Bake the best festive desserts with our queen of cakes Michelle Darmody

Try Christmas spiced ice-cream (and you don't need an ice-cream-maker for this one) 

Luxury handmade chocolate mediants 

This Christmas is going to be like no other. Many of us will be missing loved ones who live abroad and could not make it home, or even those who live closer and cannot come to visit. It will be a strange year for many but hopefully we can find some solace with those that we can share Christmas with. Spending time together creating and sharing a table laden with food may be one way for us all to relax. Of all years, this is the year to indulge ourselves.

I really enjoy festive baking, I love the rich dark flavours, and the gathering together of spices, dried fruit and alcohol. There are so many different ways to work with a similar set of ingredients, from the main event of the cake iced white, to the puddings, stollen or panettone, or one of my favourites, the Italian panforte. The ice cream recipe captures some of those rich spicy flavours with a kick of dark rum and forms them into a rich sweet custard.

If you do not have the time or energy to make the sunken pear cake you can simply do the first step and enjoy the pears poached in festive red wine served with a dollop of whipped cream.

The chocolate mediants are fun to make, and you can literally add whatever you choose to the melted chocolate discs. To keep it festive I use dried cranberries and some toasted nuts or candied orange peel, chopped pistachios can add a lovely green hue if you have some to hand.

Little hands can help with the sprinkling of toppings and the spreading of the chocolate. The mediants wrap up nicely as gifts — for a lucky teacher perhaps. When melting the chocolate it is best to use a bowl that snugly balances on top of the lightly boiling water. The important thing is not to let any steam waft into the chocolate or it will cause it to "freeze up" and stiffen. The chocolate will melt by itself without stirring.

Christmas spiced ice cream

• 600mls cream
• 2 medium-sized cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 egg yolks
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tbs of dark spiced rum

Christmas ice cream

• Place the cream, spices and vanilla into a heavy-based saucepan and bring to a shivering boil. Set aside to infuse.
• Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Remove the cinnamon sticks from the warm cream and whisk it into the egg mixture. Pour this into another heavy-based saucepan and heat gently for about 10 minutes, until you can evenly coat the back of a spoon with the mixture. Stir in the rum.
• Pour into a freezer-proof container and place it into your freezer. Every hour or so, for the first six hours, remove it and stir. This will to break up the ice crystals as it is freezing completely.
• Remove from the freezer a good 10 minutes before serving. It is nice served with ginger biscuits.

Chocolate cake with sunken festive pears

for the pears:

• 470mls red wine
• 130g golden caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 whole pears, peeled

for the cake:

• 85g dark chocolate, broken into even-size pieces
• 85g butter
• 3 eggs, separated
• 80g golden caster sugar
• 85g ground almonds

Homemade chocolate cake with pears poached in red wine glaze

• Pour the wine, sugar, cinnamon stick, ginger and nutmeg into a saucepan. Add the pears. Cover the saucepan with a snug-fitting lid and poach for about 15 minutes. They will still be a little hard but they will soften as the chocolate cake bakes. If you are planning to simply eat the pears at this stage, poach them for about 30 minutes altogether, depending on how hard the pears were to begin. They should hold their shape but be soft enough to eat with a spoon.
• Preheat your oven to 180°C and line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment.
• Gently melt the chocolate and butter together in a heavy-based saucepan, set aside.
• Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy. Add this to the chocolate. Stir in the ground almonds until everything is combined.
• Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff. Add a large spoon of the egg white to the chocolate mixture then gently fold in the rest until combined.
• Scoop the mixture into your prepared tin. Sit the pears upright into the mixture.
• Bake for about 40 minutes until the batter in the cake is baked through.

Chocolate mediants (pictured at top)

for the disks:

• 100g dark chocolate
• 100g milk chocolate
• 100g white chocolate — all three broken into even-sized pieces

suggestions for the topping:

• 30g candied orange peel
• 30g almonds lightly toasted and chopped
• 30g dried cranberries
• 30g dried apricots, sliced

• Place the dark chocolate pieces into a heatproof bowl and place it over a saucepan of lightly boiling water. The bowl should fit snugly so that no steam gets into the chocolate.
• While it is melting line a baking tray with parchment and draw circles onto it by tracing a pencil around an eggcup.
• Spoon the melted chocolate from the bowl into the circles, spreading gently with the back of the spoon.
• While the chocolate is still warm sprinkle your chosen toppings onto the chocolate. Allow to cool to room temperature, it is best not to place them into the fridge as this will cause the chocolate to dull and discolour.
• Repeat the process with the milk and then white chocolate