Sweet Bread Rolls

Ingredients

550 grams of flour of which one cup is made up of mąka tortowa [around 125 grams], a Polish cake flour and the rest with Allinson bread flour - just over 4 cups of flour in total. Four cups of flour would have a weight of about 520 grams.

2 medium size eggs plus 2 medium egg yolks

100 grams or half a cup of caster sugar

113 grams or a stick of butter or 4 oz of butter - melted

3/4 cup or 6 fl oz or three quarter cup whole milk - full fat milk

2 tsp vanilla paste 

50 grams fresh yeast

half teaspoon of Himalayan salt

I place the yeast into the warm milk [around 40 C] and when the yeast starts to bubble, I pour the mixture into the bread mixture which has all the rest of the other ingredients. 

I hand knead all the ingredients together and allow the dough to rise and double in size. I then knead the dough and divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and knead each portion again and allow the rolls to rise and double in size in my silicon bun tray for a second time.

I then bake the bread rolls in a preheated convectional oven [fan switched off] at 200 C for 20 minutes until the rolls are cooked. 

Preparation and baking time = 3 hours

I turned the rolls out of the silicon mould and baked them upside down for 3 minutes to give the bottom a good browning. 

Evaluation:  The bread rolls are light and fluffy and not sweet.  The vanilla flavour is not over the top and I think adding some orange flavour into the dough for the poppy seed roll will make it taste delicious. 

Gingerbread House

Well at last I have finished decorating my Christmas gingerbread house.  I have been taken by the Americans decorating gingerbread houses and it started in Germany in the 1800's.

It is really fun decorating this gingerbread house.  It is nothing artistic, it is just fun and I can do whatever I want.

Here are the pictures of the gingerbread house which I have decorated today.

First decorate the panels of the house and other objects and allow the icing to dry.  When the decorations of the panels and objects have dried then glue them together. 

I have given you the gingerbread recipe already. What you need now is the icing recipe.  This icing is called Royal Icing and it is a wonderful icing for gluing things together.

Royal Icing

50 grams or a quarter cup of egg whites - from about one and a half eggs

up to 500 grams of sifted icing sugar = those without cornflour or egg whites or glucose - just pure icing sugar - you will use less but just in case

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Whisk the egg whites until foamy and then add the cream of tartar.  Continue beating the egg whites at full speed [and do use an electric beater - I used a handheld beater].  You really need to whisk the egg whites and icing sugar until firm peaks.  You keep adding the sifted icing sugar until this stage. Then store the icing as needed in an airtight container.

For piping decorations such a pearls or door or window frame - use soft peak consistency.  For gluing the panels together, use stiff peak consistency.  When you pull the icing it actually stands firm - and this is stiff peak consistency. 

I will retake pictures of the gingerbread tomorrow when there is enough sunlight to give it a natural look and repost the pictures. 

And finally a big thank you to Dr Marie for providing all those sweets on the gingerbread house.  

The preparation continues for Christmas

I heard last night when I went to Sunday Mass that during this time of Advent we are waiting for the second coming of Christ.  Fr Darius said the Jews did not believe Jesus was the messiah just like the way we could not believe Jesus would be coming again.  I thought what Fr Darius said was true.  So today during silent prayer, I prayed "Come Jesus Come!"

I really like Sunday as I do not have to go to Mass and this means I can get up to no good early in the morning until all my ideas got to pot.  LOL  So here is where I am at the moment with my Christmas cake.

I have a dilemma about to do with the side of the cake.  The cake is so elegant and I really do not want to do anything stupid on the side and ruin the cake.  So I ask Dr Marie and get some ideas from her - you see she is a rather classy lady and she would know.  Dr Marie has been on this surface of the earth for nearly 83 years, still going strong, have parties practically everyday, and still working as a GP - imagine!  

So I took the cake with me and brought it to her home this early afternoon and she told me to leave the side of the cake blank. 

That gold leaves on the cake came from Dr Marie.  I gave her some of the Christmas biscuits and while eating the biscuits yesterday, she asked me about the possibility of putting gold leaves on the Christmas cake.  I have a "нет" mentality - said as 'nyeht' - and I would always say no initially regardless!   Don't you think Dr Marie's idea of gold leaves make the cake look like a million dollar cake?  So I will follow her advice and leave the side blank.

While playing in the kitchen, I have tried to make some leaves for Owen's birthday cake for January 2015 and I came up with these leaves.

