Peppermint Ice (Totally not a rip off of Kendal Mint Cake at all. I promise)

My companion and I were having a conversation about my sugar crafting abilities recently, and Kendal Mint Cake came up in conversation. As such, I made a a batch, that he ate promptly and reported to his sister. She also wanted some, so I obliged.

Kendal Mint Cake is a glucose sweet flavoured with peppermint oil that originates from Kendal in Cumbria, England. It is popular among climbers and mountaineers as a source of energy. It is based on a traditional recipe known as mint cake, peppermint tablet or peppermint ice. It is also a standard part of the 24-hour ration pack issued to the Irish Defence Forces.

There are a few brands of this kind of sweet, all made in Cumbria, and some are covered in chocolate or made with brown sugar. This, however, is the good auld traditional way.


INGREDIENTS

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar
• About 4 or 6 tablespoons (60 to 90 millilitres) water, for dissolving
• 1/4 teaspoon of white vinegar, lemon juice, or cream of tartar
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of natural peppermint essence, depending on how strong you want it

METHOD

• In the saucepan, add the water, sugar, and vinegar (or lemon juice or cream of tartar). Over a low heat, gently stir and dissolve all the sugar in the water until it's a clear liquid. Make sure that no little grains of sugar stick to the sides of the pan.
• When every little grain of sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring the syrup to a rough simmer, just about boiling. If you have a sugar thermometer, attach it to your pan now, and cook to 115ºC/240ºF. If you do not have a thermometer, you will need to do traditional cold water testing.
• After 5 minutes of cooking, you can begin to test the syrup in cold water. Take a teaspoon of the syrup and drop it into the cold water: if the syrup sets enough to pick up and roll into a little squishy ball, the syrup is read. If it's still to runny, cook for another minute or two and test again. Keep cooking and testing until the texture is right.
• Once you have got the right texture, remove the saucepan from the heat and leave to cool until the syrup forms a skin and the pan is cool enough to touch.
• Add in your peppermint essence, and then stir the mixture with a spoon quite vigorously until it turns cloudy and thickens a little. Working quickly, pour the mixture into the tin, scraping the edges of the pan as little as possible; if you don't work quickly enough, the mixture could seize up into a big, solid lump.
• Allow the mixture to cool and set up completely, about 1 or 2 hours. Take out of the tin and break into pieces.

NOTES
If you plan on making mint cake often, I would recommend buying the organic peppermint essence from the health food shop, which comes in 100ml bottles and is about €8. It will last for ages, and is made using natural essential oil of peppermint, mixed with a flavourless carrier oil. However, the peppermint essence in little bottles from the supermarket will do if you're making this recipe once off, but I prefer not to use it because it's artificial and the flavour fades over time into a nasty plastic taste.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Variations on a Theme: Lemon Curd Sponge (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2013: A Cautionary Tale on the Dangers of Novelty Cakes: The Dinnersaurus

Experiment: Homemade Sprinkles

Firstly, happy Coeliac Awareness Week! As you all know, this blog is dedicated to the pursuit of making wheat-free goodies that are as good as any wheat-ful kind you’ll buy in the shops. Please, utilise these recipes to enjoy a few sweeties this Coeliac Awareness Week, just substitute all the spelt flour for gluten-free blend, as spelt is not suitable for a gluten-free lifestyle, just for a select lucky few who are just wheat-intolerant.

Anyway: moving swiftly on.

I’ve always wanted to make my own sprinkles. Why, you ask, would you want to go to all that bother if you can get them in the shop relatively inexpensively? Two reasons: one, when one gets into the mode of making everything themselves from scratch to accommodate for a wheat-free lifestyle, it starts to become less of a necessity and more of a challenge to see how many shop items one can recreate as faithfully as – if not better than – the original version; two, because shop-bought sprinkles have loads of very suspect ingredients in, and my version has only four. Those four ingredients are icing sugar, egg white, lemon juice, and food colouring; if you can get your hands on natural food colourings, you can make completely natural sprinkles.

Also, when you make your own sprinkles, you can make them any shape you want, as long as your piping skill and array of icing nozzles facilitates. I had some left over royal icing from the other day, so I decided to try my hand at making some, and I did a few different shapes. They’re all quite pretty! I think for a first go, they’re pretty awesome...

