Baileys Chocolate Lasagne

This dessert is an extremely indulgent one, and not one that you would find yourself eating every day. This is the type of dessert that I would serve at a dinner party, or perhaps when friends were coming over for tea and cake.

It's extremely easy to make, yet it tastes so good that your friends will think you've been slaving over it for hours.

 

Baileys, for me, is a drink that I would often have at the end of an evening with friends. I like mine in coffee, whereas the husband takes his straight, over ice. It's also very much a holiday drink, and only last week I was enjoying a Baileys and Amaretto beside the hotel pool in Majorca with my friends.

It's also an ingredient that I will often add to a dessert to give it a touch more indulgence, and have included in recipes such as Irish soda bread, orange & Baileys Ice Cream, Baileys Coffee Cupcakes, Cheesecake, Chocolate Irish coffee pots and Chocolate Chai Tea Cocktail.

Once assembled, this dessert will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, making it great to make ahead before your guests arrive.

Baileys Chocolate Lasagne - serves 8 full slices or 16 half slices

for the chocolate cake
75ml boiling water
3 tbsp cocoa powder
200g butter, melted
200g caster sugar
3 medium eggs (approx 200g weighed in their shells)
200g self raising flour

filling
400ml double cream
450g mascarpone
130ml Baileys
50g caster sugar
1 chocolate Flake (or grated milk chocolate)

• Whisk the cocoa powder into the boiling water and then add to a bowl with the melted butter & caster sugar
• Mix until smooth and allow to cool slightly
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time
• Fold in the flour until well combined
• Pour batter into a greased & lined 13"x9" baking tin
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 20 minutes, until springy to the touch
• Remove from oven & allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool fully
• Once the cake is cool, trim off any uneven edges & slice through it to give 2 thinner layers, and cut each of these in half to get 4 slices of sponge, equal in size
• To assemble the lasagne you can either do it in a tin or on a plate
• Lay the first layer of sponge in the tray and brush with a little Baileys to moisten it, but don't make it soggy
• Whisk the cream, mascarpone, 100ml Baileys and sugar together until peaks form (don't over whisk or it will become dry and difficult to spread smoothly)
• Spread approximately quarter of the cream mixture onto the layer of sponge
• Place another layer of sponge on top and brush with a little of the remaining Baileys 
• Repeat with the cream layer until all the layers have been formed
• Sprinkle with the crushed Flake (or grated milk chocolate)
• Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving

This complete recipe contains approx 130ml of Baileys Original Irish Cream, which is equivalent to just under 2.7 units of alcohol. The NHS recommend that you do not regularly exceed 3-4 units for men and 2-3 units for woman a day.

If you like what you see here then please consider voting for me in the 2015 Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards, in the food category. Thank you.

This post has been commissioned for Baileys

Mum's Emergency Microwave Chocolate Cake

Last Sunday I went to London for the Comic Relief Danceathon, and was out of the house for 14 hours. I left dinner for the family that they just needed to reheat once they got home after football. They couldn't find anything in the house for pudding and Sam was dispatched to the local shop for a chocolate swiss roll, which they ate with custard. 

Next month I'll be away for a few days so I thought it was time that I got the recipe for my emergency chocolate cake written up, to make sure they're not left without a pudding again.

The cake takes just a couple of minutes to prepare and only 4 minutes to cook in the microwave, which means it's actually quicker to make this from scratch than it is to go to the shop and buy one. It's mixed and cooked in the same bowl, which means less washing up too. If cooked in a glass bowl it makes it easy to see if it's cooked underneath, as well as it coming away from the sides easily and being easy to turn out.

It can be eaten warm, straight from the microwave with custard or ice cream, or allowed to cool and decorated with whatever you have available - last week I had some cream that needed using up so I made a chocolate sauce, and this week I topped with some caramel sauce and fudge pieces.

Mum's Emergency Microwave Chocolate Cake

2 eggs
butter *
2 tbsp cocoa powder
75ml milk
caster sugar *
self raising flour *

*weigh both of the eggs in their shells and this will give you the weight for the butter, sugar and flour. (ie if 2 eggs in their shells weigh 140g you need 140g of each of butter, sugar and flour)

• In a large microwaveable glass bowl melt the butter
• Whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth
• Whisk in the milk, sugar and eggs, until smooth
• Then whisk in the flour, but don't over mix, scraping the sides down with a spatula as you go
• Cover the bowl with clingfilm and microwave on high for 4 minutes (this time may vary depending on the power of your microwave - a glass bowl enables you to see if it's cooked underneath)

Rich Mocha Cake with Belgian Chocolate Buttercream

Another month has passed, which means another birthday, and another birthday cake. This time it was for Sam's 14th birthday (14! how did that happen?). Last year he requested a carrot cake but as there were no special requests this year I decided on a mocha cake using my favourite chocolate cake recipe, and topped with a Belgian chocolate buttercream.

