Traditional Amish Whoopie Pies: The Secret Is Revealed.....

Today's offering is these deliciously soft and squishy chocolate whoopie pies with their traditional whipped buttercream filling! And these cakes really taught me a huge lesson.

Now, I now I've made whoopie pies before, but this time it's different. Sometimes an old dog can learn new tricks, and sometimes a metric person can be surprised by American cups. For my entire cooking career, I have measured baking ingredients in mass (weight) measurements: pounds, ounces, kilos and grammes have been part of my everyday kitchen practise. In my opinion, the accuracy of measuring things in weight makes the recipes easily repeatable with the same results every time.... in theory.

I've always been put off cups because the idea of having to dirty a cup when one could just measure all the ingredients in the same bowl on a scale makes no sense to me. Also, every cup of flour -- no matter how carefully you try to measure the cup exactly the same way every time -- weighs differently. An Australian cup is different to an American cup, and what do you do if you don't have a set of cups?

For all of these reasons, I have spent my entire baking career avoiding them. However, from personal experience, translating or converting cup measurements to weight measurements can fail absolutely miserably.

When I decided to make these whoopie pies, I found a traditional Amish recipe and, of course, it was measured in cups. I made the recipe using cups, and it worked perfectly! As I was scooping the cups of ingredients I was weighing them exactly. Having noted how much each cup of each ingredient weighed, I noted it for perfectly replicable results! Or, so I thought.

When I made them again using my painstakingly measured weights, they were an absolute failure. I was so confused: surely, it should have worked perfectly? I did it again with the cups, again measuring the weights of the cups, and even though this times most of the weights were completely different it still turned out perfectly like the first time.

So my main take away is: if the recipe is designed for cups, use cups. And if the recipe is designed for grammes, use grammes.

I believe now, after this wonderfully humbling experiment, that weights are not the be all and end all, and that recipes should be made using the measurements they were designed with. I'm just glad I had a set of measuring cups!

For those who are interested in making these beauties, I used Family Favourite's recipe Traditional Amish Chocolate Whoopie Pies to make these. They are moist, soft, sweet, and deeply chocolatey. The addition of egg white in the icing makes it super light and fluffy. I heartily recommend this recipe! If you want plain vanilla cakes, I have discovered that simply replacing the cocoa powder cup for cup with flour works a charm.

Let's Go To The Circus! A Cupcake Design

At 28 years old, I had never (as far as I could remember) been to a circus. So my husband took me to the one that was in town this week and I had a blast! All the performers were incredible acrobats, and the clown was very sweet.

I was inspired by my time at the circus to make these cute themed cupcakes! Chocolate cakes with a mildly peanutty buttercream, topped off with a mini candy floss!

I know that circuses don't have animals anymore, but I still associate elephants and camels and that old timey sense of wonder at amazing spectacles! And because of elephants, I thought of peanuts.... thus peanut butter. Also, while at the circus I had some candy floss; yumyum!

INGREDIENTS

12 chocolate cupcakes, in pink or blue cases

6 ounces (170 grammes) salted butter

3 fluid ounces (105 millilitres) condensed milk

3 ounces (85 grammes) smooth peanut butter

12 ounces (340 grammes) icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

A few drops of almond essence

6 paper straws with pink stripes

A tub of candy floss, pink and blue

Pink and blue sprinkles

METHOD

• Make a buttercream icing with the butter, condensed milk, peanut butter, icing sugar, vanilla and almond essences. 
• Use the icing to pipe swirls on top of the cakes, and sprinkle with the blue and pink sprinkles.
• Cut the straws in half and use each half as a stick for the candy flosses: wrap pieces of candy floss around the straws and gently squeeze to secure. Keep the candy flosses in an airtight container until serving.
• Decorate the cakes with the mini candy flosses immediately before serving, not in advance, otherwise the candy flosses will melt.

Sweetie Pie's Perfectly Pink Summer Punch: An Easy Formula! (Cup Measurements)

Summer time is prime time for entertaining! I have a social circle who really enjoy socialising around card and board games, so to end my summer holiday in style I had a games party with pizza. And what party would be complete without a delicious party drink?

