Chocolate Biscuit Cake, a.k.a: Rocky Road

Chocolate biscuit cake is a recipe that everyone's mother has a recipe for: it's literally a matter of cobbling together the ends of bags of sweets and biscuits from around the house and melting them together. As simple a treat as it is, it's enjoyed by adults and children alike.

However, usually it's as hard as rock and takes a lot of biting, so I made sure that with this batch I made it a tad softer. When you leave it for a few days, everything settles in and it become softer, and way too easy to eat.

I made this batch for visiting my friends in Roscommon over last weekend, because it was requested. I made sure to make the top all prettiful for them.

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (unless you buy gluten free biscuits)
☒ Dairy (dairy substitutes can be found in italics)
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

To fill a 10 inch (25 centimetre) square tin,

• 9 ounces (250 grammes) milk or dark chocolate, broken up into pieces
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) condensed milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) plain biscuits, broken into chunks, get gluten free ones if you have to
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) mini marshmallows, or cut up marshmallows
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) sweets or dried fruit of your choice
• Some sweets and sprinkles for decorating

HOW-TO

• In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt together the chocolate, condensed milk, and butter, stirring constantly. I would not recommend using a microwave for this.
• Once the mixture has melted into a thick fudgy consistency, stir in all the remaining ingredients.
• Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth out with the spoon. Sprinkle some sweets and sprinkle on top, pressing them in a bit with your fingers.
• Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours before cutting and serving.

This is great for parties because it's cheap and cheerful, and very adaptable: you can put pretty much anything into it...

Birthday Cupcakes and Centre Piece Cake: Wheat-Free Lemon Sponge

As I have mentioned in many, many, many blog posts before now, when one has made at least five birthday cakes a year for roughly eleven years, you run out of ideas after a while. Sometimes, you need to shake it up a bit.

I decided this year to act on inspiration from a wedding I was at a few years ago: they had no big wedding cake, but they have a whole ream of little fairy cakes, iced with white buttercream and decorated with fondant shapes following the theme of Alice in Wonderland. They had a little centre piece cake that they could cut for the photos, but because the cakes were all individual there wasn't the hassle of cutting up a whole cake and serving it to all the guests.

I decided to take this inspiration and use it to make my mother's birthday cake this year: I made a small cake -- using the same tin as I used for the photoshoot cake -- and then made a load of little cakes to go with it, one for each guest at the birthday dinner.

The photos for this one aren't so great because it was the evening time when I got around to take them: my phone battery is cat these days, and that's what I use for my camera.

This was a lemon cake with nice zingy icing, like last year. My mother like lemon...

FREE FROM

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

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

INGREDIMENTS

For one 4 inch sponge cake:

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) white spelt flour
• ½ ounce (15 grammes) cornflour
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 medium egg
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) sunflower oil
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) milk, or milk alternative
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Zest of half a lemon
• Optional: 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds, or hundreds and thousands, for visual interest

Repeat this quantity of batter to make 6 individual fairy cakes, meaning you will need double the above recipe overall.

For the icing:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) butter, softened or margarine
• 12 ounces (340 grammes) icing sugar
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 millilitres) milk or milk alternative,
   to adjust the consistency
• Hundred and thousands
• A bar of white chocolate

HOW-TO

First, make the centre piece cake,

• Make the cake mixture according to this recipe, using a greased and floured 4 inch round cake tin. I use a tin from a shop-bought steamed pudding. Bake at the recommended temperature for about 25 to 30 minutes.
• Bake according to the recipe, then once it is out of the oven immediately drop onto the work surface from a height of roughly a foot (30 centimetres); that will reduce the chances of it shrinking. Allow to cool completely.

Then, make the fairy cakes,

• Repeat the above recipe, lining a muffin tin with 6 large cake cases. Use yellow ones if you can find them.
• Divide the recipe between the cake cases, which should be at three-quarters full. Bake this time at 190ºC (375ºF, Gas Mk.5) for about 15 minutes.
• Once cooked, drop them on the work surface also. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now to decorate,

• Make the buttercream according to this recipe, if you don't know how to make buttercream already, starting off with the lemon juice and only adding the milk if the consistency needs adjusting.
• Use just under a half of the icing to decorate the fairy cakes. Sprinkle the tops with a small amount of hundreds and thousands, then shave some white chocolate onto them using a vegetable peeler directly on the chocolate bar.
• Cut the dome off the cake, cut it in half, then place upside down on the serving platter so the base is now the top. Fill and crumb coat then chill for an hour, then coat with a second coat, leaving about 6 ounces (170 grammes) of icing to pipe the rosettes around the top and bottom.
• Before you pip the rosettes, cover the top of the cake with the sprinkles, leaving about half an inch of a border (about a centimetre), then pipe the rosettes on top. Pipe on in the middle to hold the candle.
• Allow to set completely, either in the fridge for up to an hour, or on the work surface for up to 3 hours.

