Lainey’s Handmade Foods

What came first – the chocolate biscuit or the cake? That my friends, is a question for the experts. All I can say though, is that the first person who decided to combine these two mouth-watering desserts deserves a Nobel prize. FACT. I can still remember going to birthday parties when I was five and almost hyperventilating with excitement and joy when the chocolate biscuit cake was dished out. Twenty years later I get that same feeling (albeit a little more controlled!) so much so that I have on more than one birthday occasion, wrapped up some leftover cake and carted it around town in my purse on my night out just so that I could wake up to it the next morning. Weirdo or opportunist? I’ll let you decide!

Biscuit cake and carrot cake flapjack, Lainey’s Handmade Foods

There’s just something so wonderful about a fudgy chocolate slab with sweet crumbly biscuits sandwiched in at random! As an Irish citizen I can safely say that chocolate biscuit cake is not only a belief, it is a way of life.

Now what if I could tell you that something this good can be found in not only a bakery but in your every day shopping haunt. Take a deep breath, because I have discovered one such product. Enter Lainey’s Handmade chocolate biscuit cake.

Lainey’s handmade dark chocolate biscuit cake

Where did this come from?

I asked myself the same question. And then I met Léonie (pronounced Lay-oh-nee), proud owner of – you guessed it – Lainey’s Handmade Foods, specialising in a range of confectionary products including chocolate biscuit cake and carrot cake flapjacks. “Cooking has always been a big part of my life. When I was a kid I was always baking and it was my Mum who showed me how to make chocolate biscuit cake, it was our treat recipe!

Léonie knew this passion was not to be ignored and so she decided to start working in catering companies where her talents could be unleashed! This included The Food Shop in Mount Merrion where she mostly focused on the main courses, but found that she always left herself time to dabble in the cake section.  “I love food and I plan my day around it. Throughout the years the kids would ring on their way home from the DART and ask what’s for dinner, and our cousins would always come to our house for food”.  For Leonie, food is always the main event!

Lainey’s product range

As the years went by Leonie started to supply a few local cafes with some of her sweet treats including muffins and chocolate biscuit cake. It was the chocolate biscuit cake however that had customers coming back for more!. When Thomas’ in Foxrock asked whether her family favourite cake was packaged, the idea became a reality and Leonie’s Handmade Foods was born. I know what you’re thinking – an entire business built around cake? Hallelujah!!

Milk chocolate biscuit cake

At first the chocolate biscuit cake was made in house at her kitchen table and family and friends would come to help and package every individual bar. When the family moved to Wicklow Leonie shared her recipe with a local bakery who helped to make the product on a larger scale and who are now delivering to Supervalu’s across the country as well as several coffee shops and independent stores in Ireland. Impressive I know!

Taste Test

Chocolate biscuit cake itself sounds easy, but it very much relies on the fundamental principle of food i.e. the better the ingredients, the better the taste. And Lainey’s products truly follow this belief. Now I’m primarily a milk chocolate lover myself but when it comes to Lainey’s, the Dark Chocolate biscuit cake is the clear stand out!

Carrot cake flapjack & dark chocolate biscuit cake

• Dark chocolate biscuit cake – sweet crunchy biscuits encased in rich fudgy chocolate. The sweetness of the biscuits was perfectly balanced by the intensity of the chocolate and the bar just melted right in my mouth. One bite wasn’t enough!!
• Milk chocolate biscuit cake – sweet chocolate with crumbly biscuits and a glossy layer of smooth chocolate on top. Still tasty but I preferred the dark!
• Carrot cake flapjack – A combination of two of her favourite things! This was chewy, sweet and oaty as a flapjack should be, with actual grated carrot running through it which made it so moist! The cinnamon added a warming flavour, the seeds a bit of texture and the dried fruit some added sweetness. Plus it’s one of your five a day!

There are a few things in the pipeline for Lainey including the salted caramel slice and the lemon drizzle coconut slice.

Favourite part about it

“When I walk into a shop I’m not expecting to see my products there. I think, oh my god they’re mine!!” Even seeing them going through the airport I say Wow! It’s also nice when people see the connection and they say oh You’re Lainey!” My favourite part is looking back on how we started out and seeing how far we’ve come, and meeting so many people along the way”.

Check out the website for more information 🙂 http://laineyshandmadefoods.ie/

**Food for thought

• Digestive biscuits are a very popular ingredient for chocolate biscuit cake. Because they were originally made with baking soda, they were thought to aid digestion. Hence the name Digestive!  
• Biscuit eating can be dangerous at times. A 2009 study illustrated that 25 million people in the UK were injured by biscuits, many of these occurrences happened when they were searching for the remnants from boiling hot cups of tea. So be careful if you are a chocolate biscuit cake tea dunker!