メリークリスマス! Japanese Christmas Strawberry Shortcake

So, on my Facebook page, I recently announced that this December would be one without traditional dried fruit recipes: no mince pies, no fruit cake, no pudding, et cetera! This led me to do an awful lot of research into the Christmas food traditions of various nations from all over Eurasia, particularly Central Europe, and I was considerably educated!

However, before we delve into the Christmas traditional vitals of the central Europeans, here is an offering from the far East: Japanese Strawberry Shortcake!

From my superficial research, I was surprised to discover that mainstream Christmas celebrations weren't common in Japan until the American occupation after World War II, as such Japan doesn't have much of a Christmas food culture. Christmas is a primarily commercial affair to the mostly-Buddhist Japanese, and there aren't many particular foods that are associated with the event.

In all of my Pinterest surfing and Google searching had one cake in common, however: strawberry shortcake, called いちごのショートケーキ (ichigo no shōtokēki). This confection comprises of two light fluffy sponges (sometimes tinted pink) brushed with liqueur-scented syrup, sandwiching a sweetened whipped cream and fresh strawberry filling, iced with more cream and fresh strawberries.


While soaking cake in alcohol is very much a Christmas thing, the rest of it is something I'd associate more with a summer time dessert. And even the name is not fully correct, as the word "shortcake" refers to a cake which has a high butter or fat content, which this cake certainly does not as a (mostly) fatless sponge. Most articles say that this cake is a common generic celebration cake in Japan, and as such is eaten at Christmas as a celebratory food. I suppose this is a case of East is East, West is West, and ne'er the twain shall meet.

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DIFFICULTY

Each step is simple, but there are a lot of steps

TIME

About 2 or 3 hours

RECIPE RATING

Intermediate

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INGREDIMENTS

For one 7x11 inch (18x28 centimetre) rectangular cake

3 medium (US large) eggs

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) sunflower oil

3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) milk, cream, or Baileys Irish Cream, or milk alternative

3 ounces (85 grammes) plain spelt flour

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

A few drops almond essence

Pink or red food colouring

Simple syrup

2 tablespoons (30 grammes) caster sugar

2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) water

Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) liqueur of choice: Kirsch, rum, brandy, amaretto, Baileys Irish Cream

The liqueur can be replaced with a few drops of almond essence

Whipped cream and strawberry filling

3 ounces (85 grammes) strawberries, stems removed and cut into quarters

1 teaspoon (5 grammes) caster sugar

9 fluid ounces (250 millilitres) whipping cream

2 tablespoons (15 grammes) icing sugar

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence

A few drops of almond essence

6 whole strawberries, stems removed and cut in half

Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) Baileys Irish Cream

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FREE FROM

Wheat, yeast, nuts

CONTAINS

Eggs, spelt, dairy (dairy free option in italics), refined sugar

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METHOD

First, make the cake

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4). Lightly grease a 7x11 inch (18x28 centimetre) rectangular tin, and line with non-stick baking paper.
• Prepare the cake according to this recipe, adding the essences and enough food colouring to make a delicately pink mixture. Once baked, remove the paper and allow to cool completely.

Prepare the syrup

• Mix the sugar and water together in a jug or mug, and heat in the microwave for 1 minute on high, until the sugar has dissolved completely in the water.
• Mix in the liqueur, and allow to cool slightly until just warm. If you don't want to use alcohol, add in a few drops of vanilla and almond essences.

Prepare the strawberries and cream

• In a bowl, toss the quartered strawberries with the caster sugar and allow to sit for 10 minutes. The sugar will transform into a delicious syrup and the strawberries will become juicy.
• Whip the cream with the icing sugar, vanilla, and almond essences to soft peaks in a cold mixing bowl. Take about 3 ounces (85 grammes) of the cream and fold into the juicy strawberries.
• Keep the remaining cream and the strawberry cream in the fridge while you prepare the cake for assembly.

Now, assemble the masterpiece!