Milky Ice Pops: Chocolate Flavour (Naturally Gluten Free; Dairy-Free Option)

What's that? One ice-cream recipe for May wasn't enough for you? Well in that case, have another one: chocolate ice pops!

These ice-pops are styled very much in the vein of an HB Mini Milk, which is essentially a milky water ice flavoured with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. I absolutely loved them as a little girl, but due to the indecorous manner in which I ate them, my Dad nicknamed them 'maxi mess'.

These were a bit of an experiment, it must be said. I will say, these turned out very much like those lollies you get when you freeze Angel Delight, but nicer (which wouldn't be hard). For those of you who don't know what Angel Delight is, it's essentially a sachet of instant pudding powder, and when I was young there would always be a recipe to try on the back of the packet, like how to make ice lollies or milkshakes.

When I revisited Angel Delight as an adult, I realised how truly disgusting it was, and vowed never to buy it again. So, to make these, I basically used a good old fashioned English custard recipe with some chocolate added to it. You could add a milkshake powder to make a strawberry or banana flavoured one, or you could leave it simply with vanilla essence.

Here is my sister Nixie Pixie holding one that she's nibbled, just to demonstrate the texture: it's kinda ice-creamy, kinda water icy, but it was mostly very tasty!

I used a four-hole ice lolly mould to make these, but used ice lolly sticks instead of the handles that were provided with the mould; they never work anyway.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Gluten
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy, but dairy alternatives are in italics
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 4 moulded lollies

• Half a pint (285 millilitres; 1 US cup plus 3 tablespoons) whole milk, or milk alternative
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar, or sugar of your choice
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) cornflour
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) cocoa powder, or hot chocolate powder of your choice
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 grammes) butter, or butter alternative

HOW-TO

• In a cup or small bowl, mix together the sugar, cornflour, cocoa powder, and salt. Make sure it's well mixed and all lumps of cocoa powder and cornflour are broken up.
• In a saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla essence until it just begins to bubble and steam. Remove from the heat, and add a few spoons of the heated milk to the powder mixture. Mix into a slurry, stirring until completely smooth.
• Pour the slurry back into the saucepan, stir thoroughly, then return to medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, and cook until thickened into a custard.
• Once cooked, remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Make sure to stir it every so often so a skin doesn't form.
• When it is cooled, divide between the lolly moulds. If you don't have lolly moulds, you can use plastic cups.

There are a few ways to put the sticks in:

1. Clip two clothes pegs to each stick, and balance them on the rim of the mould. Make sure the stick is at least two-thirds of the way into each mould.
2. Line the tops of each hole with foil, and pop the stick through the foil.
3. Put the lollies in the freezer for about an hour and a half, then put the sticks in while they're half frozen.

To release them from the moulds, run under the cold tap until they become loose, then pop them out. Don't be tempted to use hot water, as it will melt the lollies and ruin their appearance.

American Style Cookie Dough Ice-Cream (No Churn, No Cook, Egg Free)

It's May, which means in Ireland it's finally summer! And nothing says summer like some lovely, rich, ice-cream!

I was inspired to make some cookie dough ice-cream because I've been trying out some American style stuff recently, and also my brother and sister really like it. But, I had some challenges. (And also, I've been feeling quite sorry for myself over the past few days, as this time last year was a time where my companion and I were enjoying his birthday, so I wanted something to challenge me and take my mind off it.)

The thing is raw cookie dough is pretty, well, raw tasting. There is a very distinctive taste off raw flour: it's quite acidic, and burns a little bit; raw bicarbonate of soda tastes like soap; and raw egg is a bit of a no-no in frozen things. So, I did some research about how to make edible 'raw' cookie dough, that's actually been cooked.

After looking around a few blogs, I was particularly inspired by Ann Reardon's approach to making a roux-style cookie dough. So, I cooked the dough in a saucepan to get rid of the raw taste, but I used my own recipe, just scaling it down.