As a wedding gift, a good friend of mine gave me two garden flamingos -- a pink one and a black one -- which my husband decided to name Bert and Ernie, for some strange reason. It was even stranger considering the fact that he actually didn't know who "Bert and Ernie" were. So, in honour of their arrival, everything in the party was flamingo themed, including the punch.

I don't normally provide alcoholic drinks at social occasions because a) it's expensive, and b) sometimes people have no self control. However, we're all getting older now, and some of my more enthusiastic friends have calmed down with their imbibing as they've aged...

However, you can stretch a spirit a long way if you make yourself a nice party punch! Punch is a Caribbean drink that's made by mixing rum in specific ratios with other liquids. It's easily remembered with this traditional rhyme:

1 part sour

2 parts sweet

3 parts strong (alcohol, traditionally rum)

4 parts weak (mixer, traditionally water)

This ratio will produce a punch that's 9% alcohol volume. However, I don't want to get by guests completely plastered so I use 6 parts of mixer to make the overall volume 7.5%. To make it even weaker, use 2 parts strong and 6 parts weak to make the overall volume 5%.

Sour is exactly what it says on the tin: a sour liquid, like lemon or lime juice. You could also use grapefruit juice.

Sweet is a simple syrup or sweet fruit juice. You could use shop-bought syrups or squashes, but make sure to dilute them so they're not overwhelming. Some recipes even use a sweet liqueur here, like Framboise or Grand Marnier.

Strong is obviously the main alcoholic element, most frequently a spirit: whiskey, rum, vodka, you name it. Preferably this element is 30-35.7% alcohol volume, but you can use a weaker alcohol if you don't want your punch too strong.

And finally, weak is your diluting mixer: soft drink, tea, or even sparkling or still water. Some very adventurous people even use a weak alcohol here, like beer or cider. That's a but too alcoholic for me.

Sweetie Pie's Perfectly Pink Summer Punch

1 cup (240 millilitres) lime juice, bottled is fine

1 cup (240 millilitres) concentrated cherry syrup or squash, like this one

1 cup (240 millilitres) water, to dilute the syrup

3 cups (720 millilitres) mint vodka*, or strong peppermint schnapps (must be 30% alcohol)

6 cups (1440 millilitres) lemon lime soft drink, or cola

Ice, to serve

METHOD

• In a punch bowl or large pitcher, mix together the lime juice, cherry syrup, water, and vodka. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
• Immediately before serving, add 3 cups of ice and the lemon lime drink. Use a ladle to serve if it's in a bowl.
• Using these ratios the punch will be roughly 7.5%. Reducing the soft drink to 4 cups will yield a 9% drink.

*  I make mint vodka myself by dissolving 100 grammes (3.5 ounces) of clear mint sweets in 500 millilitres (17.5 fluid ounces) of vodka or about 24 hours, stirring occasionally. 

Feel free to experiments with flavours! What about something with blackberries and Jaegermeister for a spooky magical purple? Or keep it tropical fresh with lemon, orange, and grapefruit juice with rum? Whatever the occasion, this recipe is easily adaptable to your taste and event.

Tangzhong Cinnamon Rolls: Further Experiments

In my further bread experiments, I've discovered that tangzhong dough works very well for making cinnamon rolls!

I wrote up a cinnamon rolls recipe about two years ago using a traditional bread dough method, but I thought it'd be nice to update it with my recent discovery of the Tangzhong method.

In my previous blog on the topic, I said that it was an Asian method (which makes sense, being called tangzhong), however from further research I discovered that its origins are to be found in Eastern Europe, particularly Austria and Russia. In German, it's called kochstück and was originally used to prevent spelt bread from drying out in the oven. So, it's doubly appropriate I should use it on this blog, which has a focus on making things with spelt flour!

 

This made some mega fluffy cinnamon rolls, but I will warn that they dough is so soft and stretchy that it's difficult to get a nice tight roll. But the crumb is so unbelievably fluffy that that won't bother you.To make the dough, I used 1 pound (450 grammes) strong flour, at least 11.5% protein, 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) water, the same amount of milk, two ¼ ounce (7 gramme) packs of dried yeast, 2 ounce (55 grammes) salted butter, and 2 tablespoon (30 grammes) sugar.

