Taste of Thailand: Pink Milk Bread (Dairy and Egg Free; Wheat Free Option)

กินให้อร่อยนะ!

For the first installment in my new series, Taste of Thailand, I have some delicious pink milk bread.

I don't know any Thai apart from "Sawasadee ka" and "Kop khun ka", but I do know that I absolutely loved the squishy, fluffy, pink milk bread available in 7-Eleven shops all over Bangkok and Pattaya!

This is simply a Hokkaido milk bread that's flavoured mildly with "pink milk": pink milk could either be a Thai beverage of milk and sala syrup, which is also called snake fruit syrup; or simply strawberry milk. I haven't found the answer to which one it is yet, so I use strawberry syrup because sala syrup is hard to find, expensive, and I don't want a whole bottle for one experiment.

This bread is very sweet, and would make lovely Japanese fruit and cream sandwiches. If you don't want it as sweet, leave out some of the sugar. The dough is a little fiddly too, but persevere and you'll get a fabulous, fluffy, soft bread.

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DIFFICULTY

Requires kneading a very sticky dough

TIME

Over 4 hours

RECIPE RATING

Intermediate/Advanced

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INGREDIMENTS

12 ounces (340 grammes) strong white bread flour, at least 11.5% protein*

2¼ teaspoons (1 sachet) active yeast

1 ounce (30 grammes) caster sugar
1 ounce (30 millilitres) sunflower oil

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) salt

1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) strawberry syrup, made up to 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) with lukewarm water

Pink gel food colouring

* - You can make this using plain spelt flour, but reduce the overall strawberry water amount to 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres)

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METHOD

First, make the dough

• In a large mixing bowl, mix half of the salt, half of the sugar, 8 ounces (225 grammes) of the flour, and the strawberry water. 
• Mix into a batter, cover the bowl with a clean tea towel, and leave in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes, or until doubled in size.
• When doubled in size, add the remaining ingredients and some pink food colouring to make a gentle rosy colour. Mix well with a wooden spoon and turn out onto an unfloured work surface.
• Knead well, scraping the dough off the surface with a plastic or silicone bench scraper. The dough will be sticky, but do not be tempted to dust the surface with flour: this will make the bread tough. Knead for 10 minutes by hand until the dough passes the windowpane test.
• Pop into a clean bowl, dust lightly with flour, and once again cover the bowl. Allow to proof in a warm place for 60 to 90 minutes, or until at least doubled in size.

Then, shape the loaf

• Once doubled in size, turn out onto a lightly floured board and deflate. Divide the dough into three by weight, and roll each piece into a tight ball.
• Take each ball and roll out into a flat rectangle. Fold into three, turn by 90 degrees, then roll flat again into a rectangle. Roll the rectangle up and pinch closed.
• Place the three bread rolls into a greased and floured 2 pound (900 gramme) loaf tin, that has been greased and floured. Cover again with a clean tea towel and allow to rise to half an inch from the lip of the pan.

Finally, bake the bread

• Preheat the oven to 180C (350F), then bake the bread in the centre of the oven, covered lightly with foil to prevent too much browning. 
• Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow.
• Allow to cool completely before slicing to get the best texture.

THIS TIME IN PREVIOUS YEARS

2017: Valentine's Day: I ❤ Pizza! (Wheat-, Egg-, and Dairy Free Base)

2016: Yeast and Wheat Free Cinnanomnom (or just plain Cinnamon) Rolls

2015: Strawberry Crumble Bars (Wheat Free)

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.

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....

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DIFFICULTY

Very simple! 

TIME

1 hour

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

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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!

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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!!

Making My Own Wedding Cake, Part 1: What I Learnt, and My Reflections

28 years a single woman, and one day changed it all! I have been a married woman for three weeks and, my God, it’s still surreal.

(Part One is where I share my feelings on the experience of planning my wedding and making my cake. For the recipe for the cake itself, click here)

My wedding day to Simon went by so incredibly fast it’s like it didn’t even happen; it was like a dream! I got up at 7:30 on Saturday June 22^nd, and it went from getting my hair and makeup done, to getting my dress put on at the hotel, to getting legally married in the church I’d grown up in, having family photos, back to the hotel for a wonderful snacks and bubbly reception on a red carpet, into the function room for a delicious meal and dessert, then dancing to live music for hours on end and before I knew it it was 02:00 in the morning.