So here is the final thing! It's pretty much just my go-to ice-cream base with some 'raw' cookie dough in it. But it's pretty tasty!

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Gluten
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)

INGREDIMENTS

For the ice cream base.

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content, well chilled
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk, well chilled
• 1 vanilla pod or 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt

For the cookie dough,

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) light brown sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) milk
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) milk chocolate chips, or milk chocolate cut into small pieces

HOW-TO
First, make the cookie dough:

• Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper, or use a silicone tray.
• Mix the milk, sugar, butter, and vanilla essence together in a small saucepan. Heat together over low heat until the butter and sugar have melted, but don't boil.
• Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir until completely mixed with no lumps of flour remaining.
• Return to medium heat and cook until it becomes a thick paste. While still hot, thinly spread out on the tray and allow to cool completely.
• When the dough is cool, mix with the chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) to make a cookie dough. Congratulations! You now have edible raw cookie dough.

Then, make the ice-cream:

• Using an electric hand mixer, beat the cream and condensed milk together until light and a soft-peak consistency. It wants to look like a soft whipped cream. For best results, put the bowl and the beaters in the freezer for about 15 minutes beforehand.
• Pour a third of the mixture into a 2 pint (560 millilitre; 2½ US cup) container, then break up about a third of the cookie dough over the top. Mix a little to distribute the dough chunks.
• Repeat with the remaining two thirds of ice-cream and dough, finishing with a sprinkle of dough.
• Cover with the container's lid -- or clingfilm, directly touching the ice-cream's surface -- and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

THIS TIME IN 2015: Battenberg Birthday Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)
THIS TIME IN 2014: Minty Mint Brownies of Mintiness, with Marbled Glaze (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2013: How to Use and Abuse Royal Icing, and Wholemeal Gingerbread (Wheat Free)

Spotted Dick: a Traditional English Pudding (Wheat Free, Egg Free, with Dairy Free Option)

Since I made the Christmas pudding in a quarter of the time, I have had an itch for making steamed puddings. So, I've started off my series of experimentation with an English classic, though unfortunately named for nowadays audience, Spotted Dick.

Nobody does stodgy, heavy puddings like the English (well, Indian desserts are also fairly stodgy), and it's something that's kind of lacking in Irish cuisine. In fact, desserts aren't really a feature in Irish cuisine in general, except for the odd bread and butter putting, fruit scone, or "goody", which is a porridge made of white breadcrumbs, milk, sugar, and dried fruit (it's truly disgusting); we like dairy products big time, and most desserts here tend to be milky rather than bready or cakey.

Whereas across the Drink -- the land to which I owe half of my heritage -- desserts and puddings are a national pastime. Whether it's a dense and fruity Chelsea bun (which is a personal favourite of mine) or a steamed suet and syrup pudding, it's all about the stodge; filling every corner of the tummy.

My brother and I often talk about the stark contrast of the cakes section in Dunnes Stores (an Irish supermarket) and Tesco (an English supermarket that has stores in Ireland): the Tesco cakes and desserts section is far more comprehensive, including a whole section dedicated to steamed puddings, ready to eat custard, and evaporated milk.

Steamed puddings are the business, however, they're not truly understood by Irish people of my generation; maybe of the generation before us, but not folk my age. Golden syrup puddings are nice, but nothing is nicer than Spotted Dick.

Yes, you can giggle at the name, but essentially it's a like a plain sponge cake spotted with dried fruit, boiled for a few hours. The long cooking process gives it a beautiful caramelised golden crust, and a lovely dense moist centre. Traditionally, the dried fruit used is currants -- and sometimes citrus peel -- but here currants are expensive so I use chopped raisins.

It's really very simple to make: just flour, raising agent, suet, sugar, milk, and dried fruit. Now, because suet that you buy from the shop is neither vegetarian nor wheat-intolerance friendly, I use grated lard, or grated butter for an extra level of indulgence.

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy

INGREDIMENTS

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) baking powder
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) milk
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) vegetable lard or block butter, very cold
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) raisins, chopped into small pieces

If using unsalted butter, add 2 pinches of salt.