I believe in having a simple life and use as few tools to make beautiful cakes.  So I dry my sugar craft flowers, leaves and other items on any thing I can find in my kitchen.  You see I dry these leaves on my bundt baking tin to give the leaves some "movement".  There is no need to buy those drying mats you see in cake craft shops or the Internet. The gum paste will not stick to metal objects such as baking tins or silicon baking trays.

In addition, I do not buy any silicon veiners, which cost an arm and a leg, but use a Dresden tool to make the veins on the leaves. This means every leaf is different, like real leaves. 

And now these leaves have dried and I am trying them out for size on the same cake tin which will be used to make Owen's cake.  

I love those large extravagant leaves which seem so outrageous.  Dr Marie thought I should make shamrocks instead of these large vine leaves.  

Do you like the green colour?  

I went to Lakeland and bought their Christmas colours sugar paste at about nearly £5 for a set of five colours.  I then dropped off at Waitrose around the corner and saw they were selling five colours for £2.  So I bought the Waitrose coloured sugar paste and returned the Lakeland colours.  I then mixed the green, yellow and blue sugar paste together and add a little of my Wilton leaf green gel to get the above colour. To turn the sugar paste into gum paste, I added more than a teaspoon of gum tragacanth to the mixed coloured paste as the combined weight of the three colours was 300 grams.  You would normally add one teaspoon of gum tragacanth to 225 grams of roll fondant icing [also known as sugar paste] to get gum paste.

So the moral of this posting is that you do not need to buy everything you see in the cake craft shops and try to use what you already have in your home.  This is my strategy for living a simple life. 

May God bless you on this 'Pink' Sunday!  Let us rejoice and be glad for our Lord is coming with power and might. Amen. 

Preparing for Christmas - in my kitchen

The Advent season leading to Christmas is such fun for me and here are some of my activities.  I have prepared some flowers to decorate my Christmas cake; covered the Christmas cake with marzipan; making Christmas biscuits etc.  Here are photos to show some of my activities. 

Technically, we prepare for Christmas not by doing kitchen activities or going shopping or buying presents on-line - BUT by getting rid of the rubbish in our hearts and clearing a space for Jesus to be born in us so we can proclaim his love for others.  These kitchen activities are well and good, but if I am unable to do everything with all my heart for the greater glory of God, these activities are all a waste of time.  

With this in mind, I still have loads to do.  I must make some fresh Royal Icing and decorate the panels of my gingerbread house and also finish decorating the flowers by adding details.  The flowers you see in the pictures above are inspired by Mich Turner MBE and I like the way she mixes old and new together to get something better.  Her husband and children must be so trilled to have a wife and mother like Mich.  

Christmas Patties or rather Christmas biscuits

Jamie Oliver wrote in the Sunday Times Magazine on 23 November 2014 about his mince pie cookies [biscuits in English] and shared his recipe.  On the way to Holy Mass at six something in the morning, Dr Marie shared this with me and she called them Jamie's patties.

These biscuits are not patties but isn't it wonderful to call them Christmas patties.  Jamie Oliver wrote in the Sunday Times Magazine that these biscuits could have a good shot at converting people who were averse to mince pies to eating our seasonal food.

I have changed a number of things and these are really no longer Jamie's cookies but just Christmas patties or Christmas biscuits.

Ingredients

250 grams unsalted butter
60 grams molasses sugar
60 grams soft dark brown sugar
1 free range large egg yolk
30 grams of homemade orange peel, diced finely
250 grams 00 flour
50 grams custard powder
1 full jar of a 14 oz [411 grams] mince meat

1. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy and all the sugars have dissolved.
2. Add the egg yolk and diced orange peel and continue to beat the mixture.
3. Add the whole jar of mince meat and continue to mix.
4. Fold in the flour and custard powder mixture which have been sifted.
5. Prepare 3 large baking trays and line them with parchment paper or silicon sheets.
6. Pipe the biscuit mixture [I use Kaiser 13 mm 39-8 piping tube to pipe these biscuits.] onto these trays.  You could use two spoons to put spoonfuls of dough on the baking tray if you are averse to piping.  One could make 45 of these biscuits.
7. Refrigerate the uncooked biscuits in your fridge for several hours or even over night and bake them when you need them.
8. Turn the oven on to 180 C or 350 F - with the fan switched off.
9. Bake the biscuits one tray at a time for about 15 - 17 minutes, straight from the fridge. Let the biscuits be a little doughy in the middle. 
10. It is best eaten hot from the oven - it is seriously delicious. 
11. Cool the biscuits on cooling trays and store them in airtight containers until required.  These biscuits can be reheated.  However, I would bake them straight from the fridge if I were you. 