In the future, I'll be looking into ways to knead this style of dough without a machine, because I rely on my newly acquired stand mixer to knead this very sticky style of bread. There are masters who know the ancient ways of kneading high hydration dough, so I'll turn to them for assistance....

Bread That's Still Fresh Tomorrow: Tangzhong Method

Ah, bread... such a simple, simple pleasure. In some parts of the world, access to bread is a human right, and I can see why!

However, sometimes homemade bread doesn't live up to expectations for a variety of reasons: it's dry, it's dense, it's doughy, or sometimes it simply doesn't last for more than a day before going stale. That's not a problem if you have lots of people in your house to eat the bread, but if not even the biggest bread lover couldn't (or if they could, shouldn't) eat an entire loaf of bread in one day. 

So, I took to the internet to do some research on how to keep my bread fresher for longer and lasts for three days without having to become bird food. And it's all to do with the relationship between the flour and the water.

Now, for some science

In the breadmaking world, people talk about dough hydration percentage. Sounds fancy, but all that really means is if you have a bread dough that has 1000 grammes of flour, and 500 grammes of water, that dough has a 50% hydration, because there is half as much water as flour. The higher the percentage of hydration, the chewier and sturdier the texture of the dough after baking, and the fresher it stays for longer. The lower the percentage, the quicker it goes stale. 

Doughs that have a higher hydration percentage need flour with more gluten, so an 80% hydration dough would need strong bread flour that has a high percentage of protein on the label, more than 11%. Lower hydration dough, however, can be made using regular plain or all purpose flour which makes them much more accessible for beginners or occasional bakers who might only have plain flour at home.

Regular beginner's bread doughs often have roughly 60-65% hydration, or a pound of flour (455 grammes) to about half a pint of water or milk (285 millilitres). That's how my Mum taught me, and it's easy to handle. Often very experienced or artisan breadmakers can use bread doughs that have up to 80% hydration, like sourdough, which has great keeping qualities and a delicious chewy texture. However, this kind of dough needs particular handling techniques that take a long time to master that would absolutely frustrate and discourage a beginner. I've tried, and failed, and cried over way too many wasted loaves of bread.

Is there a compromise?

To have a dough with a nice high percentage hydration but can be easily handled, you need to trap some of the water. Introducing a method that's very popular in East Asian countries: the tangzhong.

This method takes a small amount of the flour used in your recipe to make a paste with some of the water. This paste traps the water in the starch of the flour, which has two advantages: the water isn't all in your dough, making it hard to handle; and the water is trapped which makes it harder to escape, keeping the bread moister for longer!

Now, that's some massive oversimplification: the real technical reason has way more longer words in it like gelatinisation and other words I couldn't spell out loud from memory. But all you need to know is that it works very well.

So, the takeaway is

Higher Hydration: 65%<

Needs strong (bread) flour with more protein

Makes bread that has a chewy texture

Can have big air pockets, depending on how it's proofed

Sticky dough which needs specific handling techniques

Almost has a life of its own

Makes bread that keeps longer

Lower Hydration: >65%

Can be made using plain (all-purpose) flour

Make tender, soft bread

Has a more cake-like texture

Easy to handle dough that's good for beginners

Quite a forgiving dough that doesn't need special treatment

Can stale quickly if not eaten or frozen immediately

Tangzhong Method

Traps some of the water in a cooked flour-water paste

Results in a dough which is a happy middle ground between low and high hydration properties

So, for my delicious loaf of white bread that's in the pictures, I used 1 pound (455 grammes) of strong bread flour, 12 fluid ounces (340 millilitres), one quarter-ounce (7 gramme) sachet of dried yeast, 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or oil, 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) salt, and two teaspoons (10 millilitres) sugar.

One pound is 16 ounces, which means 12 fluid ounces of water is 75% of the flour measurement. If you use more or less flour, the water must be scaled to always be 75% of the flour.

Take 1 ounce (30 grammes) of the pre-measured flour and cook it with 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) of the pre-measured water and cook it into a paste in a saucepan over medium-low heat and allow to cool with cling film directly touching the surface to prevent a skin. The paste should be thick and translucent. Notice that the ratio of flour to water is 1:6, and also that half of the overall water is being trapped in the paste. 

Make the bread as usual, adding in the paste and the remaining ingredients. It will take longer to knead and sometimes get a little sticky, but don't be tempted to add a load more flour to knead it easier. You can use plain flour for dusting.