METHOD

• Lightly grease a 2 pint (1 litre) pudding basin with a little butter.
• In a mixing bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, and caster sugar together until blended. 
• Using a box grater, grate the lard or butter into the dry ingredients, dipping the grated side in the flour between grates. Using the fingertips, slightly break up the strands of lard or butter.
• Stir in the raisins, and then mix in the milk. Mix gently without beating to a thick batter.
• Pour into the pudding basin and smooth off the top with the back of a metal spoon or the tip of a rubber spatula.
• Cover the top of the basin with a sheet of aluminium foil, crumpled underneath the rim, or if your basin has a lid, use that. If you don't have aluminium foil, use a square of greaseproof paper with a pleat in the middle, and secure underneath the rim with some twine. Cook as instructed below.
• After cooling slightly on the rack as instructed, remove the cover and turn out onto a plate for serving.

To cook in a pressure cooker:

• Place the pudding in the cooker's steaming basket, or on an upturned side plate on the bottom of the pan. Fill the pan with boiled water to half way up the side of the pudding basin.
• Cover and lock, and bring to full pressure. If your cooker has pressure options, put it on high pressure.
• Once brought to pressure, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 45 to 55 minutes. After 45 minutes, vent to release the pressure and check the doneness of the pudding with a knife or a skewer: if there is any sticky under cooked mixture stuck to the skewer or knife, cover again and bring to pressure to cook for an additional 5 or 10 minutes.
• When cooked, vent to release the pressure, take the pudding out of the pan with oven mitts, and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

To cook in a normal saucepan:

• Find a saucepan big enough to accommodate the pudding. Place the pudding in a steaming basket, or on an upturned side plate on the bottom of the pan. Fill the pan with boiled water to half way up the side of the pudding basin.
• Cover and bring to the boil. Reduce to a vigorous simmer, and cook the pudding for 2 to 2½ hours, checking for doneness after 2 hours.
• When cooked, turn off the heat and take the pudding out of the pan with oven mitts, and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

This pudding is best enjoyed immediately after cooking with heated custard or pouring cream. It doesn't keep very well -- 2 days in the fridge at the most before it goes bendy -- so eat it quick!

Buttermilk Scones (Wheat Free)

There's nothing nicer than a lovely fluffy, freshly baked scone; it's one of life's simple little pleasures.

In North American countries, I believe these are more commonly known as biscuits and are eaten as part of a savoury meal, with stew or sausages and gravy. Here, they're served for breakfast, as a mid-morning snack, or an afternoon tea treat with butter and jam, and in the UK they can be eaten with clotted cream or honey.

Scones are supposed to be light and fluffy, but here in Ireland they tend to be solid and stodgy and sit in your stomach for hours. For years I've been experimenting with different recipes, but they've always been too dense and use a load of ingredients that aren't necessary.

What is necessary, however, is the combination of baking powder and baking soda. These two raising agents work together: the baking powder is a fast acting agent, that begins working as soon as they hit the oven's heat, and once it's finished working, the slow acting effect of the baking soda kicks in to continue the rising process. This is why they're super fluffsome!

Essentially, scones are baby soda breads with the addition of butter and a little sugar. They're lovely and fluffy, and best enjoyed with butter and jam. These are made using a handful of very simple ingredients: flour, raising agent, butter, buttermilk, and a hint of sugar. These are best enjoyed on the day they are baked.

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy

INGREDIMENTS

For eight medium sized scones

• 12 ounces (340 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 8 to 10 fluid ounces (230 to 285 millilitres) buttermilk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) block butter, cut into cubes
• 1 or 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 millilitres; 15 to 30 grammes) caster sugar

If using unsalted butter, add 2 pinches of salt.

METHOD

• Lightly grease a baking sheet with butter or sunflower oil. Preheat the oven to 220ºC (450ºF, Gas Mk.9).
• In a mixing bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar together until blended. Grate in the butter, then break it up a little with your fingertips; if you can still see pea-sized pieces of butter, that's enough breaking.
• Add the buttermilk bit by bit until you get a soft workable dough, mixing with a knife. Don't over handle it, or the finished scones will be tough.The dough might be a little uneven, with some bits dry and some bits sticky, but that's how it should be.
• Turn out onto a floured working surface, fold and flatten a few times to even out the consistency a bit. Flatten with your hand to a thickness of about an inch (2.5 centimetres). Using a 3 inch (7 centimetre) cutter or glass dipped in flour, cut out the scones. Do not twist the cutter: just go straight down and straight up. Twisting will make the scones turn out weird. I didn't make the rules here.
• Gently squish together the scraps and flatten out again to cut some more. You should get about eight or nine scones.
• Place the scones on the baking sheet so they're slightly touching. It helps as well to line them in a 3-2-3 pattern, as opposed to two lines of 4. This way, they help each other rise in the oven. Brush the tops with beaten egg or with melted butter.
• Cook them in the centre of the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and well risen.
• Break apart and cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before eating. They're best straight from the oven, but they do keep well in an airtight box for up to a week.