I've made this cake a few times before, sometimes with espresso and sometimes with instant coffee. This time I used Dolce Gusto Ristretto Ardenza, a short, full bodied shot of coffee with a creamy layer, which is my new favourite morning drink.

A photo posted by thecrazykitchen (@thecrazykitchen) on Oct 10, 2014 at 5:13am PDT

Rich Mocha Cake 
100ml espresso (2 shots)
35g cocoa powder
190g caster sugar
1 egg
60ml vegetable oil
125ml milk
115g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Belgian Chocolate Buttercream
150g butter, softened
300g icing sugar, sifted
4tbsp room temperature water (or cooled espresso)
150g Belgian milk chocolate, melted

• Beat together the espresso, cocoa powder and sugar until smooth
• Beat in the egg, oil and milk
• Sift together the flour, baking powder & bicarb of soda
• Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix well
• Divide the mixture between four 6" tins, greased & lined with baking paper (or two 8" tins)
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 12-15 minutes for 6" tins ( a little longer for 8")
• Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely
• Beat together the butter & icing sugar
• Add the water and beat until light and fluffy
• Beat in the melted chocolate until fully combined
• Use the buttercream to sandwich the cakes together and spread the remaining buttercream over the top and sides
• I topped with chocolate lollipops made from Belgian chocolate poured into football & number lollipop moulds

I was provided with the Dolce Gusto coffee capsules & espresso cups free of charge

Mother's Day Cake

On Mother's Day last year my parents came for lunch along with my Mother in law, and I made a raspberry cheesecake. The year before my eldest made me a lovely chocolate cake, as well as writing me a tear jerker of a poem which he read out in school assembly.

This year it's going to be a quiet affair, with just the 5 of us (unless there are any surprises that I don't know about!) as my parents are going to my brother's for the weekend. Instead they are visiting us this weekend, which times in nicely with Coppenrath & Weise challenging me to decorate a cake for Mother's Day.

I'm the first to admit that my fondant icing skills leave a lot to be desired so I opted for the 'more is more' approach and loaded up the cake with double cream whipped with Galaxy caramel hot chocolate, topped with Morello cherries and a bag of mini eggs.

I found a free printable Mother's day bunting on Pinterest which I tied to some dowels from the design kit.

The cake looked pretty impressive when it was finished and didn't take me long at all. It goes to show that you don't always need to bake your own cakes for a special occasion and can make a shop bought one your own with just a few additions.

I was provided with the cake and some additional items in the design kit for the purpose of this challenge.

Diabetic Toffee & Chocolate Cake

Last January I was asked by a friend if I could make a Ferrero Rocher chocolate cake for her daughter's 10th birthday. This year she asked me again to make a chocolate cake, but this time it would be a different kind of chocolate cake as her daughter was now a newly diagnosed diabetic.

I searched the Internet to see if I could find a cake that would be suitable that didn't just have sweeteners in it instead of sugar as they can often have an after taste.

I came across this one on Pinterest and thought it would be just the job. Instead of a buttercream frosting I decided to use my usual cream cheese frosting, but instead of adding chocolate spread to the cream cheese I added diabetic chocolate for the topping and diabetic toffee for the filling. The cake would also be suitable for those needing egg free and dairy free recipes (without my addition of the yoghurt and cream cheese frosting). 

Diabetic Toffee & Chocolate Cake

400g chopped dates

120g rolled oats, ground

6 ripe bananas

250ml rapeseed oil

100g cocoa powder

100g rye flour

150g plain flour

6 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

150g Greek yoghurt

• Place the chopped dates into a bowl and pour on boiling water until they are just covered - leave for an hour or so
• Blend the dates with the oats, bananas and oil until smooth
• Mix the cocoa powder with 200ml boiling water to form a smooth paste
• Beat the cocoa, flour, bicarbonate of soda and yoghurt into the blended dates, oats & banana
• Grease and line 2 x 8" cake tins (I actually used 3 so that we could have a sampler cake)
• Divide the mixture between the tins & smooth the tops
• Place in a preheated 160C oven for 50-60 minutes (cooking time will depend on the size of the tins used & the thickness of the batter), until a skewer comes out clean when inserted
• Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely

