Jack Daniels Brownie Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Topping

 

This is what I created for my boss' birthday this year. A biscuit base, with a chocolate cake that's midway between sponge and brownie, topped with lots of gooey toasted marshmallows. It looks a little messy, but tastes damn good!

Tia Maria Cake

This coffee vodka cake is SO good! I'm not usually a fan of coffee cake, but since this is made with Tia Maria rather than cold brewed coffee I figured I had to try it. I think I've been converted...! I made this as a birthday cake for a colleague and we just ate it as a slice of glazed sponge, but I think ideally it should be served with a generous helping of clotted cream and a handful of fresh berries.

Christmas Tarts

These are basically jam tarts but with a Christmas twist - spiced orange is a classic festive fragrance, and these are quick to make if you have unexpected visitors in the run up to Christmas Day. Maybe you could even leave a couple out for Santa... ;)

Ingredients:
One batch of sweet shortcrust pastry
12 tbsp orange marmalade
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ginger
2 tbsp port
Nutmeg to dust

Pre-heat your oven to 180c.

Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a £1 coin, and use a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut our your cases. Use a cutter that's a little bigger than the circumference of the holes in your cupcake tray so they come up the sides. Re-roll any left over pastry until it's all used up.

Lightly dust a cupcake tray with flour and line the holes with your pastry cases.

In a mixing bowl, combine the marmalade, mixed spice, ginger and port and mix well. Place a spoonful of the mixture into the pastry cases - make sure you don't overfill them, you don't want hot marmalade oozing everywhere when you take them out of the oven!

Bake for 15 minutes until the marmalade is bubbling and the pastry is lightly browned.
Leave to cool in the tin slightly before removing and placing on a wire rack. Once cool, dust with a little nutmeg.

Boozy Mince Pies

These speak for themselves - the Christmas table would not be complete without mince pies, and the addition of whiskey to these makes them that extra special. Sorry I almost forgot to take a photo of these!

Ingredients:
One batch of sweet shortcrust pastry
1 jar of mincemeat
3 tbsp whiskey
1 egg, beaten
Demerara sugar to sprinkle

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and dust a muffin tray with a little flour.

In a mixing bowl, combine the mincemeat with the whiskey and mix well. Leave to rest while you make the cases.

Roll out your pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Use two round cookie cutters, one slightly larger in circumference than the holes in your muffin tray and one the same size as the holes, to cut out an equal number of cases and lids.

Line your muffin tray with the larger of the circles, so the pastry comes up the edges, and leave the smaller circles to one side for now.

Place a generous teaspoon of the boozy mincemeat in each case.

Brush the edges of the case with egg and place a lid on each pie, using a fork to crimp the edges together. 
Brush the lids with egg and sprinkling over a little demerara sugar before poking a small hole in the center of each lid.

Bake for 20 minutes, until golden and the filling is a little oozy.

Baby Guinness Cake

A regular haunt of ours during the summer weekends is Woolacombe; long weekends camping, with great company and plenty of booze. A staple shot during these weekends, is the Baby Guinness: layered Tia Maria and Baileys. It was mentioned earlier this year that I should make a cake version, so here it is. Will, this one is for you! 

Ingredients:
10oz unsalted butter
10oz caster sugar
4 eggs
Few drops vanilla essence
10oz self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
60ml Tia Maria
100g dark chocolate, melted

175g unsalted butter
400g icing sugar
50ml Baileys

150g dark chocolate, melted

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and grease/line 3 loose bottomed cake tins.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla, followed by sifting in the flour and baking powder and folding the mixture together.
Lastly, stir in the Tia Maria and melted chocolate until everything in well combined.

Divide the mix between the three tins and spread to the edges. 
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until they are springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.
Leave to cool on a wire rack while you make the buttercream.

In a bowl, combine the butter and icing sugar. You can place this in the microwave for a few seconds to soften the butter before creaming them together until light and fluffy. Stir in the Baileys until it's well combined. You can add a little more icing sugar if it's a bit sloppy.

Sandwich the three layers of cake together with the buttercream before coating the whole cake in it - over the top and around the sides. Use a pallet knife to smooth the edges as much as possible. 

Leave for about 10-15 minutes for the frosting to go a little firmer, then pour the melted chocolate over the top of the cake, gently spreading to the edges and around the sides, covering the whole cake. Wait for the chocolate to set before serving.