THIS TIME IN 2015: Low Effort Tray Bake Sponge (Wheat and Dairy Free)

THIS TIME IN 2014: No recipe

THIS TIME IN 2013: Buttercream Icing: the King of all Icings

American Style Chocolate Chip Muffins (Wheat Free)

It's good to be back in this kitchen.

Recently I've been adhering to clean eating principles in my every day diet. Essentially, the adage of clean eating is "Real food doesn't have ingredients, real food is ingredients"; it's overly simplified, but the concept is eating as much whole food as possible, with a few rules:

• Eat as many vegetables complex carbs as you can.
• Eat things with as few ingredients as possible: avoid overly processed food
• All meat must be lean: fish, white meat, lean beef/pork, vegetarian alternatives
• Avoid straight up milk and hard cheese: butter (in moderation), buttermilk, and soft cheeses are allowed.
• Fruit is allowed, but only in conjunction with protein: simple carbohydrate metabolises as complex carbohydrate when combined with protein (and protein doesn't just mean meat, it can be nuts or yoghurt).
• Fat and oil are allowed, but only in pure form: for example, olive oil, coconut oil, butter, etc.
• Refined sugar and artificial sweeteners are a no-no: natural alternatives like honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and agave syrup can be used instead.

Now, obviously, these are guidelines: it's impossible for someone with depression to make such radical changes overnight when getting up in the morning and washing your hair more than once a week seem like insurmountable struggles. So, I do my best and try not to give myself a hard time when I slip up. In my opinion, changing one's diet and using natural supplements is better than being sedated with pharmaceuticals.

So recently I've been doing simple things, like swapping white flour produce for wholemeal, making my own sauces, drinking more water, bringing lunch to work with me instead of buying things on the go, and other small changes. Lots of little changes over time turn into big changes.

So I took my cinnamon roll recipe and slightly altered it to make some scones and some muffins. They turned out quite nicely!

Because I had to make them at my mother's house -- on account of my own oven being banjaxed -- I made them in the evening. So, I asked my brother to take some photos of them the next day in daylight. This request was taken quite literally! Now, they look like photographs taken of 'wild chocolate muffins in their natural habitat'...

FREE FROM

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy
☒ Eggs

INGREDIMENTS

For eight medium sized scones

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 millitres) bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) buttermilk
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 or 4 ounces (85 to 115 grammes) chopped chocolate, or chocolate chips

If using unsalted butter, add 2 pinches of salt.

METHOD

• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with large paper cases. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF, Gas Mk.4).
• In a mixing bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar together until blended. Using a sieve will get rid of any lumps in the baking soda and baking powder. Add the chocolate and toss to coat the chips in flour.
• In a jug, mix together the oil, buttermilk, and eggs until fully blended. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and add in the liquid.
• Mix gently with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until it's blended. Don't overmix or the muffins will be tough; if you see the odd patch of flour, it's grand.
• Divide the mixture between the 12 cases, filling about 3/4 full. Bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
• After baking, cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before eating. They're best straight from the oven, but they do keep well in an airtight box for up to a week.

THIS TIME IN 2015: April Afternoon Tea Party: Bollywood Part Two!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog

THIS TIME IN 2013: Black Forest Gateau: a Retro Classic? (Wheat Free)

Depression Is a Terrible, Terrible Thing

Yes: I have been gone for two months. Glad you noticed!

These last two months have been an absolute struggle for me: every morning is a battle. I don't eat, and I don't sleep overly well, and when I eventually sleep I can't get enough of it. I've got to the point where I don't even wash my hair or take the slightest bit of pride in my appearance. The house has descended into chaos, and my oven is still broken.

My oven being broken was fine when I could nip over to my mother's house and use her oven, but then my family suffered a severe communication breakdown where nobody said anything nice to anyone else for a period of a few months, and now one of my siblings and I aren't even on speaking terms. This sibling lives in my mother's house, so now I have to time it so I can use the oven when they're not around.