Bake as normal and cool as normal and you'll be presented with some of the most deliciously impossibly soft and fluffy bread you've ever eaten. Just like from the Chinese bakery!

This method can be used to make cinnamon rolls and other kinds of bread treats like dinner rolls, hot dog buns, or hamburger buns. You can use milk in the dough, but always make sure you make the flour paste with water; it just works better that way.

For more information on tangzhong method dough, please read through my sources and explore what the world wide web has to offer on the subject!

SOURCES

https://pastrychefonline.com/tangzhong-bread/

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2018/07/23/how-to-convert-a-bread-recipe-to-tangzhong

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2018/03/26/introduction-to-tangzhong

Brownie Ice-Cream Cake [BACK-DATED]

Happy birthday to my dearest husband! (Still doesn't feel real saying that...) To celebrate, we're having a delicious ice-cream cake with a brownie base!

Simon absolutely loves hot brownies with ice-cream on top, so this year I thought I'd mash the two concepts together by making an ice-cream cake. However, I learnt a few things in the process.

I made this by cooking up an 8 inch (20 centimetre) fudgy chocolate brownie and popping it in a deep 8 inch tin lined with non-stick paper. I emptied about 2 pints of good quality vanilla ice-cream on top of it and froze the whole confection together. However, this led to a rock solid base. So, in future renditions, I'll probably freeze the ice-cream into a cake shape independently of the base, then pop the two together for serving so the base is soft enough to cut without the ice-cream thawing too much.

I decorated the top with swirls of whipping cream, vanilla filled wafer rolls, and a dusting of drinking chocolate powder for visual interest! It was greatly enjoyed, but the next one will be better with the added steps.

Sweetie Pie's Perfect Scones! Part 2: Written Recipe

After experimenting over the course of a few days (which you can read all about here) I found what I consider to be the perfect scone: light and fluffy with pale sides and a brown top, with only a little hit of sweetness. I like my scones very plain.

To get the consistency of texture, the dough has to be worked through properly. This is tricky with something like scones, which need to be handled as little as possible before baking so they don't get tough. The way around this is to add some extra starch to reduce the overall amount of gluten in the flour. With a higher percentage of starch, the scones are lighter, fluffier, and easier to work with.

Split these beauties in half and enjoy with jam, butter, or cream. Or maybe all of the above, if you're feeling indulgent....

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Very simple! 

TIME

1 hour

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

6 ounces (170 grammes) white plain flour: spelt or wheat

2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour

1 tablespoon baking powder, or 1 teaspoon of baking powder with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda for Irish style scones

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, room temperature

2 tablespoons (28 grammes) caster sugar

4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) milk, room temperature

1 teaspoon lemon juice, if using baking soda

Eggwash, made with an egg and a pinch of salt, or you can use milk to omit the egg

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and preheat a flat baking tray also.
• Sieve the flours, baking powder (and baking soda, if using), and salt twice, making sure to hold the sieve high. I like to sieve the mixture out onto a piece of baking paper, then back into the mixing bowl.
• In a mixing bowl, rub the sieved ingredients with the butter until it's like fine breadcrumbs. It doesn't matter what temperature the butter is, as long as it's very well rubbed in. Stir in the sugar.
• Add the milk (and lemon juice, if using baking soda) and mix quickly and throroughly with a metal spoon until just mixed.
• Turn out onto a floured work surface and chaff six times: chaffing is the process of flattening the dough by hand, folding in half, turning through 90 degrees, and then repeating. This is a much gentler process than kneading.
• Cut out scones using a cutter, shape the dough into a rectangle and cut squares, or shape into a round and cut into wedges. You can gather the remaining dough and re-roll, but the second rolling won't be as even as the first.
• Sprinkle flour onto the preheated tray and arrange the scones about half an inch apart from each other: if they're a little huddled together, they will rise straighter. Eggwash the tops, making sure it doesn't dribble down the sides. If you like, you can baste the tops with eggwash another two times during cooking for an even richer colour. You can also sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar or salt.
• Bake near the top of the oven for 15 minutes. This can depend on the size of the scones: when they've risen high and have turned a rich brown on top, they're ready.

