Category Archives: Cakes

Dark Chocolate and Beetroot Cake

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Dark Chocolate and Beetroot Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and Fresh Raspberries recipe One Perfect Mess moist rich soft raspberry easy 2

Before you raise your eyebrows in suspicion of this cake’s unusual secret ingredient, let me argue its case. I was served this Dark Chocolate and Beetroot Cake upon arrival in London last year. It was baked lovingly by my cousins, drizzled with dark chocolate ganache and intricately decorated with a white chocolate welcome message. I was so taken aback by how incredibly rich and velvety the first bite was. The idea is not to actually taste the beetroot, but there is a dark, seductive, earthy tone to the cake that is utterly delicious.

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Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake

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Mexican Hot Chocolate Layer Cake with Toasted Marshmallows cinnamon chilli dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream recipe One Perfect Mess 2

This is no ordinary chocolate cake; the four layered tower is held together by a rich and velvety dark chocolate buttercream, laced with cinnamon and chilli, and topped with toasted fluffy marshmallows. The result is a subtle, intriguing and devilishly delicious combination of sugar, spice and heat. A Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake that promises seduction, fascination and admiration. On a separate note, it’s ridiculously fun setting fire to the marshmallows just prior to serving. Technically you should hold a flame torch/match over the marshmallows until they just start to toast. But obviously I got a bit overexcited by my new toy, and ended up frantically blowing out the flames that threatened to engulf my latest creation! Not sure I’m old enough to play with fire without supervision.

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Rocky Road Celebration Cake

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Rocky Road Celebration Cake with Peanut Frosting Swiss Meringue Buttercream Layer Chocolate Cake Peanuts Raspberries Mini Marshmallows Coconut One Perfect Mess recipe 13

I’m back! After a few weeks of resting the old broken arm, I am now mobile and full of energy and ready for some serious baking. I thought I’d crash back onto the blogging scene with something fancy, so I present to you this monstrously imposing and ridiculously delicious absurdity of a creation; 2 layers of rich, fluffy chocolate cake sandwiched together with slatherings of peanut swiss meringue buttercream, filled with raspberries, shredded coconut and mini marshmallows. I couldn’t help but drizzle the whole thing in dark chocolate ganache prior to piling rocky road and crunchy peanuts on top… Whoops.

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Rhubarb and Ginger Goats Curd Cheesecake

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Rhubarb Raspberry Compote Ginger Goats Curd Cheese Cheesecake recipe One Perfect Mess

If there was any of this cheesecake left, I’d gladly offer you a slice, but unfortunately I just polished off 1/4 of the last piece that was carefully split and shared tonight. I went for full-force decadence with this one, because it was a birthday gift for a spectacular old friend of mine. The cheesecake starts with a crunchy ginger nut base, which lovingly embraces a velvety, creamy, not-too-sweet filling. The goats cheese is a wonderful offset to the richness of the cake, and provides a deliciously light texture with the slightest tang. Topped with a fragrant rhubarb, raspberry and ginger compote, this masterpiece takes under 1 hour to prepare and is, quite frankly, divine.

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Sticky Date and Pear Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

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Sticky Date and Pear Toffee Pudding with Pecans and Warm Butterscotch Caramel Toffee Sauce recipe One Perfect Mess 7

Today I’m sharing with you a treasured family recipe. You know the type; baked first by my Nan for hungry farmers and children over the years, then by my Ma at special family lunches to follow a feast of roast lamb. Now I’ve added my own flair to this classic and secretly simple dish; a delightfully rich and moist Sticky Date and Pear Pudding covered in crispy caramelised pecans, served warm with vanilla ice cream and a generous drizzle of homemade butterscotch sauce. You’ll be able to have this one in the oven in well under an hour, and there are no tricks at all in the recipe. Perfectly embracing so many irresistible and comforting winter flavours, this dessert is a definite crowd pleaser and the ultimate comfort food.