• For the traditional, sugar strand style sprinkles, I piped long straight lines of royal icing onto a piece of non-stick baking paper. Once they were completely dry, having been left to set overnight, I cut them into shorter pieces using a sharp knife. You could also break them up with your fingers.
• I piped a large amount of little dots, and they were pretty cute. They weren’t flat enough to be confetti, but I think they were quite nice in their own right.
• I also piped some teardrop shapes for added interest; I wouldn’t do that again, to be honest: I didn’t like them as much.
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And there they are. I did two different colours and mixed them up, which was a nice touch. You could do any combination of colours: you could have a rainbow mix, or a pink mix with different shades of pink, or green or blue or whatever. Hell, go crazy!


As for the creation of these little beauties, the consistency of the royal icing itself is key. Here are a few tips:

• Use the recipe in my iced biscuits post, but whip the royal icing to firm peaks. A flowing consistency will be too thin, and the sprinkles won’t keep their shape; very stiff peaks stage is a little too far, but firm peaks stage is just right.
• Also, when colouring the icing, bear in mind the colour will deepen as the icing dries. Your delicate pink may turn out neon if you’re not careful, but maybe that’s what you want.

This is only my first adventure in homemade sprinkles, so watch this space for more adventures in Sprinkleville!

How to Use and Abuse Royal Icing, and Wholemeal Gingerbread (Wheat Free)

 

Recently, I’ve been going through a biscuit phase: for months, I’ve been making loads of different kinds of cake, but as of late I’m feeling the biscuits vibe a bit more. First, I made the dinosaur Kimberleys, which sent me down the road to Gingerbreadville, and then for a friend’s birthday I made some vanilla and chocolate shortbread biscuits that were decorated with royal icing in pretty pastel shades (I unfortunately don’t have photos of these ones: my camera ran out of battery). I first tried royal icing flooding a few years back and I was a little disappointed, but this time round – even after years of not practising – they turned out ninety-percent perfectly. Maybe I was suffering from a case of too-many-mind at the time.

One thing I will say, though, is the exact consistency for flood icing is somewhat elusive and tricky to explain to people; it’s something you just kind of work out one day and know thereafter. The following is the recipe I find works quite well. Obviously, atmospheric factors will affect the consistency and drying speed of your royal icing: humidity, heat, et cetera. Keep an eye on the old barometer, if you have one.

INGREDIMENTS

• 1 large egg white, at room temperature
• 7 ounces (200 grammes) icing sugar, sieved
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice, or water if you don’t like lemon juice.

HOW-TO

• Beat the egg whites and lemon juice together until foamy and no longer liquid.
• While still beating, gradually add in the icing sugar in three additions.
• Beat the icing for a minute or two until the right consistency is reached. Soft peaks is a little too far, but if you reach soft peaks stage just add a few drops of water and beat in gently.

This icing colours well, but bear in mind that the colour will get deeper as the icing dries, so bear that in mind when you tint your raw icing: what you thought was a nice delicate pink might end up being neon once dry. As for the flooding technique, there’re billions of videos online for methods; from piping to painting on with a paintbrush, all the bases are covered.

And if you’re here for the gingerbread, you won’t be disappointed. Check out this recipe for the method; the only thing that’s different is the ingredients.

INGREDIMENTS

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, at room temperature
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ ounce (15 grammes) golden syrup
• 1 ounce  (30 grammes) cornflour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) wholemeal spelt flour
• 1 ounce  (30 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt 

These biscuits have a nice, vintage kind of feel to them: feathered icing conjures up images of a North English grandma’s biscuit barrel... it does it me, anyway. In my oft-mentioned Sweet Success book, there’s a recipe for feather iced buns, maybe that’s why. It’s a very simple technique that yields very tastefully pretty results.

Buttercream Icing: the King of all Icings

Buttercream icing is possibly one of the most versatile kinds of icing there is. Either spread haphazardly or
piped artistically onto a cake, it still looks and tastes great, and is very quick and easy to prepare. In fact, the only thing simpler than it is good old whipped cream, which doesn't have the same keeping power as buttercream. It's just butter, icing sugar, milk and flavouring

Due to its simplicity, buttercream icing is easily flavoured, easily used, and easily stored. If you've made too much, you can keep it in the fridge in a air-tight box and it'll keep for up to a fortnight (in my experience). However when storing exercise caution: it must be kept airtight, because it's high butter content (and thus high fat content, sorry to disappoint) makes it a magnet for unwanted tastes and odours.