These are best eaten the day they are made, but they freeze very well. Freeze any leftovers on the day of baking for best results.

Sweetie Pie's Perfect Scones! Part 1: Experiments

Ah, the humble scone. So many varieties, so many styles, and so many shades of deliciousness. And as such, so many challenges.

What somebody considers a perfect scone is polarising and subjective. I'm sure we can all agree that a Victoria sponge should be light, fluffy and sweet. I'm sure we can all agree that a piece of shortbread should be sandy and buttery. But, I'm not sure we will all agree on what we like about scones.

From my observation here in Ireland, there are three main families of scones: ones eaten in England, ones eaten in America, and the ones that every Nana knows how to make here at home.

• English scones are more cake-like: sweet, light and fluffy, and are usually quite small. The ingredients are typically cold, and the butter is rubbed in fully to make them fluffy.
• American scones are like giant chunks of sweetened shortcrust pastry: the butter is left in small pieces in the dough and not rubbed in fully, and everything is ice cold, making them flaky more so than fluffy. There is also a very high percentage of butter.
• Irish scones are more like sweetened buns of soda bread: bready, not very sweet, and rough on the outside. They are very plain, and often quite dense.

My personal preference is an English style scone: light, fluffy, breaks apart easily for buttering, and is usually small. Achieving this without using shop bought self-raising flour nor butt-tonnes of baking powder is quite a challenge, though.

I did four experiments in the kitchen, which will be presented to you in note form with elaboration as needed. Every single recipe added the ingredients in the same order: butter rubbed into flour and raising agent, sugar added, followed by the liquid mixed in quickly with a knife before finishing the mixing on the work surface. Every mixture was rolled to an inch thick (2.5 centimetres) and baked at 200°C (400°F) for 15 minutes.

NOTE: Chaffing is a procedure where the dough is folded and flattened repeatedly. It's often used for delicate pastries that shouldn't be handled much, and is also used in traditional bread making for doughs which are very wet.

 

From the top to the bottom: Batch 1, Batch 2, Batch 3, and Batch 4

Batch 1

8oz flour

2 tsps b powder

Pinch of salt

2oz butter, cold, or margarine

1oz sugar

4floz milk

Mixed in the machine. Not chaffed. Broke when baking: poor crust colour. Eggwashed once.

I got a Kenwood mixer as a wedding gift, and tried making scones in it. Would not recommend!

~ * ^ _ ^ * ~

Batch 2

8oz flour

1 tablespoon b powder

Pinch of salt

2oz butter, cold, or margarine

1oz sugar

4floz milk, slightly warm

1 tsp lemon juice

 

Lemon juice mixed with milk at the last second before adding to dough. Mixed by hand, chaffed four times. Cut into wedges. Rose nicely, but cracked on top slightly and caught too much colour on the sides. Eggwashed once.

~ * ^ _ ^ * ~

Batch 3

4oz flour

1/4 tsp b powder

1/4 tsp b soda

Pinch of salt

1oz butter, cold, or margarine

1 tablespoon sugar

2floz milk, slightly warm

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Lemon juice mixed with milk at the last second before adding to dough. Mixed by hand, chaffed four times. Cut into rounds. Rose sideways, and coloured too much. Crust too thick. Distinct taste of b soda, though not overwhelming. Egg washed once before cooking, and again a minute before finished in oven

~ * ^ _ ^ * ~

It was at this point that I nearly gave up and realised why I've never done a scone recipe on this blog before. It seems my tastes in scones are very specific! I delved back into the history of my blog and found that I had, in fact, done a scone recipe. It was a quick mention in a recipe I'd done for tomato soup, and I remember eating those scones and thinking they were delicious. Turns out, the issue I was having with overworking the flour was very easily solved by adding in cornflour. The addition of extra starch reduced the overall amount of gluten, and meant that the dough could be easily and thoroughly mixed without exercising the gluten too much. Turns out I was trying to reinvent the wheel.

