Irish Foodies Chocalong

White Chocolate Cake

I unfortunately couldn’t do the Irish Foodies Cookalong last Friday as I was so busy with work. And I was seriously stumped at what to make. If I had known a chocolate cookalong was coming up I probably would have made my Chocolate Truffles then! Nevertheless, as it so happened I had to make a cake for my parents’ 25th Wedding Anniversary so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone. I also thought it would be a great time to bust out my Le Creuset heart shaped pan (the ending result didn’t look too heart shaped though!).

I based it roughly on a cake I made for my sister’s 18th, Ultimate Chocolate Cake from BBC Good Food but instead I decided to use white chocolate as I thought it was more suiting for a 25th Anniversary Cake!

White Chocolate Sponge Cake with Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

Sponge Cake

130g butter, room temperature

130g caster sugar

200g self raising flour

3 eggs, beaten

Vanilla essence

Buttercream Icing

150g icing sugar

75g butter, room temperature

Vanilla essence

White Chocolate Ganache

225g white chocolate

180g cream

25g butter

Method:

1. For the sponge cake, heat oven to 180°C. Cream the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Add half the beaten eggs and flour and beat in. Add the remaining egg mixture with a teaspoon of vanilla essence and beat. Fold in the remaining flour gently until all is incorporated. If you find the mixture if a tad bit too dry, add a small dash of milk to moisten it up again.

2. Divide the mixture into cake pans. I used two, but one layer was rather large so if I were to make this again I’d probably divide amongst 3 pans. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown and a knife comes out clean when inserted to the middle of the cake. Allow to cool fully.

3. For the buttercream icing, cream the icing sugar and butter together until smooth. Add a dash of vanilla essence and beat to incorporate. Cover with a damp tea towel until needed.

4. For the white chocolate ganache, heat the butter and cream in a saucepan until it comes to a boil. Take immediately off the heat and pour over the white chocolate in a bowl. Stir until all the chocolate is melted. I tried to cover my cake in the ganache straight away but it was thick enough so I’d leave to cool for a few minutes so it has a chance to thicken up.

5. To assemble the cake, sandwich the layers together with the buttercream icing. Spread the ganache over the outside to coat, allow to set and then apply the second layer. Applying a second layer will make the recently icing smoother and less likely to have cake crumbs mixed in it!

6. Decorate as you wish and then devour!

Of course, if you want to make this extra chocolatey, you can add some melted chocolate to sponge mixture or to the buttercream icing. Or you can use milk or dark chocolate. Beware though, the above recipe is rich enough without the addition of extra chocolate!

I plan on making a cake similar to this very soon but instead I want to make it a chocolate orange cake. Watch this space……

New Year’s Resolution Update!

So I haven’t forgotten about this, I’m still working on my resolutions for the year. I thought I’d do an update to show my progress!
1. Cook 12 savoury/dinner dishes
Two dishes so far, the Asian Chicken Noodle Broth and a fish pie. Which I was told was nice, I wouldn’t know seeing as I don’t like fish!
2. Make 12 new sweet dishes
Two things made, chocolate mousse and green velvet cupcakes. Again, I’m slacking loads in this but I know I’ll complete it. There was also the Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes with White Chocolate icing but I don’t count that really.
3. Read 25 books
I have completed 8 so far and also have at least another 5 started. I have a habit of chopping and changing books. I might make a separate thread for this with the books I’ve read.
4. Watch 50 films I’ve never seen before
I’ve seen 10 so far, including 3 trips to the cinema, two DVDs rented from the library and 1 documentary.
5. Eat more fruit and veg
Erm, I had forgotten about this one to be honest! Oh dear…
6. Lose weight and exercise more
I started off really well with this one, I lost a good amount of weight in January but this I slipped and put most of it back on. I need to focus more on this one!
7. Write more on the blog
Erm……
8. Get a job
Check!
The other thing I spoke about was learning a new skill, but I hadn’t decided what. Well, after that I did a sewing class! Borrowed my Mum’s sewing machine (which I think is as old as I am) and finally learnt how to use it. I’ve been wanting to learn for years and years now so it was great. I need to keep up with it though, I’m going to look at Craftster and see if there’s any simple projects I can make.

Update!

