Alcoholic adventures in baking!

Unsurprisingly, I haven't had much time to blog this last week. My system has been adjusting to life back at work. I really like my job, but whenever I don't have to work, I revert back to my student sleeping patterns frighteningly quickly. If I was an animal, I would definitely be nocturnal. A bat, or something. Anyway, after nearly two weeks of going to bed at 3am and getting up at midday, rediscovering the Seven AMs was just no fun at all. Add mad busyness at work preparing for a new campaign to the frankly annoying (albeit pretty) blanket of snow covering the nation, and you're looking at one tired blogger. Tired and cold, actually.

Anyway, despite the fact that we're all trying to detox at the moment because that is what one does in January (this year, though, I'm horrible at it - I might just have a February detox instead as there is still more pizza in the world I need to inhale), I wanted to post the dessert I made on New Years Eve.

If you're feeling glum because it's cold outside, this is the perfect dessert. It's rich, decadent and the booze factor makes it just a little bit naughty. Also it's pretty.

Baileys Cheesecake Brownies
(recipe taken from here)Brownie mixture

• 110 g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa)
• 110 g butter
• 120 g vanilla sugar (or caster sugar)
• 60 g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• glug of Baileys

Cheesecake mixture

• 225 g cream cheese
• 40 g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• another generous glug of Baileys

1) Preheat the oven to 150oc then line a 23 cm/8 inch square cake tin with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate with the butter in the microwave or a bain marie. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and stir then set aside to cool.

2) While the chocolate mixture is cooling, make your cheescake mixture in a separate bowl. Beat the cream cheese and sugar together. Add the egg and mix then stir in the Baileys until all is well combined.

3) Return to your chocolate mixture and beat the eggs one at a time into the brownie mixture, beating until it is glossy. Stir in the Baileys until well combined then gradually fold in the flour then pour into the cake tin.

4) Top the levelled brownie mixture with the cheesecake mixture and using a knife, gently swirl it into the chocolate mixture. If you're struggling, just try and lift the chocolate mixture up and dollop it back onto the top, you should get a good marbled effect.

5) Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until just set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin for at least 15-20 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.

These are mad quick to make and vanished pretty much instantly. They have a gorgeous, gooey texture - a good reason to make sure you wait until they are cold before removing them from the tin. I've made the mistake of not waiting before with a similar recipe, and if you put something of this consistency on a cooling tray when it's still warm, the middle all falls through. Not fun to clean up.