Cake'n'Bake Wedensday: Bailey's Blondies

These Blondies are also known as "Monica Geller's" because they came to be due to my uncontrollable need to please people.

What happened was this: on the day of our December meeting we had a few last minute cancellations, which under normal circumstances wouldn't pose a problem, but because of the Secret Santa theme we had in December 2012 it meant that some bakers would not receive their "gift" (i.e. have their word baked) and that simply wouldn't do.

I generally finish work at 5pm, and on club nights aim to get to the Friends Meeting House by 7pm to start setting up. Usually I take my bake club things to work with me in the morning, stay at work until 6:30pm and go straight from there, as work is about halfway between my house and the meeting house. This time, however, to ensure that everyone got their words baked, I left work bang on 5pm, ran to the supermarket to buy some ingredients, ran home, and started baking like a mad-woman! Anyway, I ended up getting a taxi up to the meeting house, and the brownies were still lovely and warm by the time I got there. Thankfully, Ruth had arrived before I did and started setting up shop :-) We then sat and ate some of the gooier brownies with spoons. It was a good day.

Anyway, the words that needed to be baked were Bailey's, Stars and Red. so below is my recipe for Bailey's Blondies with white chocolate stars and red edible glitter to decorate!


Ingredients:
200g slightly salted butter
100g white chocolate
2 medium eggs
135g caster sugar
100ml Bailey's Irish Cream
300g plain flour
Edible glitter and white chocolate stars to decorate (optional)

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 - 40 minutes
Makes 16 blondies

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a square tin with baking paper.
2. Put the butter into a small microwavable bowl and melt in the microwave. Place this to one side to cool.
3. Melt the white chocolate, either in the microwave in 20 second blasts, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, place to one side to cool.
4. Put the eggs and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat until frothy. Beat in the cooled melted butter, Baileys and white chocolate. Finally add the flour to the mixture and fold in until just combined.
5. Pour the batter into the prepare cake tin, then sprinkle on the edible glitter and white chocolate stars, if using, to decorate.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown in colour, and springy but still moist to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan before turning out and cutting into 16 gorgeous, gooey brownies! (Blondies...!)

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Individual Bailey's Cheesecakes (and a very special birthday...)

This post is dedicated to my Mum. The lady who taught me how to bake (and so much more than that!!) The lady who loves Bailey's, and loves cheesecake. Today is my Mum's birthday, so this recipe is especially for her.

Mum and I, circa 1988

There's actually a funny story around this post... you see, although I now live in Cambridge, I grew up in Derby, and that's where my Mum still lives. I only get to go back to Derby 3 or 4 times a year, but Mum's a real opportunist, so whenever I'm back she puts me to work. This could be sewing felt onto jumpers for some festive fun, or adding glitter accents to figurines to make decorations for her Disney Christmas tree (yes, Mum has a Disney Christmas tree, in addition to her traditional Christmas tree. Well, what did you expect!?), but usually she puts me to work in the kitchen. And her favourite thing to get me working on is cheesecake.

So, there was one such weekend I was back in Derby, and I was tasked with making a Bailey's cheesecake for Mum to take into her office on her last day of work before starting a new job. So I set to work, giving just one condition: when Mum got to work the next day and put her cheesecake onto a serving plate there, she would take a photograph for me to use on the blog. She agreed, and an epic, 10-12 slice cheesecake filled with chocolate and Bailey's swirls was created. I quickly jotted down the ingredients and quantities that I'd used, and came back to Cambridge. A few days later, I text Mum to ask how the cheesecake went down, and if she could send me the photos. She replied to say it was really yummy, but she forgot to take a photo. Head, meet desk.

I could have just made another Bailey's cheesecake and taken a photo of that, but I'm strictly tee-total these days, and even when I did drink I didn't like Bailey's, so I couldn't justify making a cheesecake that wouldn't be eaten just to take a photo. I love my blog and my readers, really, I do, but that is a bit too much for me! So the recipe got put on the shelf until the opportunity next arose (i.e. I was next at Mum's house and she wanted another Bailey's cheesecake!!)

Anyway, getting back to the point... the opportunity next arose at Christmas. I couldn't make a whole Bailey's cheesecake as it wasn't completely family friendly. But, I'd recently ventured into the realms of individual desserts with my Individual Malty Malteser Cheesecakes, so I knew just what to do.

Individual Bailey's Cheesecakes!! OK, I think I've prattled on long enough now so just one last thing to say before I get on with the recipe:

Ingredients:
30g melted butter
6 digestive biscuits
60ml double cream
60g cream cheese
30g icing sugar
1tbsp baileys
Grated chocolate, to decorate

Prep time: 15 minutes
Chill time: at least 1 hour
Makes 2 individual Cheesecakes

1. Melt the butter in the microwave, then pop to one side to cool slightly.
2. Put the digestive biscuits into the blender, and whizz until they resemble fine crumbs. Tip the crushed biscuits into the melted margarine and stir until evenly coated. Split the biscuit mixture evenly between the two ramekins, and press down with the back of a spoon. Pop in the fridge to set whilst you prepare the filling.
3. Pour the cream into a small bowl and whisk until thick and pillowy. Add the cream cheese, icing sugar, and Baileys and whisk until all combined to a thick and creamy mixture. 
4. Spread half of the mixture over each biscuit base. Sprinkle a generous amount of grated chocolate over each cheesecake, then pop back in the fridge until ready to serve!

Happy Thoughts
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