Rich Chocolate Cake

If You Want Chocolate...

Rich Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:

• 250g butter
• 270g dark chocolate
• 6 eggs, seperated
• 250g sugar
• 120g flour, sieved
• An extra couple of bars of milk or dark chocolate (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Grease and line a 22cm springform tin.
3. Melt butter and chocolate together over bowl of simmering water.
4. Whisk together egg yolks and sugar until thick.
5. Add in melted chocolate and mix well
6. Fold in flour using a big metal spoon.
7. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
8. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture.
9. If desired, add extra chopped chocolate chips.
10. Pour into tin and bake for 40 mintutes, or until cake is set at sides but soft and glossy in the center.
11. Cool compleatly before removing from tin.
12. Serve with Bailey's Cream (whip 200ml cream with one tablespoon cream and half a teaspoon ground ginger).

Hello again, all. Hope we're keeping well.
Yup, I'm still on the never-ending chocolate cake quest! I know, I know, how long can it go on for? Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't think it'll ever end. There are just too many different types; Light spongey ones, or really dense, intensily chocolatey ones, ones covered in icing, ones that go with ice cream, ones to be eaten hot, to be eaten cold, the list just keeps going. I don't think there will ever be an 'untimate', but I can at least find a couple of really, really good ones. I've even come across a recipe for one with potato in it! I can't wait to give that a go!
This is definitly one of those increadibly rich cakes that needs no icing, it's cake that's meant to be eaten for its own sake. Serious cake, if you will. It's almost like a giant brownie rather that a cake, so a small slice is satisfying, too much and you will feel sick >_<
I got the recipe out of The Irish Time's Magazine, and it's gone straight into my recipe book. Personally, I wasn't that wild about it, it was all a bit too rich and, well, chocolaty for my liking (I prefer lighter desserts), but everybody else fell in love with it! It's really easy to make too, so long as you take care folding in the egg whites. I was a little concerned when I took it out of the oven, it really did look underdone in the middle, but you just have to imagine it as... like... cement! It'll set when it's cool ^_^
So, that's another triumph over Betty Crocker ;)

Until next time....

Strawberry Meringue Layer Cake, Not So Good Chocolate Muffins, and My Very Own Banana Muffins

Fancy, no?

As promiced, I have been up to more baking ^_^ Yup, I had a free Saturday and the need to bake, so I got going for some Sunday dessert.
I decided that I haven't really done anything new or interesting for a while, so I decided to try this from Nigella's 'Forever Summer', not exactly the weather for it, I know but it looked pretty.

Mmmm, cake!

Ingredients:

• 125g plain flour
• 25g cornflour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 100g soft, unsalted butter
• 300g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons natural vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 50g flaked almonds
• 375ml double cream
• 250g strawberries (I used raspberries)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line, butter, and flour 2 X 22 cm Springform tins.
2. Weigh out flour, cornflour, and baking powder in a bowl.
3. Cream butter and 100g of the sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy.
4. Separate the eggs and beat the yolks into the butter and sugar.
5. Fold in the dry ingredients, add the vanilla, stir in the milk.
6. Divide between the two tins.
7. Whisk the egg whites 'til soft peaks form. Then add the remaining 200g egg whites. Spread meringue on top of sponge in each tin, sprinkle with almonds.
8. Bake for 30-35 mins until meringue is dark golden brown. Let cool in tins, and spring open at last minute when ready to assemble.
9. Whip double cream, hull and slice strawberries.
10. Invert one cake and pile with cream and berries. Place the second cake on top, meringue side up.

All in all, I think this turned out quite well. I was a bit nervous about there being a really small amount of sponge, I was aftaid that it would just burn and be, shall we say, not so good. Then there was the whole problem with me not actually having two springform tins, but I did have once springform and one loose-bottomed, and that turned out okay. It is a bit delecate, but not half as fragile as I thought it would be. I could'nt get hold of any fresh strawberries, so I had to do with frozen raspberries, which were still pretty damn good.
Taste wise it was pretty much what you would expect, classic taste really. Meringue, raspberries, cream, and almonds, but I think the sponge gave it a little extra something, definitly worth the effort, and I think it looks pretty good too (thought my photos aren't so hot, I really have to try and take them before 12 at night >_<)

YUCK!

