Nigella's Irish Cream Tiramisu

I spent a long time trying to decide which yummy Nigella recipe I would choose for my Party Party entry, but when I came across this recipe for Irish Cream Tiramisu, I just knew I'd found my recipe soulmate! 

I made just two amendments to the recipe, firstly, I halved the ingredients from the original, as it only needed to feed me and Gary. (This still made enough for 6 portions, so the original quantities would make a serious party dessert!) Secondly, when I came to measure out the Baileys, I had nowhere near enough left (I wonder where that could have all gone...?) so I made up the quantity by adding Tia Maria and some double cream. It worked a treat! 

You can find the original recipe here.

Ingredients

5 teaspoons espresso powder, dissolved in 175ml hot water then cooled

125 ml Baileys

200 grams savoiardi biscuits (lady fingers)

1 egg, separated

37 grams golden caster sugar

250 grams mascarpone cheese

1 tbsp cocoa powder

Method

Mix the cooled espresso with the half of the Baileys. Take half the savoiardi biscuits, and dip them one at a time in the espresso mixture, allowing them soak in enough liquid without getting soggy. Layer the soaked biscuits in the bottom of a 8''x4'' dish. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and the sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the remaining Baileys and the mascarpone, and whip together until well combined and smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg white until white and frothy. Add to the mascarpone mixture and fold in well. 

Add half of the mascarpone mixture to the dish and spread evenly over the first layer of biscuits. Soak the remaining biscuits and create a second layer. Add the remaining mascarpone mixture and spread over the top. 

Finally, sprinkle cocoa powder over the top of the dish, and refrigerate until ready to serve. 

This is my entry for this month's Forever Nigella, run by Maison Cupcake, and hosted by myself this month.

Aztec Cookies - Random Recipes Big 3-0

Aztec Cookies

I actually made these cookies right at the beginning of the month as soon as Dom announced the Random Recipes challenge, but it's taken me this long to get my act together and write them up. (See previous posts re: loss of mojo and subsequently getting it back) The challenge this month was to celebrate the 30th month of Random Recipes by selecting the 30th recipe from the 30th book on the shelf. 

My 30th book was The Great British Bake Off - How to Turn Everyday Bakes into Showstoppers. The 30th recipe was Aztec Cookies. I tend to have a fail-safe go-to cookie recipe, so this recipe was one that had so far passed me by, and probably would have continued to do so. On closer inspection however, I realised that these cookies contained all the things that are good in the world... chocolate, coffee, white chocolate and glitter! Win!

I made a couple of tweaks to the recipe, changing the flour to wholemeal as it's healthier, and using instant coffee and vanilla bean paste rather than extract as that's what I had to hand. These cookies are soft rather than chewy, and the wholemeal flour gave a really nice texture. I do prefer my cookies of the chewy variety, but I can't fault the flavour combination in these, and I'm a sucker for a sparkly baked treat! 

Ingredients

140 grams dark chocolate

2 tablespoons instant coffee granules 

65 grams salted butter

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

130 grams golden caster sugar

185 grams wholegrain plain flour

100 grams white chocolate

edible gold dust or glitter to finish

Method

Melt the dark chocolate and salted butter together over a bain-marie. Add the instant coffee and stir until completely dissolved. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and sugar. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir thoroughly. 

Sift in the flour, and fold into the mixture until fully combined. Roughly chop the white chocolate, and add to the mixture. 

Grease a baking tray, and heat the oven to 160 degrees.  Place spoonfuls of the mixture on the tray, leaving space for the cookies to spread. You should be able to fit roughly 6 cookies at a time on the sheet. 

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes, until they are just firm to touch, and the surface is cracked in appearance. Remove the tray, and using a pallet knife, slide the cookies onto a cooling rack. Repeat until you have used all of the mixture. 

Finally, sprinkle a little of the glitter over the still warm cookies for that extra special sparkle. 

Random Recipes is hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen

Caramel Latte Cake

I've been meaning to make a coffee cake for a few weeks now, but have been putting it off, because, if I'm honest, they never live up in reality to the image in my mind. I like my cakes moist and packed with flavour, and I tend to find coffee cakes dry, and monotone in taste - I guess I've just never found the right recipe. So I was quite excited when, in the middle of an insomnia fuelled sleepless night last week, I came up with this gem of an idea, and when it came out of the oven even better than I had hoped, I just had to share it with you all... 

Caramel Latte Cake... tastes just like a Caramel Latte!

This cake isn't the most polished or fancy to look at, and I did toy with the idea of adding an additional layer of frosting to cover the 'poke-holes' however I decided that it would unbalance the flavours, which are just perfect as they are. It is based on my favourite coffee-based drink, the sweet, creamy Caramel Latte, and it captures all of the taste of one of those heavenly drinks in a beautiful slice-able form. This is a cake to eat, not just look at!

The stroke of genius in this recipe is switching out the majority of the sugar for condensed milk, which adds a more gentle sweetness to the cake, and produces a moister, creamier texture to the sponge - this is definitely something that I will be trying again in future recipes. I had also seen a few American posts about 'poke' cakes, where you make deep holes in the sponge to absorb the moistness of the frosting all the way through the cake, so decided to employ this tactic to this bake as well.

Ingredients;

For the Cake...

175 grams unsalted butter
50 grams caster sugar
3 eggs
200 grams condensed milk
2 tablespoons instant coffee
1 tablespoon Tia Maria or coffee based liquor
1 tablespoon water
200 grams self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the Caramel topping...

160 grams condensed milk
80 grams butter
80 grams caster sugar
2 tablespoons Tia Maria or coffee based liquor

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, and line an 8 inch square cake tin with baking paper. The baking paper is essential to this bake, to allow you to be able to easily remove the cake from the tin once the caramel has cooled.

Take a large mixing bowl, and beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the caster sugar, and cream together for a minute. Add the eggs, and the condensed milk, and whisk together to form a creamy batter.

In a small bowl or cup, dissolve the instant coffee in the water and Tia Maria (if you don't want to use the liquor, use two tablespoons of water instead). Gradually add this to the mixture and beat well until combined.

Add the flour and baking powder, fold well into the mixture, then transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin. Spread it evenly to each of the sides of the tin to ensure an even rise.

Place the cake in the oven to bake for around 30 minutes, or until the sponge is firm, and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Meanwhile, whilst the cake is baking, make the caramel topping. Put the condensed milk, butter and sugar in a saucepan, and the Tia Maria if desired, and place on a low heat.

Heat gently until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved, then bring to the boil, stirring continuously, until the mixture turns a pale brown colour. Take off the heat and set aside.

As soon as the cake is removed from the oven, and still in its tin, take a wooden spoon, and using the handle, make a series of holes in the cake, pushing the handle right down to the bottom of the tin. Space the holes about an inch apart.

Pour the warm caramel mixture over the cake, making sure that it runs into the holes made. Spread the caramel evenly over the surface, and place on a cooling rack, leaving the cake to cool completely in the tin.

Once cool, use the edges of the baking paper to lift the cake from the tin, then remove.

This cake is moist from the extra liquid in the condensed milk, and gooey from the caramel running through the whole cake via the poke holes. The sponge is delicate, and not overly sweet as there isn't a lot of sugar in the cake batter, which sits well with the sweetness of the caramel frosting. It absolutely tastes like a caramel latte from your favourite coffee shop chain!