To me, it felt like Christmas dinner: you spend months preparing for, then hours making the dinner, and it takes less than an hour to eat. Simon, my parents and I spent 16 months planning the wedding, which went off without a hitch, and it was literally all over in 18 hours. It’s hard to tell a worrying bride-to-be that it’s only one day in the rest of your lives, but until you've been through the whole “forever planning, but over in a flash” thing yourself, you won’t actually believe it. And, as with all things, there are things you learn in the planning process. The issue is with weddings, you don’t really ever plan to “do it differently the next time”! I’ll just have to pass the wisdom onto my other bride-to-be friends, and to my sons and/or daughters when their time comes, decades from now.

Wedding Things I Learnt, and Would Advise

The main thing I was taught by the planning was don’t let planning take over your life! Set aside a certain amount of time in the week for planning, or even set aside days of the week that are your planning days, and then live your normal life the rest of the time. Don’t neglect your friends, your hobbies, or your time off. It’ll make you miserable, and anxious.

If planning the wedding with family, remember to do un-wedding related stuff with them too. Don't let the wedding come between you and your relationship with parents and siblings. Especially when money is involved.

Don’t skimp on a photographer or videographer. Make sure your special day is recorded well, and that you’ll get a wonderful album of photos and a lovely video to look back on as you age together. Maybe your kids will want to see them, too! I love looking at my grandmother’s wedding photos, and I know our grandchildren will love looking at ours.

Also, people will remember the bride and groom’s outfits, the food, and the entertainment; the other, smaller stuff will fade from memory. We chose a band which we knew were solid professionals who played excellent music, and the dancefloor was on fire for the whole night. We chose our hotel based pretty much completely on the food, and it was a wise choice: our guests waxed lyrical about how excellent the food and the service was.  But, most likely, the guests won’t remember what our ring box looked like, or that the roses printed on the service sheets were the wrong shade of red. 

(On the topic of the hotel: make your life easy and go with a venue that pretty much has everything included in their package. All I had to do was send them the seating plan, tell them what food we wanted, and turn up two days before with any extra decorations and the cake. They were a dream to work with, because at no point was I worrying about doing everything.)

But anyway, speaking of sweating the small stuff, that’s where the cake comes in: nobody really paid attention to the icing I spent hours agonising over, or to the coordinated paper cases, they remembered that the cake was delicious. Success!

(This was taken by a guest, Katie. I'm waiting for the professional pictures)

The Cake Design

I asked Simon what kind of cake he wanted, and he said a lemon drizzle. I explained that it’s a fairly rustic cake that would suit the naked cake trend very well. Simon, however, doesn’t like the naked cake trend: he says it looks unfinished. So, we settled for a lemon layer cake with white chocolate icing: lemon and almond cake layers, layered with lemon curd and soaked in lemon syrup, flat iced with lemon and vanilla buttercream, and finally glazed with white chocolate for a smooth finish (this ended up not happening in quite that way, but I’ll get to that later).

As I have written about in previous blogs, we opted for cupcakes to feed the guests. As such, I made 120 cakes (we only had 95 guests, but it was to have extras just in case.... and every single one was eaten), half of which were lemon vanilla, and the other half were chocolate.

(This was taken by a guest, Simon. I'm waiting for the professional pictures)

Simon painstakingly painted the toppers by hand. As a hobby, he paints Games Workshop models, which are collectable models usually in the shape of fantasy soldiers, wizards, or robots. He painted two models, one a man and one a woman. They were placed back to back on the cake.

I also had some cute little chocolate ladybirds, which I buy in Lidl whenever they’re on sale. They have them in stock normally every other Easter season.

Making the Cake

My cake was made in two stages: first, the fairy cakes were baked, iced, and frozen two weeks in advance, along with the sponge for the main cake. On the Thursday before the wedding, which was on a Saturday, I defrosted the main cake and filled and decorated it.