~ * ^ _ ^ * ~

Batch 4

3oz flour, with 1oz cornflour

1/2 tsp b powder

1/4 tsp b soda

Pinch of salt

1oz butter, cold, or margarine

2 teaspoons sugar

2floz milk, slightly warm

1/2 tsp lemon juice

 

Lemon juice mixed with milk at the last second before adding to dough. Mixed by hand, chaffed five times: withstood chaffing more because of high starch content. Cut into fluted rounds. Rose well -- cleanest cut ones rose the best. Coloured nicely: sides nice and pale, and top well browned. Distinct taste of b soda, though not overwhelming. Eggwashed three times: once before baking, once halfway through -- turning the tray through 180 -- and again a minute before finished in oven.

~ * ^ _ ^ * ~

Batch 5

3oz flour, with 1oz cornflour

1.5 tsps baking powder

Pinch of salt

1oz butter, cold, or margarine

1 tablespoon sugar

2floz milk, slightly warm

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Made in exactly the same way as Batch 4. No noticeable visual difference. Slightly fluffier, lacking the characteristic moisture and flavour of b soda. Suitable substitute for those who dislike b soda.

So, I can conclusively say, that cornflour is the magic ingredient. Whether you use baking soda or powder doesn't seem to matter that much, but what does it that the overall gluten is reduced by adding starch. Read all about the final recipe here!

Cheat Method: Quick Lemon Iced Tea

Nomnomnom, iced tea! A truly refreshing drink for warm summer days... if you have any (they're fairly rare in Ireland!)

Irish people love tea. We drink tonnes of it every year. In fact, we drink the most tea per person of any country in Europe. But still, sometimes it can be just too hot outside for a proper cup of scald. That's why I was really happy when I tried iced tea and actually liked it!

I used to make iced tea by cold brewing black tea overnight, or by making cups or normal tea and letting it go cold. A coworker of mine, however, let me into one of her iced tea secrets. She just made a small amount of extremely concentrated tea and topped it up with cold water and ice. Having done a few experiments, I bring to you my own trusted formula that gives pretty consistent results every time.

INGREDIMENTS

To serve 2 people

2 Lyons (black) tea bags

6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) boiling hot water

Cold water, to top up

10 ounces (285 grammes) ice

6 tablet sweeteners, or 2 tablespoons of sugar

2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) lemon juice, fresh or bottled. You could also use fresh or bottled juice of any other citrus

METHOD

• In a UK pint (570 millilitre) measuring jug, mix the tea bags and boiling hot water together. Stir very well, and allow to steep for about 5 minutes. 
• Remove the tea bags, and squeeze the water out of them. Add in the sweeteners or sugar and stir very well until dissolved. You'll lose some water in the process, but this is accounted for.
• Top the liquid level up to half a UK pint (285 millilitres) with cold water.
• Divide the ice and the lemon juice between two 12 ounce (340 millilitre) glasses. Pour half of the sweetened tea mixture into each glass, and stir very well until the drink is cold. 
• Serve with a straw, and a slice of lemon if you like.

Something Savoury: Teriyaki Chicken Nuggets (Dairy and Egg Free)

Summertime is party time, and party time is party food time! Here is a different take on chicken nuggets with an Asian flair.

I love chicken nuggets and dippers: they're just so gloriously naff. However, if you're someone who isn't so sure about the quality of the meat involved, or how exactly is was "mechanically reclaimed" from the source animal, then I suggest you make your own minced filling.

I like making chicken nuggets, dippers, and burgers from scratch because you are 100% in control of the meat used. I get thighs and breasts and chop them finely with a nice big knife. I don't mince it so finely that it no longer has any texture. For this you could also use turkey, which has a meatier flavour than chicken.

I served this with some crinkle cut oven chips bought from the supermarket, and a quick homemade iced tea.

INGREDIMENTS

For the chicken filling

350 grammes (about 12 ounces) chicken, either breast meat or 50/50 mix of thigh and breast

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) dark soy sauce

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) maple syrup, or brown sugar