Then my sister, not being a fan of cream and fruit, asked me to make here some big ol' chocolate muffins with big, crusty tops and squishy insides. This all sounded pretty tasty to me, but I've yet to find a good chocolate muffin recipe in my cookbooks, so I went online and found one that I thought looked promicing. The results? Not so good, not worth posting the recipe. I mean, they were palatable, but you wouldn't buy them. They stuck to the wrapper, were quite dry (though I might have overbaked them a tiny bit) The only thing I can think of is that, since I ran out of coca powder half-way through, I had to use 25gs of drinking chocolate and reduce the sugar, but I don't think that could have effected them that much. All in all, I was none too happy. So, now I'm asking, anyone out there found their ultimate chocolate muffin recipe? And, if so, would you be willing to share your secrets?

My Very Own!

Finally, I decided to go on a baking adventure of my own! (wow, I sound really lame). I've been making recipes out of books for a long time now, and although I do modify them, I've never made my own. I had a craving for banana muffins and thought: Hey, let's try making up a recipe!
The results weren't bad. I decided to make them healthy, so there is wholemeal flour and not a lot of sugar. I think their lack of 'oomph' was due to this, I've had tastier, sugar-packed ones, but they had a wholesome quality and I'd have them again. Next time I would love to try substituting bran for some of the wholegrain flour, but I didn't have any at the time.
By the way, did you notice my adorable little muffin cases? I got them in habitat in Dublin, only one euro for twelve cases! I was DELIGHTED ^_^

Unfotunatly, in all my enthusaism I forgot to actually write the recipe down >_<>

Mammy's Day Baking!

Hello, all, and happy March! I hope it's been a good month for everybody so far ^_^
So, slightly belated, here's my post for Mother's Day! Seeing as how me and my friend are poor and cheap, we decided to get together and bake cakes for our mothers for mother's day! There were four of us in total, and we all went over to my friend Daniel's house, where we very quickly discovered that he has a very limited amount of kitchen space and... well... not a whole lot of stuff for baking either - including a weighing scale >_< Still, we had to make the best out of the situation, and I think it turned out pretty well. We went on the ol' interweb and found some recipes; we decided to go for applesauce muffins for starters, followed by chocolate devil's food cake, finishing with banana muffins (nobody else wanted them except me, but in the end they all loved them ;)). Then we went for a walk and got the ingredients, along with some pizza and other lunchables. It took us a while to get around to actually doing the baking, between making the pizza, looking for mixing bowls (we ended up using lasaigne dished), and trying to find a way of doing the washing-up with only boiling hot water (the result? We got burned), but once we got started it all went well, and we had a good time doing it. It drives me a little crazy doing less than precise baking, but I think it's good, otherwise I get way too worked up if things go wrong.

Applesauce and Banana Muffins! Yum!

The applesauce muffins were great, and making the applesauce was really cool, I've never seen it done before and it smelled SO GOOD. They were really moist, and you could definitly taste the apple. Plus, my friend Sharon brought along these really adorable muffin cases her mum got in England, and I added the flags. DECORATION GALORE! The banana muffins were my favourie, possibly because I just like anything with banana in it, but more likly because they just tasted really, really good. Usually I want to have some kind of something in my muffins, nuts or chocolate chips or something, but these were perfect witout anything, just plain muffin goodness (with brown sugar sprinkled on top for extra yummyness).

Decorated with Pockey and love!

I think the cakes turned out looking fantastic! They were mini ones, because there was no way we would have had time to make four big ones. We covered them with chocolate ganache (much of which was eaten off spoons while waiting for the cakes to cool) and then I did the decorating with POCKEY!, and chocolate shavings. I think I went a bit overboard, but I had fun, so it's all good.

Decoration taken to a whole new level

Then, after all of that, we took the dog for a walk ^_^

His name is Murphy :P

I don't think there's much point in posting recipes, seeing as how we altered them so much that I don't think they resemble the originals :P But the one for the chocolate cake is the one I already have posted here, and I must say it's pretty damn good. And appologies for the crappy photos, I didn't really have time to take proper ones >_<
*Yawn*. I'm very tired now, I think I'm gonna go paint, then read, and then sleep. I'm thinking of doing some more baking tomorrow, so there will be another post soon. Chow for now ;)

Chocolate Panda Cake!