So thank you Jamie and I hope you do not mind my making changes to your recipe to suit my taste buds.  

 

Gingerbread Biscuits

At this time of the year, many people are making gingerbread in order to make gingerbread house or gingerbread biscuits. 

I have just made a batch of gingerbread, using an American recipe, with an intention of making and decorating a gingerbread house for Christmas. 

Gingerbread 2014 Christmas

         390 grams 00 flour plus more for dusting [3 cups]

         ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

         2 tsp ground ginger

         1 tsp ground cinnamon

         ½ tsp ground cloves

         ½ tsp mixed spice

         113 gram unsalted butter [half a cup or 4 oz or one stick]

         113 grams Billington’s molasses sugar – for a sweeter biscuit use light or dark brown sugar [a little more than half a cup; 4 oz]

         1 large egg 64 grams with shell – beaten

          250 grams treacle – for a sweeter biscuit use Golden Syrup or Grandma’s molasses [between two third - three quarter of a cup]

1.       Sift all the dry ingredients together twice – flour, spices and rising agent – this is to ensure all the spices and raising agent are mixed in well with the flour

2.       Beat the butter and molasses sugar until it is creamy and smooth

3.       Then add in the treacle and beat until well combined with butter and sugar

4.       Then beat in the egg and continue to mix until well combine and the sugar has dissolved

5.       Then fold in the flour mixture in three batches

6.       Divide the dough into two portions, wrap with cling film and chill the dough in the fridge overnight to firm up

7.       Roll the dough to ¼ inch thick, cut into biscuit size pieces, place these on a lined baking tray and then chill the uncooked biscuits – this will prevent the biscuits from expanding during the baking process

8.       Then bake the biscuits cold from the fridge in a preheated 160 C convectional oven [fan switched off] for 20 minutes on baking trays or baking sheets and when the tops of the biscuits are firm to touch [not burn on the sides!], remove the biscuits from the oven and cool on a cooling rack. 

9.       However, for more crispy gingerbread biscuit, then bake them a little longer.  The more crispy biscuits could be used for hanging on Christmas trees. 

10.   Gingerbread house: I baked the biscuits using a Wilton metal mould at 160 C convectional oven with fan switched off for 22 mins, or until the tops of the gingerbread are firm to touch.  I allowed the gingerbread to cool in the mould for 6 minutes before removing it with the aid of a cooling tray.

Preparing for Christmas

I heard Fr James Leachmen preaching today at Holy Mass about the Collect.

Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord,

that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion,

they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows.

 Fr James said we would normally be making our Christmas pudding this week and as we 'stir' the pudding mixture, we would say the above prayer.

And our God is the greatest pudding maker as he stirs us up to do his will, which I have experienced personally in the last 24 hours.  

However, many of us, including myself, no longer make Christmas pudding and I am planning to go to the shops to buy a Christmas pudding today.  It is very sad we are slowly losing our tradition in preparing for Christmas and all this preparation has been reduced to office parties, buying presents, getting drunk and in this process we are also losing our identity.

In some 'Christian' countries some people have even stopped saying Merry Christmas but happy holidays!

Most Christians are also completely unaware that our Christian New Year begins this Sunday with a new liturgical calendar on the first Sunday of Advent.  Advent is a time for waiting, yet we have forgotten this.

Fr Alan Fudge used to say who would go and have a party to celebrate the birth of a child before the child was born.  However, we all do now - we sing Christmas carols before Christmas, we go to Christmas parties before Christmas etc.

So, I am very pleased Delia Smith wrote in Waitrose Weekend recently her perfect Christmas bakes recipes which includes Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, mincemeat, mince pies and stollen.  

How many of us are actually making these and how many of us are just buying these from the shops? 

May God bless you and help you to celebrate Advent by waiting for our Lord.

鍋貼 Guotie

Guotie 鍋貼 - this is a northern Chinese snack 小吃 'xiaochi' and is very popular with many non Chinese.  In Teochew, it is called ziang'giao 煎餃.  People in North America call guotie, pot stickers. Why? Guo 鍋 means a pot as in a cooking pot and tie 貼 means to stick and hence pot stickers.  LOL Cantonese people pronounce 鍋貼 [guotie's characters] as wo'tip.  The Japanese calls this dumpling gyoza 餃子. In London, Chinese restaurants list this dumpling as grilled dumpling - even though we Chinese never ever grill these dumplings.  