Decorating the cake hit a few snags, however. Bizarrely, my husband agreed to let his brother and mother stay in our house for the week before the wedding, despite my mother having cleaned her own entire house for them to stay in for the week. He was very nervous, and I’d say he wanted them around him, but having my panicking husband-to-be and two extra guests in the house was not what I needed to make the cake!

White chocolate is notoriously difficult to work with, and I unfortunately had a disaster while working with it. Because I was distracted by my guests, I accidentally poured the white chocolate ganache on the buttercreamed cake while it was still hot. This, of course, melted the whole thing. Not a worry! It’s not what I wanted, but it was fixable. I scraped the melted icing off, and re-iced it.

I had popped the cake in the freezer to chill the outer layer of buttercream to prep it for another coat of ganache (cooled, this time), and in his excitement to show his brother and mother, he accidentally knocked it over, destroying the icing and some of the little cakes. Needless to say, I lost my temper. My mother came to pick me up to finish the cake in her house instead. I opted out of the glazing idea, and just used the leftover ganache to make some white chocolate fudge icing and iced the cake with swirling designs.

Transporting the cakes

Over the Christmas period in work, I collected all the plastic tubs from chocolates and biscuits and collected a good 10 or 12 tubs. I used these to store the cakes in the freezer. Simon and I bought a chest freezer specifically for the purpose of making the wedding cake.

To move them from the house, I bought some cardboard boxes on eBay. Each box housed 24 cupcakes, so I bought 5, which --  including postage – came to about £24. They were delivered from England within 5 days, and arrived on the Tuesday before the wedding.

On the Thursday before the wedding, my brother and I packed the boxes with the frozen cakes, taped them shut, and wrote the important information on the top. He then took them to the hotel, where they arrived, defrosted, in perfect condition. The boxes also fit perfectly in the boot of my brother's car.

The following day, the main cake was also transported. I made sure to get him a gift for all the work he did, and also for his partner, who ended up being my maid of honour. I had originally asked by sister-in-law, but she gave birth 5 weeks before the wedding so she had enough on her hands!

(Saying "Goodbye!" to the cakes before they headed to the hotel)

Reflection

Firstly, I’m still a little disappointed in the result of the icing on the main cake, but nobody noticed it in the end, so I worried over nothing. Nobody really looked at the cake (only one guest took pictures of it, and we’re still waiting for the photographer to give us his pictures), and once people ate it it was all cut up and no-one could see the icing job anyway.

Secondly, the cardboard boxes were a great investment. If you ever need to move cupcakes, get some!

Lastly, the main lesson I learnt, is that even if you practise making a cake a hundred thousand times, you can still make mistakes. Big, massive mistakes. I made 120 cupcakes that went perfectly well, and then I made a big cake which I had done practise and test runs of a hundred times, but it didn’t work on the day. My Dad used a great analogy: “Olympic athletes train for years. They dedicate hours of their lives to their sport. And even once they have been chosen to represent their country, they can still make mistakes once the pressure of competing is put on them”.

I've learnt a lot about making things under pressure!

If you're gonna make your own wedding cake, make sure that when you're working on it your environment is peaceful and exactly how you need it to be to work properly. If you need to banish people from your house, do it. If you need to listen to blaring music or prefer working in silence, do it. And, for the love of God, don't worry about wasting ingredients! It'll happen, it's inevitable. But even if a cake goes horribly wrong and you have to start again, it'll still be cheaper than commissioning a cake.

And also, try to make as much of it in advance as possible.

Conclusion

All in all, I enjoyed the experience, and the wedding was wonderful! I've learnt so much about baking for events, and I think I did very well all things considered! I hope you've enjoyed reading about my experiences!

Kitchen Experiment: DIY Bundt Tin

Time for another one of my kitchen experiments, and this time it's an equipment trial. This was my last minute fix for a DIY Bundt tin.

 You can't move a pace on Pinterest without running into a ring shaped cake. Some of them are plain with straight sides, some are even square, and then others are made in beautifully ornate tins, some of which are heirloom items. Once the Germans brought the ring cake to America, it took on a whole life of its own.