Yay, another update! I think I'm on a role!
I finally found a recipe for chocolate cake that nearly matches the stupid Betty Crocker box mix! I've made it quite a few times now, and the results seem to be good! It's a nice, moist cake, that's chocolatey, but not sickening. It's really easy to make too! I'd definatly reccomend it :)

Recipe: Chocolate Cake

Oops! I just realised I left my notebook with the recipe in it in Dublin >_<>

Kawaii, desu ne?

It was pretty easy to make, and really fun too! I just devided the cake mixture between a big and a small cake tin, then cut the small one in two to make the ears. I then iced it with dark and white chocolate ganache (simply melt together an equal quantity of double cream and chocolate, then cool until spreadable). I bought some kind of fake double cream by accident, it was 'low fat' or something like that, but it still tasted fine, so no dissasters there. Then I just decorated with sprinkles, the icing, and chocolate. I used a piece of toblerone for his nose ^_^

She seemed to really like the cake, so I consider it a sucess!

Mini Cakes

A mini dessert

Just a quick update to let you know I'm still alive. There has actually been some baking going on, I'm just too lazy to upload the pictures and type up recipes. Instead I thought I'd post these photos from about a month ago, don't know why it's taken me so long to put them up.
I bought these amazing mini cake tins in TkMaxx and had to try them, so I just made four mini sponge cakes (same as ever). I think they worked really well, the little slices looked so cute on the plates, plus it lets you try out lots of different icings and fillings at once.

Berries rock for decoration

This is Emiy demonstrating how tiny a slice was ^_^

Cakes together!

Sorry about the picture quality, it's really crappy. They were taken at, like, twelve o'clock so I only had crappy kitchen lighting. Oh well.

And again

They don't look so small on their own

And that's the end of that...

Chocolate Malt Cookies

Cookies!

Apologies for the lack of updates lately, I'm doing a summer camp for the next two weeks so there's not a whole lot of baking going on. There's singing instead! We're doing (DON'T LAUGH!) High School Musical! It's possibly the worst-written thing on the planet, but there people there are sound so it's fun.
For some reason there has been a severe lack of cookie baking going on in this blog, and I intend to put a stop to that right now. I don't know why it is, I guess cookies were some of the first things I baked and now I want to try other stuff. Still, cookies have to be of my favourite things, there's something really satisfying about making them, I guess it's 'cause you get so many at the end ^_^
We, me and my sister, made these cookies after we devoured our pizza and realised we had no dessert! Sure, it was around eleven o'clock, but it's never too late for baking ;)

I love patterned paper :)

Recipe: Malted Drop Cookies

Ingredients:

• 125g butter, softened
• 100g sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 tablespoons chocolate malt powder
• 100g plain flour
• 50g rolled oats

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C/ 375 F. Line two baking sheets with non-stick paper.
2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Sift the chocolate malt powder and flour together and beat into the creamed mixture along with the oats until all the ingredients are well combined.
3. Drop heaped teaspoons of the dough onto the baking sheets, spacing well apart. Bake in the oven until just golden, 10-12 minutes. Leave to cool on the sheets for a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
   

Now that's a flat cookie

The recipe was taken from Cookies Galore - I never seem to bake cookies from anywhere else these days. We didn't really change much except we used 2 tablespoons chocolate powder and 3 tablespoons malt powder instead of the chocolate malt powder 'cause we didn't have any. We were kinda surprised with how these came out, they were really, really flat. The recipe didn't have any raising agent in it and it makes me wonder if perhaps it was left out by mistake. Perhaps they're meant to be like this, but I'd like to try them again with a bit of baking powder. I've never actually tried adding a raising agent to a recipe before, any tips? I take it I should just find a similar recipe and see how much powder that uses.
Still, they tasted good. I'd probably add some more oats next time too, but they deliver what they promise: Chewy, chocolaty goodness.
I'm going to leave it at that for now, I'm exhausted after today. I'll try and update again this week, but I'm not making any promises ;)

Devil's Food Cake

Almost there, but not quite...