I lightly oil my largest frying pan, a wok, and place 14 guotie on the semi hot pan.

I then turn the guotie over when one side gets brown - a trick I learnt from Fr Dominic, a friend from Xian 西安

 Fr Dominic told me his sister in law would fry the guotie on two sides before adding water and I thought this was a wonderful style of cooking guotie.  

Traditionally, in Beijing, guotie would be fried on one side only and the dumplings would be placed adjacent to one another in a large frying pan and they would all stick to one another and hence tie 貼 meaning to stick - as in the dumplings sticking to one another and not to the pot.  It would be a disaster if the dumplings were to stick to the pot! 

I then add about 70 ml of water, cover the pot and wait until the water has been reduced and give all the guotie a good turnover.  The water creates steam which then cooks the guotie.

I then serve the guotie on a lovely Chinese bowl which my friend Christina bought for me from HK.

Guotie goes very well with balsamic glaze but traditionally Chinese people eat this with black Chinese vinegar and julienne of ginger.  Nowadays, many Chinese people eat guotie with chillies - lots of chillies.

You can buy ready made guotie from Chinese supermarkets.  However, I have never bought these from any supermarkets!

If you want to make these guotie, then you need to make the wrapper dough first and Chinese people call the wrapper, 'skin'! LOL  This is because you need to rest the dough for sometime.  I made the dough last night at midnight when I got home from Deacon David's birthday dinner party.

I use 500 grams of strong flour [Canadian strong white bread flour is best - which you can buy from Waitrose] and then bring to boil in excess of 250 ml of water.

I then place the flour in one of my Kenwood metal bowls, add about a teaspoon of salt and about the same amount of sugar to the flour. I then attach a dough hook to the Kenwood mixer and start mixing the flour with salt and sugar.  I then pour the hot water [must be at least 70 C] into the flour while the Kenwood Chef turn the flour at low speed until a dough is formed.  

Every type and batch of flour uses a slightly different amount of water, and I find by getting my Kenwood to work for me at midnight means I do not add too little or too much water into the flour.

I then roll out the dough into a long 'sausage' shape, cling film it well so as not to let the dough dry out while resting.  I then place the wrapped dough in an air tight container.

The dough must not be sticky and while one kneads the dough, none of the dough should stick to one's hands and when one strokes the dough it should form a smooth outer skin.  One definitely needs some skill to know the right amount of water to use and one has to learn this through trial and error, unless one has a friend like a Kenwood Chef or Kenwood Major!

We Chinese do not add eggs or oil into the dough.  In fact, traditionally, we do not even add salt or sugar into the dough mixture.  Traditionally, Chinese people would mix half boiling water and half tap water and get the right temperature.  However, in London, our tap water is freezing cold and I would not get that minimum 70 C water if I were to follow this method.  Hence, I get a thermometer out, measure the temperature of the water and when it reaches just over 80 C, I turn off the heat and start preparing to pour the water into the flour.

If you do not have a Kenwood, then perhaps you could use a food processor to make the dough.  If you have none of these, then you need to learn the hard way, like the way I did when I was in my 20s, using my hands and a Chinese rolling pin to knead the flour and water into a dough.  LOL  

The filling:  There are many different types of filling.  Chinese in the South of China add all sorts of things.  Vegetarian Chinese use eggs and garlic chives.  However, I still prefer the traditional Northern Chinese filling.  

So these were what I used to make this batch of guotie filling.

6 or 7 Napa cabbage leaves - sliced thinly - in English supermarkets you will see Napa cabbage labelled as Chinese leaves.

I add 1 teaspoon of salt into the sliced cabbage leaves and give them a good squeeze - in fact many good squeezes! 

I then take a bunch of organic spring onions [which is now called salad onions in English supermarkets because we get them all year round and not just during spring time], and I slice the green part thinly.  I add these to the top of the salted sliced cabbage.

In Southern China, the people could replace the above two ingredients with thinly sliced Chinese garlic chives.

And because I am making these for Auntie Ratna, who is a Southern Asian, previously from Ceylon, I add some shallots.