However, the rung shaped cake tins can be incredibly expensive, or difficult to find. Especially here in Ireland, where the only walk in cake supply shops are in major cities, or sometimes not at all; for example, there isn't one in Limerick since it closed down in February.

So, what's a girl to do?

I thought'd I'd experiment with ways of making a traditional round cake tin into a ring tin by putting things in the middle. The first thing I tried was a glass, but it wasn't very effective: the crust from inside the hole came off on the glass.

I then tried an empty can, washed and dried thoroughly with all labels removed, and filled it with rice to hold it in place. I greased everything really well, and this method worked much better. Even though the inside crust still didn't fully form, it was much straighter and easier to get out.

In both attempts, the hole never properly crusted. I wonder if it has something to do with the rice weights: maybe the heat can't flow through the centre tube well enough when it's full of rice. A quick trip onto the aforementioned Pinterest shows that a crustless hole is no big deal: there's many a Bundt and tube cake without an interior crust.

Eating a cake in the shape of a ring is a novelty, but it doesn't really change the flavour or texture than much. I do understand that some kinds of cake mixture bake better in a tube pan, where the centre doesn't stay soggy. But, to me, this is merely a novelty.

Maybe I'll try this technique to make a nice German kugelhopf, which is a yeast risen ring shaped cake.

No blogs on this day in previous years.

Yeast Spelt Doughnuts (Wheat Free)

I couldn't stay away from yeast doughs for long! And today's offering is doughnuts....

 In Germany, they are called berliner. In Portugal, they are called malasadas. In Italy, they're called bomboloni. In French, they're called beignets. In Irish, they're called taoschnó.  In Lithuania, they are called spurgos. In Poland, they call them pączki. Whatever you call them, they're delicious.

As someone with who was socialised in English culture, I believe that Great Britain is built on stodge: heavy, doughy, bready, oily foods are part and parcel of what it is to be an Englishman, it seems.Although I understand that doughnuts are a mainland European concept that was introduced to England and the rest of Britain, they have been fully embraced as part of the pastry culture of the island nations.

One of my guilty pleasures is buying iced ring doughnuts from the bakery section of my local supermarket, and over the past four or so years of my blog I have experimented with many different cake doughnut recipes. Cake doughnuts are risen with baking powder or soda, whereas traditional doughuts are risen with yeast. Now that I've got the hang of making yeast risen dough, I can try making traditional doughnuts.

To make these, I use the same dough as I used to make the iced buns and burger buns, and rolled it out the a half inch (1 centimetre) thickness. I then cut out 3 inch (7½ centimetre) circles. Using my fingers, I pinched a hole in the middle of each circle and stretched it out to make an inch (2½ centimetre) hole in each one.

I laid them out on a well floured (and I mean well floured) surface and allowed them to rise for 20 odd minutes, flipping half-way, until increased in size by about a half. Over rising the doughnuts will make them collapse when you pick them up.

Had I had access to my deep fryer, I would have fried them in 180°C (350°F) oil for two minutes on either side. However, I didn't: I'm in Roscommon, but my deep fryer is in my Mum's house. So, I had to use a saucepan with about two or three inches of oil in it, heating it on medium heat. As such, they got a little sunburnt, and because the oil was too hot, there were air pockets under the crust in some of them. But they still tasted fabulous...

If you want, toss them immediately after frying in caster sugar and cinnamon, to taste. I use a tupperware box and do one at a time, but you can use a brown paper bag, too. Or, you can ice them with a simple icing of 4 ounces (115 grammes) icing sugar, 1 tablespoon (15 grammes) butter, melted, and mix in enough water to make an icing. Don't make it too thin, though, otherwise it'll dribble all down the sides. You can colour the glaze if you like, or make it chocolatey by replacing 1 teaspoon or so of the icing sugar with cocoa powder. Decorate with sprinkles, desiccated coconut, grated chocolate, flaked almonds, or whatever you like!

I enjoyed this project, but there are a few things I would change for the next time:

1. I'll use a proper fryer, to avoid burnt outsides and raw insides.
2. Cut the middles out instead of pinching them: pinching them made the dough tighten up, and made some of the doughnuts come out in funny shapes.

