We have about 10 chocolate cakes in our repertoire, from Cynthia's Chocolate Cake made with cocoa and buttermilk, to the decadently rich Ballymaloe Chocolate Cake made with the very best chocolate money can buy, lots of ground almonds, and a silky chocolate frosting. But if I had to choose just one, it might have to be this recipe given to me by my sister Blathnaid Bergin. It is deliciously chocolatey, yet light and rich at the same time. You can serve it very simply with the chocolate ganache poured over the top or spruce it up for a birthday cake.
The best recipes have backstories, at least Sally’s always do. Here she gives the lineage behind these macaroons.
Cut into buttery little pieces, this cross between a tart and a cookie crumbles and then melts away as you eat it. Best of all, this recipe belies the assumption that you need the angels on your shoulder to make tender pastry, and that it takes a lot of time.
Ingredients
Stack bite-sized lemon cheesecake bites like a tower of snowballs ready for a snowball fight, or in this case, a lemon cheesecake truffle-eating contest.
This cake was the first thing I learned to bake with my grandmother. It was, and still is, the best cake I have ever tasted. The Scharffen Berger chocolate we use at the bakery puts a new spin on a nostalgic cake, and a hint of strong coffee adds another flavor dimension. Topped with a decadent buttercream frosting, this cake is everything you want a chocolate cake to be, and a sweet finale for any occasion.
This new-age take on an old-world dessert is completely my fault. I made it up, tested it to the nth degree and stand behind its unashamed sweet and savory idiosyncrasies. It is constructed like a traditional sticky toffee steamed pudding, with salty olives and candied clementine taking the candied dates' role, honey and rosemary stepping in for the toffee sauce, and silken chestnut flour playing the supporting starchy role typically taken by a wheat flour-based pudding mixture. The totality is earthy and cosmopolitan. It is a riff on a sweet and savory cornmeal pudding I developed for Cooking Slow.
If you can melt chocolate and stir, you can make these cakes, and no commercial mix has chocolate as good as this. Quality chocolate is like breeding: it always shines through. Gooey chocolate pockets stud the cakes, while the cake itself is nearly as dense as fudge.
This is a lovely light (and nondairy if you want it to be) chocolate mousse with intense chocolate flavor. It is the lightest mousse of all if you make it with water or coffee. Milk or cream adds a little body. Either way, you can top it with whipped cream, unless you are serving Albert himself. If you are using fresh farm eggs or are confident about the quality of your eggs, you can use the fresh-egg method instead of the heated (egg-safe) procedure.
These are fail-proof oatmeal cookies, chewy and wholesome, with just enough spice and plenty of oatmeal. I like them with dried cranberries and walnuts, but you could add any dried fruit or nut. Try them with dried blueberries and pecans for a change, or currants and chopped almonds, or they're always good with the traditional addition of raisins. This is a terrific lunch box cookie, or great with tea in the afternoon.