One grated garlic clove, or 1/4 tsp dehydrated chopped garlic

1 tsp grated ginger root, or 1/4 tsp ground ginger

Pinch of salt

A few cracks of black pepper

For the coating

4 tablespoons (55 millilitres) plain flour

4 tablespoons (55 millilitres) cornflour

About 4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) of cold water

Salt and pepper

METHOD

• If using dehydrated garlic, rehydrate it in a teaspoon of hot water. Allow to soak for 10 minutes.
• Chop the chicken very finely into a mince. In a bowl, mix the chicken, soy sauce, maple syrup or sugar, garlic, and ginger with a fork until well mixed. If using fresh garlic, add a teaspoon of water. Season with some salt and pepper. 
• Chill the mixture for at least 2 hours to marinate. I let mine marinate for about 4 hours and it was fine.
• Mix the flours and seasoning in a bowl, and mix with water until you get a consistency of crepe batter. Chill for 30 minutes.
• Heat the deep frying oil to 180C. Or, if shallow frying, heat about half an inch of oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. 
• Shape the mixture into 12 nuggets, and dust with flour. Dip each nugget in the batter, then put in the oil. 
• Cook for 5 to 6 minutes (flipping halfway if shallow frying) until the batter is crispy, but still pale. 
• Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before returning to the oil for a further 5 to 6 minutes until a delicious golden colour and very crispy.
• Serve with chips and dipping sauces, like ketchup or sweet chili sauce.

Variation
You can skip the batter and fry the chicken in burger patties, and serve in toasted buns with lettuce and tomato. Or, you could make meatballs and serve in teriyaki sauce with jasmine rice and steamed vegetables.

Making My Own Wedding Cake, Part 2: Wedding Cake Recipe

And here it is at last: the actual recipe for the wedding cake and cupcakes! After months of planning, designing, and practicing, it finally came together.... with a few unfortunate incidents (which you can read all about in Part 1)

(I'm awaiting the professional photos: this was taken by a guest, Simon)

This recipe isn't complicated, just time consuming. I made the main cake and 120 cupcakes over the course of a few days: I can only fit 24 cakes in my oven at once, so I had to do 5 batches in total. 

I baked, cooled, and iced each two-dozen cupcakes at a time before freezing, iced and all. However, if you want to add other decorations like sprinkles, they don't freeze well at all so the cakes will have to be frozen un-iced then iced and decorated after defrosting.

I baked the Madeira cake, sliced it into layers, and then froze it in advance before completely defrosting to fill and decorate a few days before the wedding. I recommend making the cake about two days in advance to let the syrup soak in and for the whole cake to set nicely.

My husband Simon hand-painted the figurines that sat atop the cake. Despite giving the hotel instructions on how to mount them on the two provided flower nails and place them into the cake, they simply balanced the models on the cake. Next time I do a cake like this, I'll send a family member in to oversee the construction if I can't be there!

(I'm awaiting the professional photos: these were taken by a guest, Katie)

The ladybirds were bought from Lidl during their Easter season. I used them because they're black and red, like our theme colours. You could always decorate with seasonal flowers, toothpick flags, or even fondant figures or flowers.

For the cupcakes, make sure to get cases that are coloured inside and outside: some coloured cake cases are white cases that have been printed with edible ink on the outside, but better quality cases are made out of paper that is dyed which gives them a solid colour, inside and out. SuperValu sells them in packs of 50, and as of writing this they cost €2 a pack. Or, buy Culpitt brand cases online from Amazon or eBay.

INGREDIMENTS
There are many, many ingredients

Lemon Cupcakes

For 2 dozen cupcakes

5 eggs, at room temperature

10 ounces (285 grammes) caster sugar

5 ounces (140 grammes) sunflower oil

2 teaspoons vanilla essence, or 1 teaspoon of vanilla pod paste

10 drops almond essence

Grated zest of half a large lemon

5 tablespoons (75 millilitres) milk

10 ounces (285 grammes) plain white flour

⅝ teaspoon baking soda

¼ tsp ground sea salt
24 solid black cake cases (see note above)

To ice

8 ounces (225 grammes) salted butter

8 ounces (225 grammes) condensed milk

1 pound (455 grammes) icing sugar, sifted

Up to 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) extra milk

Zest of quarter of a large lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla pod paste

Chocolate Cupcakes

For 2 dozen

5 eggs, at room temperature

10 ounces (285 grammes) caster sugar

5 ounces (140 grammes) sunflower oil

2 teaspoons vanilla essence, or 1 teaspoon of vanilla pod paste

5 tablespoons (75 millilitres) milk

1½ ounces (45 grammes) cocoa powder, preferably Bournville or another good brand

8½ ounces (240 grammes) plain white flour

⅝ teaspoon baking soda

¼ tsp ground sea salt
24 solid red cake cases (see note above)

