The ultimate makeover: Chocolate mousse

This sophisticated dessert is great for a dinner party, or for a lighter family pud use ordinary dark chocolate with less cocoa solids

Beetroot & chocolate cake

Beetroot is actually very sweet and keeps this rich chocolate loaf wonderfully moist

Mini Christmas cake

Make our wreath cake (see ‘goes well with’) and use the spare middle section to create a small gift decorated with classic marzipan and fondant icing

Fresh mint & choc chip ice cream

Classic combo, mint choc chip goes luxury with fresh leaves, big dark chocolate chunks and vanilla seeds

Apricot & ratafia sponge cake

A simple fruit cake flavoured with almond and Amaretti biscuits – perfect with tea or as dessert served with cream or custard

Leftover veg & orange cake

A novel way to use up root vegetables is to bake up a sweet, moist sponge with citrus flavours

Chocolate & Earl Grey torte

Never before has it been so easy to impress – this soft-centered torte can be made ahead and frozen or baked from scratch in just an hour

White chocolate chip fudge

Why not make a gift of this indulgent fudge? You can vary it with different types of chocolate to suit different tastes

Lemon curd & blueberry loaf cake

Kids can help make this simple springtime treat – delicious with extra lemon curd and yogurt as a pud, or serve with a cuppa

Chocolate chunk pecan cookies

You can’t beat American-style cookies with big chunks of chocolate and nuts. The perfect grown-up biscuit

Sticky banana & maple cake

This childhood favourite is sticky, indulgent and completely moreish

Rocky robin cake

Get creative with your Christmas cake icing – these robins are super cute and really easy to model