My quest for the perfect chocolate cake recipe continues. My goal? To bake a chocolate cake that is better than Betty Crocker's Devil's Food Cake Mix. No matter how many chocolate cakes we've had in my house none of them compare to it. It annoys me so much >_<> my loyal bags of flour sitting in my baking cupboard, and yet any time the words chocolate' and 'cake' are mentioned Betty Crocker is all anyone can think of, alhough admittedly it is amaing cake. What makes it so good is the moistness of it, it has the perfect cake texture. I've baked cakes that are just as chocolaty at it, but they haven't got that 'omg, it's squishy good!' quality about them.

The icing reminds me of the cake in 'Matilda'

I came soooo close with this one, but again it just wasn't there. It was damn good chocolate cake though, just the right amount of chocolate, and it was very moist. Plus it was eaten between four people in less than two days, so I'll take that as a compliment. I think this is probably the best chocolate cake I've made so far, and hopefully the standard will keep going up...

Piping sets are so much fun :)

The recipe came from The Australian Women's Weekly 'Chocolate Cakes', a really adorable little book with about 50 cake recipes in it. I can't get over how wonderful all their books are. The recipes are simple to follow, don't involve too many complicated ingredients, and the pictures always make my mouth water. I have to get more of these books - that's the other thing that's so great about them, there are so many different collections. I think I'll buy the 'Cheesecake' or 'Cookie' collection next.
The book suggests baking the cake in two separate deep 20 cm tins to make a tall cake, filled with cream and topped with chocolate icing. I decided to bake it all together in a 23 cm cake tin (mainly because I didn't have two 20 cm ones), and I think this makes for a better shape if you're not planning on filling the cake, which I didn't. I made a LOT of chocolate ganache with the chocolate left over from my melting disaster with the Chocolate Mousse Cake, it's really rich so just covering the cake with it is more than enough, if it was filled it would have been way too much.

An inside look

Recipe: Devil's Food Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:
180g butter, chopped
385g caster (superfine) sugar
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
75g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
70g coca powder
3 teaspoons instant coffee powder
1/2 teaspoon red food colouring
125ml water
125ml milk

For the Ganache (this makes a lot):
300g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
200-250 ml cream (depends on how thick you want it)

OR

300 ml cream, whipped
60g dark chocolate, chopped
60g butter, chopped

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ 350 F. Grease two deep 20cm round cake tins (or one large, deep 23 cm tin); line bases with baking parchment and grease the parchment.
Beat the butter and sugar in a small bowl with a electric mixer until light and fluffy; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Transfer the mixture to a large bowl; fold in sifted flours, soda, and cocoa powder with combined coffee, colouring, water, and milk, in two batches. Pour mixture into prepared tins.
Bake in oven for about 45 minutes. Turn cakes onto wire racks to cool.
To make the ganache, melt the chocolate with the cream in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, taking care that the water doesn't boil or touch the bowl. Leave to cool in fridge until mixture reaches desired consistency, stirring occasionally, about 15-20 minutes.
Spread ganache over cake and use excess to pipe decoration.

OR

Join cakes with whipped cream.
Make the chocolate icing. by melting together the chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature until spreadable. Top cake with icing.

Now how could I not lick the spoon?

Like I said, these was pretty fantastic cake. I think the ganache worked really well with it, and I love the shiny appearance it gives. The chocolate leaf decorations were really fun to make; All you do is paint non toxic leaves with a thin layer of melted chocolate, wait for it to set, and then peel away the leaves. It's not complicated, but I think it gives a professional looking touch ;)
Apologies for the lack of American measurements, they weren't given in the book. But I'm more than happy to look them up if anyone wants them, all you have to do is ask.
Now, here's the part where I need your help; I'm begging for your best chocolate cake recipe, the one that everyone always asks you to bake, the one that is so frakking good (yes, I'm a B.S.G fan) that it makes you want to eat the whole thing. I know I can find a better cake than the Betty Crocker, I just know it...

Chocolate Mousse Cake and Lemon Meringue Pie

Cream, cream, and more cream!