I take an echalion shallot, slice it in half length wise, and then slice it thinly.  I fry the shallot in oil until it is brown and add the fried shallot and oil into the above vegetable.  This gives the filling an interesting flavour.

Chinese people would add quite a bit of vegetable oil into the filling at this stage.  This would then give the dumpling a very moist texture with liquid oozing out of the hot dumpling when eaten.  However, I skip this step as I am not making these dumplings for Chinese people. 

I then remove the skin of a two inch ginger, slice it thinly, then julienne the thin slices of ginger and then finely dice the julienne of ginger.  I add this to the vegetable above.

Then seasoning: I then add 2 tablespoons of JinLan soya sauce 金蘭醬油 and two tablespoons of sesame oil, 2 tbsp of water to the vegetable mixture.

Finally, I add 500 grams of minced pork from Waitrose - 8% fat - to the above.  I mix all the ingredients well together with one of my hands.  There is no alternative than using one's hands because the seasoning has to be  massaged into the meat vegetables mixture.  

I have tried using beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, extra lean pork mince but none of these have worked out well as this 8% fat pork mince from Waitrose.  The idea is that the meat in the dumpling should stay together like a sausage and not to fall apart when you eat the dumplings with your chopsticks.  I found beef to be too tough, lamb too smelly, and as for the rest, the meat fell apart when eaten. 

Traditionally, Chinese people would buy pork with some fat and hand minced the meat with cleavers.  However, nowadays my neighbours would report me after hearing all that chopping sound coming from my home.  

You can add ground white pepper if you want - Chinese ground pepper - but I do not use pepper anymore in my cooking.

When you have mixed all the ingredients together, you need to wash your hands, dry them, then take the bowl containing the filling ingredients and bring it to your nose and take a deep breath.  If you can smell the flavours up your nostrils then you have seasoned the filling well.  If not, then you need to add more salt, or sesame oil or whatever.  This way of testing food for the right amount of seasoning is an old traditional Chinese way of doing things.

I then transferred the filling into an air tight Pyrex dish and stored it in my fridge for a minimum of half an hour.  I made the above at 4 am this morning and started wrapping after Morning Prayer at 10:30.  

Wrapping:  I roll the dough into a long thin sausage, cut equal slices - roughly 14 per batch. I then press each piece with the palm of my hands and then using a rolling pin start rolling out the dough into discs.  The middle of the wrapper round disc should be thicker than the edges.  It is like making miniature Indian chapati. 

If you want to watch an American lady explaining to you how to make these little small wrapper discs, then do watch this YouTube video.

You know I started learning to make guotie in my 20s, and that was centuries ago, and I had to make over 1000 guotie(s) before I learnt how to roll out the dough discs well and  how to wrap the dumplings.

In Chinese families, everybody would help, including little children.  Some wrap it square, some odd shapes and some perfectly.  This does not matter - it is a family affair and brings everybody together for a good chit chat.  When you are invited to a Chinese family home, you are also expected to participate in this wrapping process.  Everybody then compares who has made the most beautiful dumpling and would give the person a praise, and encouragement for those who could improve their wrapping technique.  

Nobody would come to eat dumplings and sit like kings and queens doing nothing.  This would be most impolite for Chinese people.

However, in the UK, people always just come and sit like kings and queens and I therefore would make 20 or 30 dumplings regardless of the number of people eating.  I do not see why I should kill myself and over exceed my usual production limit.  LOL

So, get all the children together, invite the in-laws and start a wrapping guotie party and have a good time making and eating dumplings as a family. 

And if you want to see how the same American lady teaching you how to wrap these dumplings, then please watch this YouTube video. 

Gingerbread Cake

I saw Gretchen Price making gingerbread in a bundt cake baking tin and I thought I would like to make this American cake to see how it would compare with an English gingerbread.

However, I do not have those American ingredients such as molasses and others and I therefore use what I have at home.

Instead of all purpose flour, I use a French flour - Francine Farine Supreme.  I do not have any plain flour or all purpose flour in my cupboards!  LOL I do not use such flour for baking.  

For molasses, I use Tate and Lyle treacle - but as this is more viscous than the American Molasses, I have decided to use less and I will therefore be using 300 grams [7/8 of a cup] of treacle and Golden Syrup instead of Gretchen's 1.25 cups of molasses. 

Instead of light brown sugar, I use Billington's natural molasses sugar and I have reduced the amount of sugar from 200 grams to 113 grams or 4 ozs.