Roll on the next batch of delicious fried oily cakey yeasty doughnuts....

No blogs in 2015 or 2016

THIS TIME IN 2014: The Return of Spelt Flour and Cupcakes

Chocolate Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing (Wheat Free with Dairy Free Option)

I hope everyone has been keeping well in my absence! I moved to Galway recently to return to university, and unfortunately where I live I once again have no oven!

Luckily for me, my lovely companion allows me to use his oven and his kitchen for baking projects, and he's also started getting involved himself. He's come to rather enjoy baking, which is great: I always love introducing people to it.

I showed him how to make chocolate chip cookies, ginger cake, and American style pancakes, and the other day he said it'd be nice to try making some chocolate cakes with cream cheese icing. I was happy to oblige.

Using this as an excuse, I decided to have a bit of experiment: I decided to try a different style of chocolate cake, using a melted mixture rather than a whipped mixture. However, the result was a little dense for my liking, so I thought I would alter it a little to make it a beaten mixture with a few flourishes.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (dairy substitutes can be found in italics)
☒ Gluten
☒ Cocoa products
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

For 12 standard fairy cakes

• 7 ounces (200 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, or margarine
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) golden syrup
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) water

For the icing:

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) butter, softened or margarine
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cream cheese, room temperature, or lactose free cream cheese
• 12 ounces (340 grammes) icing sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Chocolate sprinkles, chocolate shavings, or cocoa powder, for decoration

HOW-TO

First off, make the cakes

• Preheat your oven to 170ºC (325ºF/Gas Mk. 3), and line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cake cases.
• In a saucepan, heat together the syrup, cocoa powder and water. Once the mixture is fully blended and there are no lumps of cocoa left, bring it to a simmer then immediately remove it from the heat. Allow to cool.
• In a mixing bowl, cream the soft butter and the sugar together until very light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure that the first egg is fully mixed in before adding the second.
• Mix the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in another bowl, and sieve half this mixture into the butter mixture. Fold through gently.
• Add in the cooled cocoa syrup, fold in thoroughly, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Fold gently until fully combined.
• Divide among the 12 cake cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until risen and springy to the touch.
• Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before icing.

Now, make the icing

• In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together well with a wooden spoon. Do not be tempted to use an electric mixer for this because you'll get icing soup.
• Once the butter and cream cheese are smoothly blended together, add in the sifted icing sugar about a third at a time, folding in a mixing with the wooden spoon between additions until nice and smooth.
• Spread the icing on top of the cakes, or you can pipe it on too.
• Sprinkle on the topping of your choice.

Another Cautionary Tale on the Dangers of Novelty Cakes: Super Goth Birthday Cake

Like what I said in my previous cautionary tale of novelty baking, I’ve never been one for crafting novelty cakes of any kind really. But following on from my enforced sedate celebrations of World Goth Day, I made up for it on returning to my Homeland my making a birthday cake for one of my closest friends.

My friend Caroline and I met in art college in 2008, and we've been good friends ever since. She likes dragons and heavy metal and black clothes, like I do, and in celebration of our shared gothy interests I decided to do something very, very different: a purple cake with black icing.

However, black icing is incredibly difficult to make and work with. The purple cake was simply a matter of adding some violet food colouring to my usual sponge cake recipe, but the icing was a completely different story altogether: you need a Hell of a lot of black food colouring.

In fact, I actually didn't have enough black colour. Even starting with buttercream icing that I had made using 80% dark chocolate to get a good, dark base, an entire tube of Dr Oetker gel still wasn't enough to get it jet black. I then had to start adding other colours from my inventory.

Eventually, I had used black, blue, green, and red to get it as dark as I needed. And using that amount of colouring has some unfortunate side effects: staining of the mouth, tongue, and teeth, and digestive upset.

Next time, I think I may just glaze the finished iced cake with black mirror glaze or something. But I don't think I'll be working with completely black icing anymore!