Oh dear, I defiantly need to work on keeping my cool when baking goes amiss. Seriously, I let myself get way too worked up over these things. Note to self: RELAX!
My sister, Emily, was having a "fancy" dinner party the other night with some of her friends, and I said I'd do the desserts. After much deliberation I decided to go with Chocolate Mousse Cake, because there aren't many people out there who don't like chocolate, and Lemon Meringue Pie, because she is addicted to it. I've made the Lemon Meringue before so I wasn't too worried about that, and I figured that the Chocolate Mousse would be fine because I would have it made the night before.
The long and the short of it is that we didn't get all the ingredients the day before the party, and I got sick :( I did manage to get the cake for the chocolate cake made for the mousse filling the night before, but that was the easy part.
In the end she ended up buying a box of lemon pie filling (I DETEST baking that comes from boxes) so the pie got put together pretty quickly without much bother. Then came the mousse time *shudder*.
I got to the stage where I was meant to melt the chocolate and sherry together over a pan of boiling water, I usually melt chocolate in the microwave so off I went. The chocolate melted fine and then I added the cold sherry to it. Big mistake. Melted chocolate + cold liquid = very bad idea. I freaked out, mainly because I'd just wasted about 100gs of Lindt chocolate. So I sent my dad to get more chocolate and started again, melting the sherry and chocolate together at the same time. It happened again, the mixture sort of seized and wasn't really a liquid, I figured it was the microwave that was messing it up. I freaked out again, got a third batch of chocolate, and decided to melt it over a pan of water like the recipe said. It still wasn't turning into liquid, and I was convinced that there was something wrong with the sherry that was messing it up.
In the end it turned out that that is just what happens to chocolate when you melt it with sherry, and it loosens once it is mixed in with the rest of the ingredients :P Oh well, I've learned my lesson: Must NOT panic.

The recipe for the Lemon Meringue Pie doesn't really come from anywhere since it was using a box mix. It's just a basic biscuit base, filled with the pie filling, and topped with meringue. Easy, but it makes a damn good dessert.
The Chocolate Mousse Cake was from 'The Women's Institute: Chocolate'. This is the first time I've baked anything from this book, and I can't say I was blown away. But I think I'll have to try a few more recipes from it before I pass judgement because there are some really nice sounding recipes in that book that I'd love to try sometime, plus the pictures are amazing.

It kinda looks less graceful once you cut it...

Recipe: Chocolate Mousse Cake

Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:
4 eggs
115g caster sugar
100g plain flour, sifted
15g coca powder, sifted
40g butter, melted

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c. Grease a 20 cm (8 inch) cheesecake tin or loose-bottomed tin and line the base with baking parchment.
Place the eggs and sugar in a large bowl over a pan of hot water. Whisk them for 10 minutes, until the mixture is thick and creamy. Remove the bowl from the heat and continue to whisk for one minute.
Sprinkle the coca powder and flour over the surface and fold them in gently with a metal spoon using a figure of eight action. When they are nearly all incorporated, add the melted butter and mix it in.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until the cake has risen, is firm to the touch, and coming away from the sides. Allow to cool in tin for 5 minutes and then remove to wire rack. Slice it in half horizontally.

Chocolate Mousse:

Ingredients:

150g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tablespoon sherry
1 teaspoon gelatin powder
3 eggs, separated
150 ml whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks
50g caster sugar
2 tablespoons chocolate spread
150 ml whipping cream, whipped, to decorate
Coca powder, to decorate
Grated Chocolate, to decorate

Method:

Place the chocolate and sherry in a bowl set over a pan of hot water and allow to melt, stir and leave to cool.
Put 1 tablespoon of cold water in a medium bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over. Leave for a few minutes and then place the bowl in a larger bowl filled with hot water and stir to dissolve the gelatin. Allow mixture to cool and beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, followed by the melted (don't worry, it won't be very liquidy) chocolate and cream.
Whisk the egg whites until they are fairly stiff and continue to whisk while adding the sugar a tablespoon at a tine. Add 1 tablespoon to the chocolate mixture to loosen it, then carefully fold in the remaining egg whites.
Smooth the chocolate spread over the bottom half of the cake and place it back in the lined cake tin, chocolate spread side upwards. Spoon the chocolate mousse on top and place in the fridge to set, about 1 hour.

Place the other sponge on top. Spread the cream on top and decorate with coca powder and grated chocolate. Leave it in the tin until you are ready to serve (I don't think this is vital as mine was fine the next day).

