Rich chocolate ideas to serve in vintage espresso cups for Christmas?

[GordanoBenito]

Very specific thread title I know!

I've just bought some gorgeous vintage espresso cups that come with matching ashtrays / side trays

I was thinking about using them to serve a dessert in at Christmas but want it to be a bit special. I can't bake anything in them, or microwave them due to gold foil details.

Any ideas, foodies of Mumsnet?

If it doesn't have to be chocolate you could do a lemon posset. That's very rich.

Otherwise I'd probably do a chocolate and orange mousse. Or a (very obvious) mocha mousse would work well.

Classic chocolate mousse.

I make choc mousse in mine, decorate with gold glitter and raspberries or as it’s Xmas a sprig of holly

Jamie Oliver had a recipe for chocolate pots with orange polenta cookies that I used to make. It was really tasty. And you could add egg white to the chocolate pots to turn them into mousse if you’d rather.

Chilli chocolate pot

Chocolate also pairs very well with cherry.

Just making this up but

Layer of amaretti crumbs or crushed ginger biscuits
Layer of chocolate ganache or mousse
Layer of whipped cream

I think I'd make an incredibly rich chocolate mouse.

A "Gu" style dessert? Mini cheesecakes etc?

Is white chocolate acceptable? If it is, Nigel slater’s white chocolate and cardamom mousse.

yearsofpractice.com/2021/02/06/white-chocolate-cardamom-mousse/

These all sound really tasty - might need to do some experimenting to get it right - thanks all! Here are the cups by the way, I was thinking little shortbread rounds or those wafer curls on the side plates

Lemon chiffon. Or lime. Or orange.

www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/recipe/dessert/lemon-chiffon-pie-11173/

Nigella's chocolate chestnut pots are yummy and very easy: www.nigella.com/recipes/chestnut-chocolate-pots

Coming on to suggest exactly the same as @SnowflakeSmasher86 . From memory the mixture for the biscuits makes masses so may want to halve the recipe.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-olive-oil-mousse

This is good.

Or Nigella's budino al cioccolato. Very nice but takes waaaaaayyyyyy longer to make than I thought it would. Did decide to thicken eventually.

Or she also does a white chocolate mousse, I think with mint in but I would take the mint out and use raspberries in the bottom - works well because you can let the frozen ones defrost and their lack of structural integrity wouldn't matter too much.

I had a gorgeous Black Forest trifle served in a coffee cup recently.

I was coming to suggest Nigella’s Chocolate Chestnut pots like @Gnomegarden32 . Suitably festive and absolutely lush. Perhaps also more universally appealing than cardamom or chilli (although I’d love both of those myself!). It’s a hard no to chocolate flavoured with orange though…I know I’m ploughing a lone furrow on that one!!

charming cups and trays

Those cups are gorgeous!

If it was me I would want to make long thin brandy snaps for the side biscuit, curled round a wooden spoon handle (easier than it sounds) so that you can use the cigarette holder bit.

So, based on that I’d either do a dark chocolate mousse, lemon posset as a pp suggest or some sort of mascarpone lime cream (like the top of a cheesecake) in the cup

I know that you want to serve something spoonable in the cups but Im going to suggest something else for their first outing, purely because they are beautiful and you won't want metal spoon marks on the white glaze the first time you use them.
Make a chocolate amaretto tart by lining a tray with grease proof paper and then a layer of amaretti crumbs. Cover with a classic ganache of cream and chocolate ( with amaretto) using a ganache based truffle recipe as that's the consistency you want. Cover with another layer of crumbs and chill.
When you are ready to serve, cut into immaculate rectangles to fit exactly on the flat area of your little trays. You'll want a warm knife, and wipe it between each cut.
Serve your very rich tart with a very strong espresso martini in the espresso cup, or a tiny but strong Irish/French coffee.
Invest in some non-metal teaspoons before you serve something spoonable in the cups: they're too pretty to risk.

I'd simply use them to serve Café Brûlot, with some lovely petit fours alongside.