So here is my revised list of gingerbread cake ingredients

4 ozs [113 g] unsalted butter
4 ozs [113 g] Billington's natural molasses sugar
7/8 cup Tate and Lyle treacle and Golden Syrup = 300 grams [260 grams of treacle and 40 grams of Golden Syrup]
2 eggs - I have increased the number of eggs by 1 and I use medium size eggs
2.5 cups [350 grams] Francine Farine Supreme flour
1 tsp bi-carbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
1.25 cups [10 fl oz or half a pint] hot water [off the boil] - same temperature as in making coffee at around 80 C

1. Weigh the butter and molasses sugar in a bowl and set aside
2. Measure the flour and the other dry ingredients and sift them twice
3. Grease a 12 cup bundt baking tin with butter and flour - I use NordicWare 12 - 15 cups bundt baking tin and I am therefore presetting my oven to 165 C with fan switched off 
4. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy and then add the treacle and Golden Syrup and mix well until all the sugar has dissolved. 
5. Add the eggs one at a time and beat to combine well.
6. The add the dry ingredients and hot water alternately ending with dry ingredients, and mixing well after each addition.
7. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared bundt baking tin and bake at 165 C convectional oven for 50 to 55 minutes - and it took 53 minutes to bake. The idea is not to over bake your gingerbread cake. 
8. Leave the gingerbread cake to cool in the bundt tin. 

As for the icing glaze, I followed Joy of Baking and used 150 grams of sifted icing sugar and 2 tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

I personally think the icing is too thin and it does not look too good. So here is the transformation!

I rather like the variegated moss green leaves - and the colour was given to me by Vero - and thanks Vero! 

Questions and Answers

I do not have a bundt baking tin. What should I do?  You could use a 9 inch [23 cm] square or a 10 inch round baking tin instead.

I have a bundt tin but not a Nordic Ware Bundt tin. What temperature should I bake the cake?  Nordic Ware advises people to bake their cakes at a lower temperature if they were to use their platinum range baking tins as the metal they use to make these tins is a very efficient conductor of heat.  If you have an ordinary baking tin, may it be a 9 inch square baking tin or other makes of baking tin, then you need to read the manufacturer's instructions. This cake would normally be baked at 175 C or 350 F. 

I do not have that Francine flour.  What flour should I use?  Use plain flour if you are in the UK.  If you are in other countries, you may use all purpose flour.  The Francine flour has 9 % protein and do not use flour which has a protein contain more than 11 %.  AND I am unlikely to go to Holland Park to buy all purpose flour from an American shop just to make this cake.  

I cannot find natural molasses sugar.  What sugar can I use?  You can use any brown sugar - light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, or any muscovado sugar or even caster sugar.

I do not have treacle in my country. What should I use?  The Americans use Grandma's Molasses - Yellow brand - the original version.  You can use this if you can purchase it.  In London, a 12 oz jar of Grandma's Molasses costs nearly £5 and if I were to buy it from Amazon, it would cost over £7.  As for a pound weight of treacle only costs £1.18.  Therefore it is not economical for me not to use Tate and Lyle treacle.

Why did I use such odd quantities of treacle and Golden Syrup?  It is rather late at night and it is too late for me to go to the shops to buy more treacle. I therefore made up the quantity I wanted with Golden Syrup.  I am making this cake for Deacon David's birthday and I have to make the mixture tonight to bake the cake tomorrow morning as the birthday party is tomorrow.  LOL

Why am I using 2 eggs and Gretchen uses one egg?  This is because Grandma's website uses two eggs for such proportion of ingredients to make a gingerbread cake. 

Other recipes have salt and why is there no salt in this recipe?  I have a dislike of salt in my sweet creations - cakes, biscuits and others. I just cannot imagine why people like salt and sugar in the same food item - like cakes and biscuits. I do not mind having salt and sugar in my sweet and sour but not cakes and biscuits.

Evaluation

The cake served 9 people after dinner tonight and everybody loved the cake.  They said the cake was moist and they liked the flavour of the cake.  The ginger was not over the top and the cake was not too sweet.  I served the cake with sweetened whipped double cream and this really went well with cake.  There is no need to change this excellent recipe and may God bless America as this is an American cake!


27 December 2014

Made the cake again for Dominic's baptismal agape and used the following ingredients.