I would have got some photos of the inside of the cake too, to show off the lovely purple interior, however we all got so carried away with eating it that I forgot! Sometimes these things are better off enjoyed in the moment, I suppose.

The next major birthday I'll have to cater for will by my sister's in early August. She usually goes for cheesecake, or super chocolate cake. Like I've said in many blogs past, trying to come up with new ideas for birthday cakes gets very tedious!

Lime and Coconut Cake Truffles

In her last dying throes, my oven produced a batch of completely spread out, flat as a pancake, and pale vanilla fairy cakes. Until recently, the recipe I used for the cakes would have worked perfectly every single time, but this time they were a disaster. It was then that I decided to pack up all my baking equipment and move it to my mother's house until such time as the oven could be fixed, or replaced.

But the question remained: what do I do with the leftover disastercakes? Do I throw them out? Feed them to the ducks? Or, recycle them? That's when the concept of using them to make something else sprung to mind...

I decided to have another go at the good old favourite of the 50s American housewife: cake truffles. These may be more known to people as cake pops, which are simply cake truffles mounted on sticks. These are a good way to use up any failed/slightly stale/grand once you pick the mould off (not really, obviously) cakes that you have lying around.

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 20 small truffles

For the truffles,

• 9 ounces (250 grammes) crumbled vanilla sponge cake
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) thick coconut milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) desiccated coconut
• Zest of 1 lime
• Juice of half a lime

For the glaze,

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) icing sugar
• Juice of half a lime
• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) white chocolate, chopped into pieces
• Sprinkles of your choice

HOW-TO

• In a mixing bowl, mix all of the truffle ingredients until it becomes a soft paste. You may need to use your hands. Divide into 20 equally sized pieces and roll into balls. Refridgerate for about 10 minutes.
• Line a baking tray with non-stick paper, or better, a silicone mat.
• To make the glaze, mix the lime juice with water to make 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) worth of liquid. Put the diluted lime juice, icing sugar, and broken white chocolate together in a heatproof bowl and set over a pot of simmering water. Stir continuously until melted. Don't be tempted to do this in the microwave: your chocolate will seize.
• Take the cooled truffles and dip them in the glaze, rolling around until completely coated. Gently scoop up with a fork, tapping the fork on the bowl to let the excess glaze drip off. Put the glazed truffle on the lined tray. Sprinkle with whatever decorations you like while the glaze is still wet.
• Put the truffles in the fridge to set for about an hour, then move them to little paper cases for serving.

These are nice and zingy, with a subtle hit of coconutty richness, and the unexpected lime flavour in the glaze worked quite well: it seemed to be the favourite aspect of those who tried them out...

Gingerbread Pandas (Wheat Free with a Dairy Free Option)

For my little sister (well, not so little now: she is eighteen after all), I indulged in her somewhat avid fascination with pandas and made her some gingerbread versions!

This was my first foray into dipping in thinned royal icing. I had considered dipping them completely in white chocolate, but I thought I'd give royal icing dipping a go instead; I felt that dipped fully in white chocolate, then dipped in certain places in dark chocolate, would be super chocolate overkill. Besides, the crunchy sugary coating in these ones makes me think of ice, which is appropriate.

To make the bears, I used this dough recipe, using golden syrup and adding a pinch or two of ground nutmeg. I then chilled it for about an hour before rolling out to about a quarter inch (3 millimetres) thickness and cutting out with a bear cutter. I baked them for about 10 minutes, until they were a little browned around the edges

I used some royal icing that I had made to ice the Christmas cake (these days, blasphemously, I use packs of instant royal icing because it's so much more convenient), and thinned it out with some cold water, a teaspoon at a time, until it resembled melted chocolate; a nice, running consistency. I dipped the front of the bears in the glaze, let the excess drip off while gently tapping the hand holding the biscuit off the side of the bowl, then put in on a wire rack. I cleaned up any uneven edges with a cocktail stick.

It took about an hour for the glaze to dry, and I then used melted dark chocolate to add details: dark legs, torso, ears, eye patches, and facial features. I used some royal icing at piping consistency to add eyes.

I was very pleased with how these little guys turned out! I hope my sister thinks they're as cute as I do...