To ice

8 ounces (225 grammes) salted butter

8 ounces (225 grammes) condensed milk

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1½ ounces (45 grammes) cocoa powder

14½ ounces (410 grammes) icing sugar, sifted

Two 19g packages of red gel food colouring (I bought mine from Aldi)
If you're not using the colouring, add up to 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) of milk to adjust the consistency


To Make the Cupcakes

• Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line two muffin tins with cupcake cases (mine measured 3cm x 5cm). Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature.
• Sieve the flour (and cocoa) with the baking soda and salt very well. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until about doubled in size, a pale lemon colour, and looks like a loose foam.
• While running the mixer, drizzle in the oil in a steady stream. Don't overbeat, though: adding the oil should take all of about 15 seconds.
• Fold in the milk and flavourings (vanilla, almond essence, lemon zest, etc.), then sieve in the dry ingredients. Fold well: don't fret too much about overmixing, and be careful not to undermix.
• Divide the mixture between the 24 cake cases, using a scoop or measuring cup/spoon. Fill the cases about halfway, two-thirds at the most.
• Bake the cakes for 14 to 16 minutes, turning the trays through 180 degrees halfway through baking. If the two trays are on different shelves, swap them around too. Do this very carefully so the cakes don't get deflated.
• Once baked, remove from the oven and tap the tins very firmly on the work surface to burst any air bubbles.
• Transfer the cakes to a cooling rack and cool completely before decorating.

To Make the Icing

• Make sure your ingredients are all room temperature, including the condensed milk.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and condensed milk together until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients in four additions, beating well after each one. To adjust the consistency, add milk between the additions of dry ingredients, but add no more than one or two teaspoons at a time.
• If colouring, add the colouring in gradually until you have the colour you want.
• Ice the cakes, and then immediately freeze for later use, or store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Lemon Layer Cake

For the cake

One 8 inch Madeira cake, made with 5 eggs' worth of ingredients, and flavoured with lemon zest, lemon juice, almond essence, and vanilla pod paste (details below)
4 ounces (115 grammes) lemon curd, homemade or shop-bought
Lemon simple syrup, or soaking

For the icing

9 ounces (250 grammes) white chocolate, cut into small pieces
3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres) milk
3 ounces (85 grammes) salted butter, in small pieces
Vanilla pod paste
Optional: 1 teaspoon of lemon zest


To Make the Icing

• In a saucepan, heat the milk and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, and cook for only a minute.
• Take off the heat and stir in the white chocolate and butter. Return to very low heat, stirring continuously, until all the chocolate and butter has melted and the icing is smooth and consistent.
• Stir in the vanilla pod paste (and zest, if using) then allow the icing to cool completely, about two hours, stirring every so often to prevent crusting.
• Once cool, beat with an electric mixer until creamy, fluffy, and spreadable. Whipping the icing makes it lighter and makes it go further, but if you want a denser, American fudge style icing don't whip it.
• Be careful not to whip too much! It can cause the icing to go crumbly. If that happens, simply melt it down again, and repeat the cooling and whipping.

To Assemble the Cake

• Bake the cake according to the above link, scaling up all the ingredients in proportion with 5 eggs. Flavour it with the zest of a lemon, 2 teaspoons of vanilla pod paste, and half a teaspoon of almond essence.
• You can use the juice of the lemon to make the lemon simple syrup. Pour the syrup into a large dish, big enough to dip the cake layers in.
• Once the cake is baked and cooled, slice into two layers and dip both sides of each layer in the simple syrup. Layer the cake with the lemon curd in the middle
• Crumb coat the cake, then chill for about 20 minutes before finishing the icing and decorating.

As you can see, there's a lot of making here! But, it was all worth it in the end. I think the cake disaster was a blessing in disguise, as it led me to using the white chocolate fudge icing that was a mega hit! If, however, you want to see how I was going to make the cake with the white chocolate glaze, I'll shortly be uploading a lovely white chocolate and coffee cake recipe....

To everyone who came to the wedding, and to everyone who helped on my journey, thank you all from the bottom of my heart! I hope that in sharing my experiences, anyone out there who wants to attempt their own cake is well and thoroughly warned!!