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Triple Chocolate Ombre Layer Cake

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Mini Triple Chocolate Ombre Layer Cake One Perfect Mess recipe 6

7000 views later and a small but swanky little creation to celebrate; three layers of fudgey, rich, chocolate buttermilk cake, stacked between slatherings of silky chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. If there’s one thing I enjoy more than chocolate swiss meringue buttercream, it’s a collaboration of white, milk and dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream all in the one cake. The buttermilk cake is soft and moist, and has very little sugar and lots of cocoa so is quite intense, perfectly offsetting the sweetness of the frosting.

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Raspberry, Coconut and White Chocolate Celebration Cake

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Raspberry, Coconut and White Chocolate Celebration Cake recipe One Perfect Mess 2 If you like your cakes pretty, pink and delicious, then take a moment to imagine this; three layers of velvety coconut cake held together by fresh raspberry buttercream, wrapped in a whisper of white chocolate ganache, to which sweet little coconut flakes cling. Top the darling creation with delicate raspberry meringue kisses, and you have an irresistible collaboration of a few of my favourite things. Continue reading →

Triple Layered Chocolate and Coconut Cake

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Triple Layered Chocolate and Coconut Cake recipe One Perfect Mess 8

A coco-loco choco-nutty triple layered cake to go crazy for, actually literally seriously. Thjs one takes a little more effort as it involves baking two types of cake (eek!!), but I absolutely promise you that it’s worth it. I’ve even laid out how you can best order each step of the recipe, so that preparation and baking are seamlessly coordinated. As your knife glides through this elegant monster, guests will ooh and aah as you reveal what’s inside… An incredibly soft, moist layer of coconut cake nestled between lashings of velvety chocolate cream cheese frosting, kept safe in the rich embrace of 2 fudgy chocolate cakes. Cover the whole thing in more chocolate cream cheese frosting and crispy coconut flakes, and you’re in foodie heaven. It’s the love child of a classic chocolate cake and a Bounty bar, and it’s all yours if you’re up for a couple of hours of baking bliss!

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Roasted Fig and Goats Curd Cheesecake with Honey and Pistachios

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Roasted Fig and Goats Curd Cheesecake with Honey and Pistachios recipe One Perfect Mess

Mother’s Day has just passed, and my dear Ma’s birthday was a few days later, so I created a celebratory dessert that was composed of a few of her favourite things. Remember those extra figs I froze when I made my Honey Roasted Fig, Dark Chocolate and Mascarpone Tart? I couldn’t ignore them anymore, so out they came and the result was this creamy, fragrant, frankly irresistible cheesecake. If you truly love me, you’ll make me a cheesecake. That’s really my only ask. I’m very easy to please and I’ll think you’re the bee’s knees forever and ever. This one is a particularly special cheesecake; a slightly salty almond and pistachio base sets the stage, goats curd offsets the rich cream cheese and gives the filling a soft, crumbly texture, and a baklava-inspired honey, lemon and rosewater syrup drizzled over roasted figs, pistachios and rose petals leaves you sobbing with confusion when you realise you ate your slice before you could truly appreciate what was happening.

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Honeycomb and Chocolate Four Layer Celebration Cake

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Honeycomb and Chocolate Four Layer Celebration Cake Recipe One Perfect Mess 11

Aaaand I’ve reached 4000 views on my little blog! I can’t quite articulate how happy/jubilant/gleeful/giddy that makes me feel, so instead I baked this celebration cake to send you all my love in the form of a four layered chocolate cake with velvety honeycomb buttercream, drizzled generously with dark chocolate ganache and a pile of smashed homemade honeycomb. Does this give you a better idea of how grateful I am? I actually went a bit over the top on the swiss meringue buttercream, those responsible for demolishing it did so with a bit of a groan…i.e. probably only pile on half as much buttercream as I did. But oh well, as far as life difficulties go, too much honeycomb buttercream isn’t really that horrendous.

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