This sibling also used to do shifts in work that I've had to inherit because he refuses to work with me, meaning I work a six day week, then have another separate role to do on Sunday, meaning I technically have a seven day week.

I had to go to the GP and tell him that I was so depressed I couldn't actually function as a human. There were points in the last two months that I considered ending my own life. Which, luckily I didn't: instead, I asked for a referral to the psychologist, and started doing video logs to improve my demeanour. It seems to be working so far.

In fact, my 25th birthday party was one of the things I did to try an remind myself that life is worth living. The day before the party, I genuinely considered buying a bottle of bleach to drink once everyone had gone home, so at least one of my last experiences of life was being surrounded by people who had traveled from far and wide to celebrate with me. I decided against it, though, fortunately.

It's not all doom and gloom, though: getting a diagnosis for depression has sort of started to get people talking about it, and having it professionally recognised means that I can actually justify it. I know it shouldn't be that way, but it is.

I have been advised by my health care specialists to do this whole eating clean thing, and to reduce my sugar intake remarkably. I've been surviving off chocolate and biscuits for weeks, and even though they have been keeping me alive, they've been wreaking havoc on my energy levels and overall health. This has provided me with the challenge I think I needed in my culinary life, because I had felt for some time that things in this blog had become very samey for me.

To be honest, for ages I resented doing this blog, because I felt like I was achieving absolutely nothing: I felt really bad about not being able to write about baking I wasn't doing because my oven and my brain were banjaxed. But the thing is I never started this blog to achieve anything, I just liked baking. So, I have been trying to learn how to put myself under less pressure to achieve anything, and just go back to enjoying baking for baking's sake.

So many things in my life are framed by this pressure and expectation of achievement. The blog used to be my way of escaping that, but then it became part of it. My previous companion kinda encouraged me to make a thing of the blog, and before long it had stopped being one of my escapes and had become part of the problem.

So, to hell with this scheduled blogging business -- no more pressuring myself to have things for Mondays/Tuesdays and Fridays -- I will just bake and upload when I can until I have some semblance of normality back in my life.

Yesterday I baked some nice scones and some nice muffins, and it was great. Really simple recipes with only a handful of ingredients for easy results. My Canadian friend also donated some of his sourdough starter to me just before Easter, and I'm hoping to do something with that soon.

Watch this space... I cannot guarantee when my next blog will be, but this time I can safely say there will be one.

Thank you all for your understanding!

Sweetie Pie x

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sweetie Pie Bakes Stuff!

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday, my dear blog,

Happy birthday to you!

For my blog's second birthday, I made a pretty cake: a coffee layer sponge with mint white chocolate icing. 'Twas decent.

This year I thought I'd try something a bit different:

That's right! It's my face! I don't think I've ever done a blog post where you have seen what I look like (unless you follow me on Facebook, where you see me often enough). But I thought I'd take the opportunity to dress up nice and take a pichur!

This year, I made a lovely chocolate and strawberry cake, and it turned out very well. I have a lovely mini cake tin (which is actually a re-purposed tin from a shop bought steamed pudding) and it works perfectly for a cake mixture made with one egg.

So, to round up the past year, these were the most popular recipes:

1. Cheat Croissants (Wheat and Yeast Free)
2. Battenberg Birthday Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)
3. Vanilla Fondant Fancies (Wheat Free; Dairy Substitute)
4. Turkish Delight (Naturally Free From Everything)
5. Zingy Lemon Gateau (Wheat Free)
6. Something Different: Koeksisters (Wheat- and Dairy Free)
7. Tiramisù Mini Cheesecakes (Wheat Free)
8. Danish Pastries: Dinosaur Paws (Wheat Free with DairyFree Option)
9. Recipe Revision: Doughnuts (Wheat-Free with Dairy Free Option)
10. Treacle Tarts, without Breadcrumbs (Wheat Free)

2015 was a good year for trying new things, and I had a lot of great successes. I was very pleased with myself for learning how to do puff pastry, marzipan, and Turkish delight, and also I noticed how far I've come with my icing technique.


The combination of chocolate cake and strawberry icing was absolutely delicious, I'll definitely be making it again!

