cream until it holds soft peaks, then fold it into the advocaat mixture. Stir in the cooled gelatine mixture in a thin stream. The filling should be thick, pale yellow, and spoonable, not stiff like mortar.
- 4
Fold the biscuits
Chop about 200g of the bokkenpootjes into rough pieces, keeping the chocolate ends visible where you can. Fold them through the filling gently. This is where the cake earns its name, so don't crush them to dust; you want bites of almond meringue and chocolate hiding all through the slice.
- 5
Fill and chill
Spoon the filling over the chilled base and smooth the top. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. The cold rest is not waiting time, it's structure: the biscuit base firms, the gelatine sets cleanly, and the advocaat settles into the cream.
- 6
Decorate and serve
Run a thin knife around the edge of the tin and release the cake. Arrange the remaining bokkenpootjes on top and scatter over the dark chocolate. Slice with a warm, dry knife for clean edges, wiping between cuts. Serve cold, in modest slices; this is a rich little beast.
Chef Tips
- •Use real bokkenpootjes from a Dutch bakery or a good Dutch supermarket if you can. The almond meringue should have a dry crispness and the chocolate ends should taste of chocolate, not only sugar.
- •Advocaat varies in thickness. If yours is very runny, keep the gelatine as written; if it is spoon-thick, the cake will set even more firmly and slice beautifully.
- •Make the cake the day before. Refrigerator cakes pretend to be convenient, but this one genuinely improves overnight as the biscuits soften just enough without disappearing.
- •For an alcohol-free table, use vanilla custard in place of advocaat and add a little extra vanilla. It will no longer tell quite the same holiday story, but it will still set a place for everyone.
Advance Preparation
- •Best made 1 day ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator.
- •Keeps well for 2 to 3 days refrigerated; add the top bokkenpootjes shortly before serving if you want them crisp.
- •Do not freeze; the cream filling can turn grainy and the meringue biscuits lose their clean bite.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 160g)
Calories
655 calories
Total Fat
46 g
Saturated Fat
25 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
20 g
Cholesterol
120 mg
Sodium
280 mg
Total Carbohydrates
49 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
34 g
Protein
9 g
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