Baileys Coffee and Chocolate Cake Recipe

For the cake
Preheat the oven to 180°c. Grease and line an 8 inch cake tin with baking parchment.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl, then add the caster sugar.
Beat in the eggs and vegetable oil until smooth.

Gradually add the milk and vanilla extract to the bowl. Dissolve the instant coffee in the boiling water and gradually add this to the mixture until it is all incorporated.

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool fully in the tin.

For the icing
Whisk the butter until soft using a hand whisk or electric mixer. Gradually add the icing sugar and continue to whisk until light and fluffy, then gradually add the Baileys until incorporated.

Remove the cooled cake from the tin and slice it in half horizontally. Spread a generous layer of icing over the bottom layer and then sandwich it with the top layer. Spread the remaining icing over the top and sides of the cake.

For the decoration
Melt the white chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Dip the strawberries in the white chocolate until half-covered, and leave to cool and set on a sheet of baking parchment.

Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and drizzle it over the strawberries. Once set, arrange the chocolate-covered strawberries in the centre of the cake.

If you’re feeling extra adventurous, you can make shards of white chocolate by spreading a thin layer of melted white chocolate onto baking parchment, sprinkling with freeze-dried strawberries (available from most supermarkets), and then leaving to set before cutting into triangles.