FREE FROM

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

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

INGREDIMENTS

For the sponge cake:

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) white spelt flour
• ½ ounce (15 grammes) cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 medium egg
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) sunflower oil
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) milk, or milk alternative
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

For the icing:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, soft
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) milk
• 4 tablespoons (60 millilitres) strawberry milkshake powder
• Sprinkles, for decorating

HOW-TO

• Make the cake mixture according to this recipe, using a greased and floured 4 inch round cake tin. I use a tin from a shop-bought steamed pudding. Bake at the recommended temperature for about 25 to 30 minutes.
• Bake according to the recipe, then once it is out of the oven immediately drop onto the work surface from a height of roughly a foot (30 centimetres); that will reduce the chances of it shrinking. Allow to cool completely.
• Make the buttercream according to this recipe, if you don't know how to make buttercream already, making sure to mix the milkshake powder with the milk before adding to the icing.
• Cut the dome off the cake, cut it in half, then place upside down on the serving platter so the base is now the top. Fill and crumb coat then chill for an hour, then coat with a second coat, leaving about 3 ounces (85 grammes) of icing to pipe the rosettes around the top and bottom.
• Before you pipe the rosettes, cover the top of the cake with the sprinkles, leaving about half an inch of a border (about a centimetre), then pipe the rosettes on top.
• Allow to set completely, either in the fridge for up to an hour, or on the work surface for up to 3 hours.

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

In the aftermath of the weekend of revelry, I decided to do something that I've wanted to do for quite some time: yeast free buns of some kind. This time, it's cinnamon rolls!

I have a few friends who are not only uncomfortable with wheat and gluten, but also with yeast. I've heard of a few people of late with yeast sensitivities or intolerances, and for the last year or so it's been a constant trial and error process of finding the best way of baking traditionally yeast leavened recipes without using yeast.

Spelt and yeast have a fraught relationship too, in my experience, so for my own peace of mind finding a way of making things without it would be just great. Last year, I attempted hot cross buns without yeast, but it was less than successful.

As such I took to the world wide web. I googled things like 'yeast free bread', or 'yeast free Chelsea buns' or 'hot cross buns', et cetera. However, the thing that brought the most promising results was searches for yeast free cinnamon rolls: apparently, Americans seem to want to have a yeast free life too.

This research brought up a few recipes that centre around the kind of dough used to make Southern American style 'biscuits'. What is called a biscuit over there seems to be something of a bready savoury scone, kind of like soda bread. Obviously, 'biscuit' over here means a little crunchy flat cake that you dip in your cup of tea, so this was a word I never considered googling to find a recipe for bread.

I compared a lot of recipes for 'biscuits', and found that overall it's a combination of flour, butter, buttermilk, and raising agents. The recipes all depend heavily on buttermilk, which makes designing a dairy free version kind of, well, impossible, unfortunately. But I will be developing that in the future.

Once I had compared and contrasted the recipes, I used the following recipe and it turned out very well! I will definitely convert this recipe into something suitable for a hot cross bun for Good Friday, and I'll also being having a go at something I personally feel a little more familiar with: a Chelsea bun.

IMPORTANT NOTES

• Use a soft touch with the dough: the more you work it, the tougher it will be when it's cooked: treat it like moose meat, or Swedish ladies.
• You need to use all spelt flour, just like you would when making bread: the whole spelt/cornflour mix just doesn't cut it like it does in cake.
• The trick to lovely fluffy and light no-yeast bread is the adage "cold dough, hot oven": all the ingredients must be cold, and the oven must be as hot as you can get it. My oven gets to about 220*C (450*F, Gas Mk.9), which is just about right. 250*C (500*F) would be better.
• Bake them so that they're nice and tightly packed: this ensures that they'll rise nicely and get the height they need.

So, let's get cracking!

INGREDIMENTS:

For 12 cinnamon rolls

• 12 ounces (340 grammes) white spelt flour, refrigerated for 20 minutes
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon (2 millilitres) bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cold block butter, preferably frozen for 20 minutes
• 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) cold buttermilk

For the filling,

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) soft butter, for spreading
• 2 tablespoon (30 millilitres) soft brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground cinnamon
• Optional: 1/4 teaspoon (2 millilitres) ground cloves

To glaze,

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) icing sugar
• Milk, to make up the glaze