But Anna - I imagine hearing you say - I'm lactose intolerant? Do I have to give up buttercream forevar? Fear not! I have a friend who is lactose intolerant, and as such making cakes for him was a worry when it came to buttercream. I discovered, however, that it works just as well with margarine instead of butter, and water instead of milk; just make sure it's the soft kind, not the block kind. Then, even as a non-dairy eater, you can enjoy the silky creaminess of buttercream icing.

Here is how to make the baker's wonder material.

INGREDIMENTS:
This will easily ice 12 fairy cakes, or ice the top and fill an 8 inch (20 centimeter) cake.

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) butter, softened to room temperature
• 12 ounces (340 grammes) icing sugar, sieved
• 2 to 3 tablespoons (30 to 45 millilitres) milk, or more if needed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, or essence of your choice: such as peppermint or almond.

It is absolutely imperative that all the ingredients -- including the milk -- are at room temperature, otherwise the buttercream and curdle.

HOW-TO:

• Beat the butter, vanilla essence and the first tablespoon of milk with about a third of the sugar to start with, using a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer, until fully blended.
• Beat in another third of the sugar until fully blended with the second tablespoon of milk, then add the final third of sugar and beat continuously for about 3 or 4 minutes until light, fluffy and pale.
• If the mixture is too stiff to use properly, add milk a teaspoon at a time until it's just right. It should be soft, but still hold stiff peaks when the beater/wooden  spoon is pulled out of the icing.

And that, truly, is it. The awesome versatility in application and flavouring has been hailed and capitalised upon by bakers for a very long count of years. If you want to make buttercream that isn't just plain old vanilla (which, don't get me wrong, has its time and place), then here are some simple tips, taking the measurements of the above recipe in mind.


If you want an orange, lemon or other citrus icing, take 1 whole citrus and grate off its zest (you want only the orange or yellow outer layer of skin, not any of the white bit underneath – known as pith – because it’s very bitter) and add this with the first addition of icing sugar before beating. Instead of the milk, add the same amount of the citrus juice. You can keep the vanilla essence in for extra sweetness, or replace it with citrus essence for extra zing.

If you would like a chocolate icing, replace ½ ounce of the icing sugar with ½ ounce of cocoa powder. This makes a very rich, dark chocolate icing, so if you don’t like it as dark you can reduce the substitution, or use hot drinking chocolate power, which is sweeter.

If you would like a coffee icing, replace the milk with the same amount of very strong black coffee, either made with instant espresso powder or from a filter. If you're extra coffee mad, you can replace the vanilla essence with coffee essence.

For toffee or caramel icing, simply add a tablespoon of golden syrup or toffee-flavoured ice-cream sauce, which you can get from any supermarket. If you can get it, you can use butter-vanilla flavouring instead of the vanilla essence; I managed to get a few vials of such flavouring from Lidl.

For any kind of berry or soft fruit icing, such as strawberry, banana or raspberry, replace the milk with the same quantity of fruit purée (you can make this by squidging fresh or defrosted frozen fruit through a sieve) or add about an ounce of strained jam. Also, you could add some fruit flavoured ice-cream sauce, or milk-shake powder.

For coconut icing, replace the milk with the same quantity of coconut milk or juice. If you can get your hands on solid coconut milk, you can replace an ounce of the butter with the coconut milk.

For peanut flavoured icing, replace half of the butter with smooth peanut butter. If you can get your hands on any other kind of nut butter, you could use those too, such as almond, hazelnut or cashew nut. Similarly, you could substitute half the butter for any other kind of thick, sweet sandwich spread; like Nutella.

The options don't stop there! A while back I made Coca Cola flavoured buttercream on vanilla cakes, which was inspired by a recipe I read online for Coca Cola cupcakes. I tried the original recipe and it was a disaster, but I took inspiration from it to make another cake (at the time I was allergic to chocolate, so this recipe for moist chocolate cakes wouldn't have been for my consumption anyway). The Coca Cola flavoured icing was nice, but in future I think I'll reduce the cola over heat to make it thicker and more concentrated before adding it to the icing.

I hope this recipe serves you well!