Viennese Fingers

You'll need a piping bag with a large star nozzle for these.  Not to worry if you dont have the equipment I've used the same recipe to make Jammie Dodgers. They taste wonderful and are one of my all time favourites

200g Butter
75g Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract
200g Self Raising Flour
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 190c
2.  Soften the butter in the microwave and then beat together with the icing sugar until it is very soft.  Add the vanilla extract and mix through.  Stir in the flour.
3. On a a greased baking sheet.  Pipe the mix into cigars go for a little forwards and backwards wiggle if you're feeling exotic. 
4. Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins
5. Sandwich together with a little butter icing and jam and dip either end in melted chocolate.

Chocolate Vodka

Where are my manners?  I tempt you with such delicacies as chocolate vodka but dont deliver? - shame on me.  I used a bottle of vodka and two bars of chocolate one dark, one milk.  This is what I think would taste better but havent tried so cant confirm.  I reckon that the recipe was a little bitter and that using just milk chocolate would've been a better idea not just that but I think that the sweetness of a light rum would have rounded that note out perfectly - course if you're feeling fancy you could just make chocolate vodka using chilli infused vodka and dark chocolate.

Water makes chocolate seize and this is kinda true for this too.  Be patient it's worth it in the end.  Add a little vodka to cooled melted chocolate stir, add a bit more - stir, repeat until both are well mixed (I used a spatula at first then a whisk).  Make life easy on yourself and pour using a funnel or jug back into the Vodka bottle.  Put the lid back on and shake for all your worth.  Then chill in the fridge - it should be good for a few weeks.

Frozen Mudslide Cocktail

So tasty it should be illegal.

2 parts Vodka
1 part Kahlua
1 part baileys
3/4 Glass of Ice
Mars Bar / Baileys IceCream Sauce

Method

1. Drizzle a tall glass with Mars Bar/Baileys Sauce
2. Place Ice in a blender with alcohol and blend
3. Pour into Glass

Baked Blueberry Cheesecake

I trawled the internet for a baked cheesecake, my friend Aishling makes an awesome one but I wanted to see what else was out there.  The recipes that I came across were for a much too large cake for my needs (and besides I only had one pack of cream cheese).  Blueberries were on special in Aldi for 69c so I bought about 4 punnets freezing them on trays and then bagging them.  I have been quite extravagant with the blueberries and really you don’t need so many.  You can also use any summer berry for this.  I also used their own brand cream cheese which was significantly cheaper that Philadelphia.  The recipe for blueberry Sauce can be used on pancakes, waffles, Ice-cream.  I used a 20cm round tin and there was enough in this for 3 people who all had little seconds. 

Base:

6 Digestive Biscuits Crushed

50g Butter

1 tbsp Demerara Sugar

1 Punnet Blueberries

Cheesecake Mix

1 Egg + 1 yolk

200g Cream Cheese

1 Tub of Crème Fraiche (I used most of a tub left over in the fridge)

25g (1 heaped tbsp) Plain Flour

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Blueberry Sauce

2tbsp Maple Syrup

1 Punnet Blueberries

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 190c
2.  Melt butter in a pot over a gentle heat, add sugar and biscuit crumbs.  Empty into a loose bottomed tin or a springform tin and press into the base.  Sprinkle Blueberries on top.
3. Mix together Cheesecake mix and beat until smooth.  Pour onto biscuit base.
4. Blueberry Sauce: Heat blue berries and maple syrup together in a pot as the maple syrup heats it will cause the the berries to release their juices. 
1. Method 1 Pour in drops in four or five locations and use a cocktail stick to create a marble effect through the cheesecake
2. Method 2: When the cheesecake is baked top with warm blueberry sauce.
5. Bake in the centre of the oven until the cheesecake is slightly wobbly in the middle (30-40mins).
6. Allow to cool then chill in the fridge before serving.  I served it with a side of chopped strawberries macerated in Galliano and a little cream.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

When I first discovered red velvet cake I was truly weirded out by it but it is wonderful and frivolous and most importantly delicious. This recipe is provided by Miss Laoise Curtin a fellow avid baker and niece.  Below are some notes of hers.

I've researched and tried this recipe and found that the butter milk can be substituted with normal milk and a couple of teaspoons of clear vinegar .

Ingredients

60g of unsalted softened butter

150g caster sugar

1 large egg

20g cocoa powder 

1x 1oz bottle of red food colouring

1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk (110ml of normal milk with 10 ml of clear vinegar)

150g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 1/2 teaspoon clear vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line a cupcake tin 
2. Cream the softened butter an sugar
3. Add the egg to the mixture.
4.  In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa powder ,the food colouring and the vanilla together
5. Mix the red mixture and the light mixture together
6. Add the buttermilk to the now combined red mixture 
7. Add the flour
8. Add the bicarbonate of soda and the vinegar
9. Mix IMMEDIATELY as the reaction of the bread soda and vinegar is going on at that moment.Get the in the oven as fast as possible and bake for 20-25 minutes.

For the icing

Mix 50g of softened butter and 125g of cream cheese .Then add 300g icing sugar.