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to as hot as you can, about 220*C (450*F, Gas Mk. 9), and grease a 9 inch (22 centimetre) round tin.
• In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, and salt. Mix to combine fully, then grate the butter in with the wide side of your box grater, dipping the butter in the flour after each grate.
• With your fingers, gently toss and break up the butter in the flour until you get a coarse crumbly mixture.
• Using the tip of a knife, stir in the buttermilk. The dough will be completely uneven: sticky in some places, dry in others, etc., but don't worry.
• Lightly sprinkle the work surface with flour, then turn out everything in the bowl. Gently flatten the dough, and fold it over, and flatten and fold until it becomes a smooth dough. This should take about 5 folds, and all the flour and buttermilk will be nicely brought together. Do not knead under any circumstances: the dough will get tough.
• Roll out the dough into a rectangle about half an inch (about a centimetre) in thickness.
• In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the filling to make a paste. Spread the paste out on the dough rectangle, spreading all the way out to each short end, but leaving a border of about an inch (2 centimetres) at each wide side.
• Roll the dough into a sausage, wide side to wide side, keeping the dough roll nice and tight. Cut into 12 slices with a sharp knife.
• Arrange the slices, neatly packed, into the tin, and put in the centre of the preheated oven for about 20 minutes,or until nice and brown on the top. I actually took mine out a little too early because I was afraid of them being too crunchy.
• Mix the icing sugar with enough milk to make a thick but still running icing: it should coat the back of the spoon, but it should be able to run off.
• Take the buns out of the oven and, while still hot, spread the icing over the top of the buns. It will melt, but that's part of the charm.
• You can turn them out all in one big piece, allowing people to tear and share themselves, or you can cut around the edges and take each one out. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before eating freshly baked.

These are lovely and doughy, having the texture of a fluffy bread, but without the hassle of yeast. It's obviously not exactly the same as bread, but it's close enough!

Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie! 25 Today!

Happy birthday to me,

Happy birthday to me,

Happy birthday, dear Sweetie Pie;

Happy birthday to me!

This day 25 years ago, I came into existence in All Saint's Hospital in Chatham, Kent, England. It was the beginning of a journey so far filled with its share of delight and sadness.

In fairness, the first year or two after coming home to Ireland at five years old were great; since then, however, things have been turbulent. The last few years have been very challenging: dealing on and off with depression for over a decade takes its toll, and at times it has been near impossible to deal with. For every up, there has been a disproportionately opposing down, and often even trying to scrape myself off the floor has seemed an insurmountable task.

2015 was one of the first years since getting ill that I was not in receipt of therapy or medicines, but 2016 started off with one of the deepest canyons of misery I've had to deal with in quite some time. Isolation in the workplace and at home have been the biggest barriers between me and contentment, and having to peel away a newly acknowledged level of trauma every few years or so throws me back about three-hundred steps.

Of course, I can't ever see myself getting as bad as that time I needed interventional psychotherapy that lasted 18 months, or that other time that I ended up in A&E from a mental breakdown. I have a better understanding of my triggers, and of how to cope with bouts of depression, which sometimes involves strict and forceful imposition of discipline and routine, which Hopeless Me hates with a passion, but Hopeful Me understands is a hundred-percent necessary.

I'm fortunate to have a small handful of people who understand my difficulties. It saddens me that it only includes one person from my immediate family (at a stretch), but it does however include people from my taekwondo family, my choir family, and my closest friends (you know who you are).

Hitting quarter of a century fills one with interesting emotions: although I am still at the beginning of my life, the final remnants of childhood are now to be cast off, and decisions are to be made about what I will do to fill the next few decades of my life. Obviously, it's one step at a time: thinking too far ahead fills me with enough crippling dread to throw myself off the nearest bridge. So I won't be doing that.

Hopefully in September (if I'm accepted), a new chapter of my life will start, studying in NUIG. I'll finally be able to study film, the way I wanted to when I was making decisions about third level education for the first time 8 years ago, but was thwarted.

Exciting times are ahead; comfort zones will be abandoned. I will try my best at every opportunity to choose life over death, and love over fear. Thank you to all my readers and supporters, who have put up with sporadic posting times and unannounced disappearances: sometimes I hate everything so much that I even hate baking. I used to feel bad about it, but now I have just accepted it as part of life.

This Saturday is my party, and about 20 people who I love and care about will be there, bouncing on the bouncy castle (yes: I managed to get one) and eating pizza and cake in a house decked out for a five year old's pirate themed party. It will be awesome, and I will definitely write up about it with lots of pictures.