113 grams unsalted butter
113 grams molasses sugar
188 grams treacle
145 grams Golden Syrup - total syrup 333 grams just under 1 cup of syrup
2 large free range eggs
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp ground cloves
350 grams mąka tortowa
1.25 cups of hot water

Icing Glaze: 150 grams icing sugar & 5 tsp of lemon or orange juice and this gives a much better glaze. 

November Cupcakes

A group of people from my parish are meeting tonight to reflect on 'Jesus, My Lord' and at the end of the meeting, we are having a shared meal and I agreed to bake some cakes to share. 

I have made cupcakes early this morning for this event - some mini cupcakes and some standard American size cupcakes.

I made 24 of these mini cupcakes and some have already been eaten! LOL

These were piped with Ateco 6 point star piping tube / nozzle number 34 and I used Italian butter cream which was not too sweet.

And there were 12 standard American size cupcakes as well for those who are not on a diet!

And these were piped with Kaiser 15mm 51-0 piping nozzle using Italian butter cream.

Green butter cream - piped with Kaiser 16 mm 45-9 piping tube

Light Fruit Cake

English fruit cakes are made with pound cake recipe – 1 lb of eggs, butter, sugar and flour each.  However, as one adds more fruits, as in rich fruit cakes, then one has to increase the proportion of flour.  For rich fruit cakes, one would not have any raising agents and bake at 140 C.  However, I have found that by lowering the baking temperature and thereby increasing the duration of baking, one gets a more moist cake.

As for light fruit cake, I prefer to use self raising flour, which is McDougalls Supreme Sponge premium self raising flour.   Technically, you can use plain flour and add a little raising agent.   One would bake a light fruit cake at 160 C, for a shorter period.

I am baking three different light fruit cakes this Christmas – one for my cousin Margaret who wants only sultanas in her cake, one for Sissi, a friend who is taking the cake to Nigeria, and she wants a range of different fruits including ginger but not apricots and one for myself to share with my friends. 

Technically, you can add any type of dried or preserved fruits you want into your fruit cake. 

For Sissi who will take the cake to Nigeria next week.

6 oz  butter

6 oz caster sugar

3 large eggs

7 oz Supreme Sponge flour

2 oz naturally glacéd cherries – quartered

5 oz raisins – halved 

5 oz sultanas – halved

2½ oz ginger in syrup – julienne

2 oz flaked almonds

½ tsp orange oil + ½ tsp vanilla extract + ½ tsp lemon oil

1 tbsp Golden Syrup – this inverted sugar will keep the cake moist

1 tbsp ginger syrup

3 fl oz vodka to soak the fruits for a day or two + more to inject into the cake after baking

This the bottom of Sissi's cake - you can see the smooth finish because I have used parchment paper with the 'Pushpan' baking tin. The manufacturer of the Pushpan instructs users not to line their baking tin and I disagree with the manufacturer's instructions. 

      

Sissi's cake for Nigeria - There is an improvement on the side because I manage to use some parchment paper but the top has an indentation and it took 2 hours 50 minutes to bake. If you are worried about the top's indentation, then add a spoonful of flour to the cake mixture and this will stop this. 

For my Cousin Magaret who will take the cake with her to Canada - this cake was baked in a German spring form baking tin and it took less than 2 hours 15 minutes to bake. 

• 3 large free range eggs
• 6 oz butter
• 6 oz sugar
• 7 oz Supreme Sponge flour
• 14 oz sultanas – halved – soak in 4 tbsp vodka for a couple of days
• 1 tbsp Golden Syrup
• 1 tbsp any inverted sugar syrup 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp of vodka to soak the fruits + more to inject into the cooked cake

These pictures are of the cake for Canada [for my cousin] and it is the last of the three cakes to be baked.  You can see the top of the cake is flat and the side of the cake has a better finish than the 'pushpan' baking tin. In addition, it took less time to bake - less than 2 hours 15 minutes.  Perhaps this German spring form tin has a metal which allows for faster baking. 

This the bottom of the cake baked in the German spring form baking tin.  It has smooth bottom and side, perfect for icing or covering with marzipan. 

and for myself and my friends

6 oz  butter

6 oz caster sugar

3 large eggs

7 oz Supreme Sponge flour

3 oz naturally glacéd cherries – quartered

4 oz soft dried apricots – diced

1 oz mixed peel + 1 oz homemade orange peel – diced

6 oz sultanas – halved

½ tsp orange oil + ½ tsp vanilla extract + ½ tsp lemon oil

1 tbsp Golden Syrup – this inverted sugar will keep the cake moist

1 tbsp ginger syrup

3 fl oz vodka to soak the fruits for a day or two + more to inject into the cake after baking 

Sissi's and my cakes will be baked in a 7 inch round 'PushPan' baking tin and my cousin in a 6.5 inch round spring form baking tin.