Frosting & Filling

300g full fat cream cheese

100g Thorntons diabetic vanilla toffee

75g Thorntons dark diabetic chocolate

• Add the toffee to a microwaveable bowl with 2 tbsp water
• Microwave on short bursts, stirring regularly, until the toffee has melted 
• Beat the toffee together with half of the cream cheese and sandwich between 2 sponges
• Add the chocolate to a microwaveable bowl and heat in short stirring regularly, until the chocolate has melted 
• Beat the chocolate together with the remaining half of the cream cheese and spread over the top of the cake

We really enjoyed our sample cake and it was delicious with a little of the toffee filling spread over it. Unfortunately we didn't get to try a slice of the birthday cake but I would be happy to make this again as all of my children liked it, especially with a little ice cream. Unfortunately the birthday girl wasn't as keen (but I'm not supposed to know that as she told my daughter not to tell me, shhhh). It's definitely not a cake for someone with a massive sweet tooth but for someone that needs to cut down on their sugar intake it is a very good compromise.

The texture of the cake is kind of like a brownie and quite nutty, and would be perfect with a spoonful of clotted cream!

Chocolate and Cherry Cake

Even though I've tried to cut down on my baking recently, as the temptation to eat is too great if there are home made cakes and cookies around, there is usually something freshly baked and sweet smelling coming out of the oven, I just can't help it.

I received a silicone 'I heart Cake' mould from find me a gift to review last week and the temptation to bake a cake was just too great. I opted for a chocolate cake as I had quite a lot of yoghurt in the fridge and this chocolate cake recipe is really moist due to the addition of the yoghurt. I would normally use Greek yoghurt but this time it was a fruity flavour which didn't matter due to the addition of the cherries - you could try altering the taste of the cake using different flavour yoghurts. It's a very simple cake with a very simple icing. You could leave the cherries out if you prefer, or substitute with other fruits.

Chocolate and Cherry Cake

175g Stork

175g Caster sugar

3 eggs

150g self raising flour

25g Cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

100g yoghurt

100g frozen Morello cherries

icing

100g dark chocolate spread

50g yoghurt

a few thawed Morello cherries

• Beat the Stork with the sugar until light & fluffy
• Beat in the eggs one at a time
• Fold in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder
• Stir in the yoghurt and cherries until combined
• Pour the mixture into the greased baking tin
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 30-35 minutes until the top is springy
• Leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning out of the tin and cooling fully on a wire rack
• Beat the chocolate spread and yoghurt together until smooth
• Once the cake has cooled, spread the icing over and add a few cherries on top

The cake mould is designed so that it can be sliced into 6 heart shaped cakes. They are very large slices but no-one was complaining here. The cake turned out really well without sticking and I found the easiest way to do this was buy covering it with a plate and turning it out onto that before turning the cake from the plate onto the cooling rack.

It would be great to use on Valentines day for cake, jelly, cheesecake or even ice cream.

The mould retails for £14.99 from find-me-a-gift.co.uk

I was sent the cake mould but the recipe is my own

2-of-your-5-a-day Chocolate Cake

When I created my last recipe for the Swallow's Recipes for Life challenge, I also promised a chocolate cake, so here it is. It's a lovely moist cake that takes no time at all to make, and best of all has hidden veggies in. The topping is my favourite quick topping for chocolate cake as it's not too sweet but lovely and chocolatey. I usually use dark chocolate spread from Asda but the supermarket I shopped in last weekend only had milk chocolate spread, soyou just need a bit more.

You can read more about the Recipes for life challenge here, this month the ingredients are beetroot, carrots and cheese, and believe it or not, this cake has all 3.

2-of-your-5-a-day Chocolate Cake

150g cooked carrots
135g cooked beetroot (not pickled)
185g butter, softened
285g Caster sugar
5 Eggs
285g SR flour
40g Cocoa powder
2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
200g Cream cheese (full fat works best)
200g Chocolate spread

• Add the carrots, beetroot, butter, sugar & eggs to a food processor & blitz until smooth
• Mix the flour with the cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda
• Add the flour mix to the food processor with the motor running until all combined
• Pour into a greased & lined rectangular cake tin (approx 32cm x 22cm)
• Bake in a 200 C oven for 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean when inserted
• Allow to cool in the tin
• Beat the cream cheese and chocolate spread together and spread over the cooled cake
• Decorate as desired or just sprinkle with cocoa powder

 

Neither the beetroot or carrot can be detected in the cake, and in the words of my 10 year old beetroot hating daughter 'it's soooooo good'.