I love dusting things with coca powder

Taste wise, the Pie was really nice. I know I say I hate box mixes, but I must admit it had a really good flavor (I think it was by Greens). It also sets really well so you don't get a big bowl of lemon squidgy rather than an actual piece of pie.
The Chocolate Mousse Cake didn't really live up to my expectations, mainly because of the cake. I know I made it a day in advance, but it was still a very dry cake without a whole lot of flavor. Granted the mousse was good, rich, chocolaty, and this really improved the cake when it was eaten with it. If I was to make it again I'd use the same mousse recipe but sandwich it between a better chocolate cake.
They were a big hit and everyone loved them, they were polished off the next day which is always a good sign.

Choc Chip Oat Cookies

Oaty Good!

I love oats. Seriously, I think I would die without them. I have to have a bowl of porridge at least once a day or I will die, it's a fact of my biology. There's just something so wonderful about them, they're the perfect comfort food. And the squidgier they are the better. So when you combine that with dark chocolate you just can't have a problem, it's not possible.

This recipe is everything oat cookies should be. They're crunchy on the outside but really chewey on the inside, provided you don't over cook them. There isn't so much chocolate in them that you can't taste anything else, but they still have lots of flavor. I'm really not joking about how good they are, every time I bake them they're gone withing a couple of hours.
The recipe is, once again, from Cookies Galore, definitly my favourite out of the 'Galore' series. I make recipes from it quite often, there are lots of different recipes and most of them don't involve too many ingredients.

Recipe: Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies (Sorry for the lack of American Measurements, the book dosen't have them >_<)

Ingredients:
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
175g unsalted butter, softened
100g soft dark brown sugar (I used light brown and it worked fine)
100g sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
250g rolled oats
75g dark chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Grease and line two baking sheets.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder

3. In a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined. Stir in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed or using a wooden spoon, gradually add the flour mixture until combined. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.

4. Drop rounded tablespoons of the dough, well spaced apart on to the baking sheets. Leave space between each one for spreading. Flatten each cookie slightly with the back of a spoon. Bake until golden for 12-15 minutes.

5. Remove to a wire cooling rack and cool.

I'd just like to thank everyone for their help with the Angel Food Cake, I've worked out what went wrong and am looking forward to trying it properly as soon as I get the right tin for it :)

Millionaire Squares

There's something very satisfying about swirling chocolate...

Caramel and chocolate really are a perfect combination. I love bar cookies, they're a nice choice when you're not sure if you want biscuits or a chocolate bar, you get a little bit of both; it's all there. These are really good just out of the fridge when the caramel layer is nice and cool. They are pretty filling though, so don't cut them too big! This is the best recipe I've come across for caramel shortbread so far, and it defiantly beats shop-bought ones. The butter base is indulgently rich, which makes them even better!

The recipe comes from 'Baking' by Emma Patmore. I'm really fond of that book, it was the first one I used when I started my obsession last summer! It introduced me to lots of different things, and it's really good for beginners, none of the recipes are too complicated and it has great variety.

... and cutting the bars is also oddly rewarding...

Recipe: Millionaire Squares.

Base:

Ingredients:
176g/ 1 1/2 cups plain flour
125g/1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces
50g/ 3 tbsp soft brown sugar, sifted

Method:
Grease a 23cm/9 inch square cake tin. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C/ 375 F
Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and mix to form a firm dough.
Press the dough into the bottom of the prepared tin and prick with a fork.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until lightly golden. Leave to cool in tin.

Topping:

Ingredients:
50g/ 10 tsp butter
50g/ 3 tbsp soft brown sugar
400 can condensed milk
150g milk chocolate
50-75 g white chocolate (depends on how swirly you like your topping!)

Method: Place the butter, sugar, and condensed milk in a non-stick pan over a gentle heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to the boil (be very careful not to let it burn).
Reduce heat and cook for 4-5 minutes until the caramel is pale gold and thick, and is coming away from the sides of the pan.
Pour the topping over the shortbread base and leave to cool.
When the caramel topping is firm, melt the chocolates in separate bowls in the microwave (on low setting)/ in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (not boiling, and make sure the water does not touch the bowl). Spread the milk chocolate over the topping, then swirl in the white to give a marbled effect. Leave to cool and refrigerate.
Remove from pan and cut into fingers or squares to serve.
Enjoy!

Everyone who tries these loves them, and they never last very long. Be careful when cutting the up as not to crack the chocolate too much, and don't swirl the chocolates on top too much, otherwise they'll just mix together and it will just look like a light chocolate topping.