Method

1. Prepare fruits and soak fruits in 3 fl oz of any alcohol or any flavoured vodka for a couple of days, stirring occasionally.
2. Double line a 7 inch round baking tin and use baking strip to protect the cake.  If a ‘pushpan’ baking tin is used, then line the bottom only with parchment paper and grease with butter and flour the sides.
3. Cream butter and sugar lightly
4. Add the eggs one at a time, and hand mix after each addition.
5. Flour the fruit mixture and set aside.
6. Add the syrups, vanilla extract and other flavourings to the cake mixture and hand mix.
7. Fold in the flour – and do not over mix.
8. Hand fold in the floured fruits and place the cake mixture into the prepared baking tin.
9. Refrigerate the cake over night prior to baking.
10. Wrap the outside of the baking tin with baking strips before baking.
11. Bake the 7 inch in a pre-heated 160 C convectional oven [fan switched off] for about 2.5 to 2 hrs 50 minutes hours, on the bottom shelf on top of a pizza stone. 
12. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the baking tin.
13. Then inject the cake with 4 tbsp of alcohol while the cake is still warm. 
14. When the cake has cooled, remove all the parchment paper and wrap in new parchment paper and store in an airtight container for at least six weeks prior to serving or decorating.. 
15. It is a good idea to freeze the cake for a week or s o before eating, as this process makes the cake more moist. 

This cake is for me and my friends - the first to bake and it took 2 hours 25 minutes to bake.  I am not happy with the sides and when I bake Sissi's cake, I will line the side of the baking tin with parchment paper. 

From the pictures above, you could see I have used a 'PushPan' baking tin.  This baking tin does not like one to line the tin with baking parchment.  The cake will go out of shape if I were to line the tin.  

If you want the sides of the cake to have a smooth finish, then you have to use traditional baking tins and not this new technology baking 'pushpan' baking tin.  

I followed the instructions of the manufacturer for their Pushpan by not lining the baking tin and because of this I have the above terrible outcome.  I baked my own cake first and I was really disappointed that I had followed the instructions of the Pushpan manufacturer.  So, if you were to have a Pushpan and you wanted your cake to have smooth sides and bottom - then line your Pushpan baking tin with parchment paper!

However, when I cover the cake with marzipan and icing, nobody can see the state of the cake.  LOL  But this is besides the point!  

This is a traditional English recipe and I therefore have used Imperial Measures.  However, if you were to use metric units, then you could follow the following approximate conversions.


3 large free range eggs
170 grams butter [or 6 oz]
170 grams sugar [or 6 oz]
200 grams flour [or 7 oz]
400 grams of a mixture of any dried fruits [or 14 oz] - according to your own choice
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 tbsp syrup from the ginger preserve
flavours - ½ tsp orange oil + ½ tsp vanilla extract + ½ tsp lemon oil
3 tbsp any alcohol for soaking fruits and 4 tbsp alcohol for injecting into the cooked cake

And if you were really lazy, then you could even put the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, syrups and flavourings into a Kenwood Chef bowl, and you could use a K beater to mix the ingredients into a batter and you could fold in the floured fruits, and you would not find any difference between this method and the creaming method. 

And finally feeding the cake with alcohol.  In the old days, one would feed the cake with a teaspoon over many days / weeks.  However, we have large syringe for food use nowadays - syringes which holds about 40 ml of alcohol at any one time.  So I inject the cake with alcohol nowadays - just once, while the cake is warm, so it can absorb the alcohol easily.  I then wrap the cake, store it in a Ziplock bag in an airtight container, in a cool room - away from your central heating hot pipes - and the best place would be your larder or basement - if you have one.  The cake will keep for at least six months.  

I would recommend injecting the cake from the top in several places and allow the cake to stand with the top of the facing up for a number of weeks [a minimum of six weeks - and the longer the better].  

When it is time to cover the cake with marzipan, then turn its bottom up, where there are no holes or blemishes and cover the cake with marzipan / icing accordingly.  You will of course have to brush the cake with warmed apricot glaze  before covering it with marzipan, so the almond paste could stick to the cake.