This has been entered into the Rix November challenge

Best Ever Chocolate Cake (version 2)

At the weekend I had the urge to make a cake, possibly something to do with the cold weather, or maybe the bottle of fizz that I'd consumed the night before. I didn't have any Greek yoghurt or chocolate spread to make my 'best ever chocolate cake' so I improvised with what I had in the cupboards, as there was no way I could buy what I needed as we were snowed in. Well maybe 'snowed in' is a bit dramatic but I definitely didn't fancy taking the risk for the sake of a cake. The result was just as good as the best ever chocolate cake and lasted only a day - just don't tell my kids that 2 of their chocolate reindeer's went into making it!

Best Ever Chocolate Cake (version 2)


175g Stork for baking
175g Soft Dark brown sugar
150g Self Raising Flour
25g Cocoa Powder
1 tbsp Baking Powder
3 Eggs
1 Milk Chocolate Reindeer (120g), melted
50ml Almond Milk

Icing
200g Full Fat Cream Cheese
1 Milk Chocolate Reindeer (120g), melted
3-4 tbsp Almond Milk

• Beat the Stork & sugar
• Sift the flour, cocoa & baking powder together
• Add the dry ingredients along with the eggs, melted chocolate and milk
• Beat well until combined
• Divide mixture between 2 x 8" round pans that have been greased & lined with baking parchment
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 25 minutes, until the tops are springy
• Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tins & allowing to cool fully on a wire rack
• Beat the cream cheese, melted chocolate and almond milk together
• Sandwich the 2 cakes together with half of the icing and use the rest to spread over the top
• Decorate as desired - I used red M&M's

Best Chocolate Cake Ever

After seeing some of the indulgent birthday cakes I made towards the end of last year, I got asked by a couple of friends to make a cake for them. The first one that I was asked for was a LEGO cake. I'm the first to admit that I'm not great with the decoration on cakes, especially large birthday cakes, so I knew this would be a challenge.

I made silicone moulds using food grade silicone & Lego bricks and then used these to make bricks from coloured icing. It was quite time consuming with only 2 moulds and each brick needing approximately 5 minutes in the freezer before popping out, but the result was worth it and there was one happy boy who declared it was the 'best cake ever'.

The second cake was a lot simpler - decorated with a box of 16 Ferrero Rocher.

Both cakes were made using the same recipe, which I've used lots of times before - Chocolate Fudge Cake. I've recently discovered a new way of making a very tasty (and easy) chocolate icing, which I used for both of these cakes too. It just uses 2 ingredients, cream cheese and chocolate spread and results in a really rich and chocolatey topping, and, unlike many butter icings, isn't too sweet. For a Ferrero Rocher cake you could use Nutella to give it more of a nutty taste.

Best Chocolate Cake Ever

175g Stork for baking
175g Soft Dark brown sugar
150g Self Raising Flour
25g Cocoa Powder
1 tbsp Baking Powder
3 Eggs
100ml Greek Yoghurt

Icing
300g Full Fat Cream Cheese
200g Dark Chocolate Spread

• Beat the Stork & sugar
• Sift the flour, cocoa & baking powder together
• Add the dry ingredients along with the eggs & yoghurt
• Beat well until combined
• Divide mixture between 2 x 8" round pans that have been greased & lined with baking parchment
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 25 minutes, until the tops are springy
• Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tins & allowing to cool fully on a wire rack
• Beat the cream cheese & chocolate spread together 
• Sandwich the 2 cakes together with some of the icing and use the rest to cover completely

Alternative Christmas Pudding

This year there will be 11 of us for Christmas dinner and, as well as the usual Christmas pudding, I'm probably going to be serving up a couple of other desserts, just in case anyone has any room left. One of the guests is a tad fussy though, but I'm reliable informed that he will eat a chocolate steamed pudding. With this in mind, along with OXO and Mermaid sending me a couple of their new products I've created a chocolate steamed pudding that I hope my fussy guest will approve of. Of course I won't be revealing the secret ingredient to him until after he (hopefully) eats his last mouthful.

Steamed Avocado & Chocolate Pudding

50g Dark (70%) Chocolate
50ml Double cream
2 medium Avocados (approx 110g of flesh)
tsp lemon juice
110g Soft dark brown sugar
2 Eggs
110g Self Raising flour
20g Cocoa powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Chocolate sauce
50g Dark Chocolate 
100ml Double Cream
2 tbsp Golden Syrup

• Heat the cream and chocolate gently in a microwaveable bowl until chocolate has melted, stir until smooth
• Place the chocolate/cream into the fridge until almost set
• In the meantime use an OXO Good Grips Avocado slicer* to scoop out the avocado flesh from the skin and remove the stone.
• Mash the Avocado with the lemon juice until smooth
• Beat in the sugar and eggs
• Stir in the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda & mix well
• Grease a Mermaid 2 pint pudding basin**
• Pour half of the mixture into the basin and make a shallow well in the centre
• Scoop out the (almost) set chocolate/cream mixture and place into the well
• Cover with the remaining mixture
• Cover the basin with 2 layers of foil & place in a steamer over boiling water
• Steam for approx 1 1/4 hours
• Heat the cream, chocolate & golden syrup gently until the chocolate has melted
• Turn the pudding out onto a plate and pour the sauce over