• Cut the cake in half to make two 7x5½ inch (18x14 centimetre) cakes. Brush liberally with the simple syrup to soak the surface. 
• On a serving plate, sandwich the two cakes together with the strawberry cream, spreading the filling to the edges. Press together gently, and chill for an hour.
• Take out of the fridge and trim the crusts; your cake will be reduced in size to roughly 6x5 inches (15x13 centimetre). Enjoy the cut offs!
• Ice with the remaining cream, smoothing to your liking, and then decorate with the halved strawberries.
• Chill for about 2 hours before serving. This cake can be cut into 12 little squares, or 6 fingers.

STORAGE

This cake will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 3 days.

Multicoloured Sweet Popcorn (Gluten-, Egg-, and Dairy Free) with Video!

If there's something that kid's particularly love, it's sweet things. And if there's something they love more than that, it's brightly coloured sweet things! Although, sometimes adults like it too.. especially this adult.

This is a simple way to make frosted popcorn of any colour you have available, that doesn't require a sugar thermometer: all you need is a microwave and an oven, and you'll have multicoloured popcorn in under 15 minutes.

If you want to add flavourings, you can add any flavouring oil or essence to the sugar syrup before tossing the popcorn. My companion likes popcorn that is sweet and salty, so I usually add a good few pinches of salt for that sweet/savoury experience.

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DIFFICULTY

Requires mixing and using a microwave

TIME

Under an hour

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

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INGREDIMENTS

Makes enough popcorn for 6 people

3 ounces (85 grammes) popped popcorn kernels
3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) water
Liquid food colouring

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FREE FROM

Eggs, nuts, dairy, gluten, yeast

CONTAINS

Maize, refined sugar

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STORAGE

Best eaten on the day it's made, but can be eaten the net day if kept in a airtight plastic bag or container.

Experiments with Natural Food Colouring: Beetroot

It's Friday the 3rd of October, which here in Ireland is "Paint it Pink" Day, where the Irish public is encouraged to do something pink and upload photos to social media, hastagged with #PINKPICS, to raise awareness for breast cancer patients, and fund raise through text donations. More information can be found at www.irishcancersociety.ie.

As such, I thought I'd use this as an excuse to do something which I've been thinking about for ages: experiment with beetroot as a natural food colouring!

Sadly, the above cakes were not coloured with beetroot, and I'll tell you why.

I bought some pre-cooked beetroot to purée and use as food colouring, and I puréed one whole cooked beetroot and added it to my batter. The batter was hot neon pink before entering the oven, and as such I was filled with excitement. But once they came out of the oven they looked like this

Not very pink at all, as you can see. I wonder if using pre-cooked beetroot was the issue, as I have done a bit of research and found that most recipes use raw beetroot to colour by grating it in to the batter. I think I'll give this a go next.

But still managed to make something pink my covering them in some nice buttery glacé icing, made by mixing 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) of melted butter with 2 ounces (55 grammes) of icing sugar, adding water in drop by drop until a nice glazing consistency is achieved.

I then dyed it pink, obviously. And sprinkled some likkle hearts on top...

Has anyone else experimented with using beetroot as a natural dye? If so, let me know what you discovered and I might learn something new!

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: My Research into Machine Free Ice Cream Continues...

Variation on a Theme: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (Wheat Free)

There's nothing I like more than a chocolate chip cookie, but when the cookie part is chocolate as well? Now that's a kind of magic.

As you can see in the picture, the chocolate chips are colourful, that's because I used M&Ms; I didn't feel like chopping up a bar of chocolate, and M&Ms just happened to be on offer in Dunnes. I think the only thing that could have improved these is if they had been Peanut M&Ms....

Also, these look a little different to the ones I usually make using this recipe because this batch I made using plain wheat flour. Once again, white spelt flour is rare and expensive, and seeing as I was making these as a gift for a friend who isn't wheat intolerant, I used normal flour.

To make these, I simply followed my usual recipe as linked above but replaced 1 tablespoon (30 millilitres) of the flour with cocoa powder, and used 7 ounces of M&Ms instead of chocolate chips. That simple: no voodoo here.

My brother, who is also able to eat wheat, sampled one and said they were delicious, but when he was eating one it sounded a tiny little bit crunchier than the ones I usually make. They're a little bit more like the packets of chocolate chip cookies you buy here in Ireland, that are crunchy not soft like they are in the States.

Either way, they were very pretty and reliable sources say they were tasty, which is my job done.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: (coincidentally) Variations on a Theme: Chocolate Chip Cookies