Serve with ice cream

* The OXO good grips avocado slicer is a handy little tool that is invaluable if you eat lots of avocados - it slices through the skin, makes removing the stone easy and then removes the flesh at the same time as slicing it, no matter how ripe your avocado is. This would be great to use when preparing avocados for salads.

** The Mermaid pudding basin is an excellent quality basin, made of hard anodised Aluminium and has a wide rim making it easy to tie string around to make lifting out of a steamer easier. The pudding that I made released easily from the basin, intact.

I was sent the avocado slicer and pudding basin to use in creating a recipe

Chocolate Banoffee Celebration Cake

Twelve years ago today I became a Mum for the first time. Over those very fast twelve years my baby boy has gone from this

to this.

A birthday wouldn't be a birthday without a cake so today I've been making one for Sam, he specifically asked for caramel crunch chocolate fingers and no vegetables! Here's what I made

Chocolate Banoffee Celebration Cake

3 small bananas, mashed (approx 250g)
150g butter, softened
225g soft brown sugar
4 eggs
225g Self Raising flour
40g Cocoa powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• Beat the banana, butter & sugar together
• Add the eggs, one at a time with a little of the flour with each egg
• Sift in the remaining flour with the cocoa powder & bicarbonate of soda
• Divide mixture between two 8" sandwich tins & bake in a 180 C oven for approx 25 minutes
• Remove from tins & cool on a wire rack

Filling, Topping & Decoration

100g Toffees
1 tbsp boiling water
400g Full Fat Cream cheese
220g Dark chocolate spread
1 small banana, thinly sliced
3 boxes of Cadbury's Caramel Crunch chocolate fingers
8 Cadbury's Caramel miniatures

• Melt the toffees & water in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water
• When melted, beat until smooth & remove from the heat
• Beat in the 100g of the cream cheese & set aside
• Beat the remaining cream cheese with the chocolate spread
• Spread half of the caramel over the base of one of the cooled sponges & lay slices of banana on top
• Spread the other half of the caramel over the base of the other sponge and sandwich them together
• Cover completely with the chocolate topping & arrange fingers around the sides
• Decorate with the remaining fingers and halved chocolate caramels

(I've just double checked & I definitely put 12 candles on the cake...one of them must have been hiding!)

Devilishly Chocolatey Chocolate Orange Pumpkin & Potato Cake

Well the aim was for the cake to have pumpkin in it and I bought an 'edible' pumpkin especially for the purpose. First of all I was surprised that the flesh was so pale when I cut it open and then once I'd roasted it in the oven and scooped it out it seemed very watery, more of the consistency of a marrow than a pumpkin. Instead I decided to use some butternut squash and potato mash that I had leftover after making gnocchi. You need the mash to be quite firm so don't add any milk or butter to it.

The topping (I can't really call it icing as it doesn't have any icing sugar in) is perhaps the easiest think I've ever made - it was one of those moments when you look in your cupboard and say 'ahh that'll work'...and thankfully it did.

Devilishly Chocolatey Chocolate Orange Pumpkin & Potato Cake

225g Potato/Butternut Squash/Pumpkin mash
150g Butter, softened
225g Soft Brown sugar
4 Eggs
225g Self Raising Flour
30g Cocoa powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Zest of 1 large orange and juice of half

Topping
200g Full Fat cream cheese
120g Chocolate spread
20g Cocoa Powder

• Beat the mash, butter and sugar together - don't be concerned it it looks a little curdled at this point
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, along with a tablespoon or two of flour with each egg
• Sift in the remaining flour along with the cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda
• Stir in the orange zest and juice and mix until everything is fully combined
• Pour into a greased and lined 24cm springform cake pan and bake in a preheated 180° C oven for approx 30 minutes
• Leave for 10 minutes before turning out and cooling on a wire rack
• Beat all of the topping ingredients together and spread over the cooled cake

I decorated this cake with chocolate tombstones made by melting Silver Spoon orange flavoured buttons and piping them onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. My writing leaves much room for improvement!

I have entered this into Mummy Mishaps I love Cake & One Ingredient Challenge at Franglais Kitchen and also We Should Cocoa at Hungryhinny and Chocolate Teapot /  Chocolate Log Blog