Hello! I’m still alive. I haven’t posted in ages despite really wanting to. I’ve just become so busy in the past few weeks. Since being unemployed since the end of 2009, I’ve finally got a job! Yay! At the moment I’m being trained in and if they decide to keep me on, I’ll be covering sick days and holidays. It’s not huge but it’s in the area of work I studied for in college and there is a possibility I get more work so I’m excited. I’ve finished 3 weeks out of 4 of training and I like it so far.
I’ve also got my first car! My Mum bought it for me and I’ll be paying her back, instead of getting a loan out, so I’m very lucky in that sense. It’s a Toyota Corolla and I’ve been driving it every day to work. The amount of independence having your own car brings is unreal. I wish I had realised it years ago, so I would have been more focused on getting my license.
The last thing really is that I’ve been sick for the past week, which is when I really wanted to buckle down and get some posts published. It’s always the way! And it’s typical that I start work and get sick, so upset by that but there’s nothing you can do about it!
Oh ya, I just remembered! I went to get my eyes checked a month ago and was told I no longer need glasses! My eyes got better all by themselves! Super eyes

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! & Reasons why it’s great to be Irish

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! The day that everyone and their dog is Irish, not wearing green will get you pinched and green beer is a must (or 7-Up as I had one year during my exams, as pictured above on the right). Paddy’s Day is a lot more than just Paddywhackery, both religiously and culturally, at least here in Ireland. It celebrates our patron saint and how he helped spread Christianity. I think it’s far more important though to celebrate our culture and heritage today. It’s never been about drink to me (I’ve never had any alcohol on Paddy’s Day! And today won’t be any different I suspect). It’s been about spending the day with my family, going to the local parade (which is more tractor and trailers than big fancy floats!). It’s about being proud to be who are and how far we’ve come as a small country. Small but mighty! Times have been tough here lately, there’s no debating that. But there is still loads to be proud about. So I got thinking about what I love about being Irish!

 

1. The accents. For a country this small we sure have a wide and diverse array of accents!

2. Hurling. The clash of the ash! How unique is it?! Lightening fast and often bordering on vicious, a good game is gripping and thrilling. Of course, I love it mostly when fights break out on the pitch!

3. Speaking of hurling, do you know how to spot an Irish person abroad? Look for their GAA jersey! I was shocked the first time I saw some guys wearing them on the beach in Spain!

4. Our culinary ‘delights’. Mainly Cheese and Onion Tayto, hang sangwiches, brown bread, Irish fry (or breakfast roll!), TK Red Lemonade and cup of tae (which I still haven’t tried. Yes, I know, I should really hand in my passport).

         

5. The comedy. The hilarious Dara O Briain (come back to us!), Colin Murphy, Des Bishop, Tommy Tiernan, Andrew Maxwell, I could go on and on. You may not like one or two of them but there is someone for everyone’s comedy tastes! And Father Ted. Need I say more?! I also love Graham Linehan’s The IT Crowd, starring Chris O Dowd (and I suppose I should mention Black Books with Dylan Moran!).

 

6. The music. I could go on about the usual U2, The Corrs, The Dubliners etc but there’s loads more talent out there (not that the ones I mentioned aren’t talented!). My favourite Irish artist at the moment is Imelda May, I love her rockabilly vibe. And The Rubberbandits, who are just so funny. Also, how about pieces of music that are so Irish but aren’t really songs. Like the tune to The Sunday Game?!

Or the Glenroe theme?

I remember Irish dancing around the sitting room Sunday nights to that! You always knew it was time for bed once it ended. The less said about Crystal Swing and Richie Kavanagh, the better!

7. The language. I’m not fluent in it and really wish I was it. There’s no denying it’s beautiful. And I just love Hairy Baby clothing, mixing the language and humour together! I have this hoodie.

8. The towns, the villages, the historical sites and the scenery. Ireland is just so beautiful and last year I had a great time exploring new places. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to try again this year, like I did last year.

9. Swimming in the rain because it’s warm, whippy ice creams, how being called a bollix can actually be affectionate, lockins, using jumpers as goal posts as children, First Communion, The Debs. So many things that are small but are so Irish in some ways.

10. The people. I truly believe we are some of the friendliest people in the world. It can be a pain when you live in a small community and everyone knows your business before you do but if you’re lucky you’ll live in a close community. We’re not called the Land of a Thousand Welcomes for nothing! We sure know how to have the craic.

I’m sure there are millions of other things I could list but I decided to stop there. I hope you enjoy your day, where are you are in the world and whether or not you are celebrating. Just as long as you’re not calling it St. Patty’s Day!!

Green Velvet Cupcakes

The first time I tried red velvet cake was at Christmas time and it was divine! I’ve been wanting to make it ever since but haven’t gotten around to it. I remember seeing on Bakerella’s blog a post of green velvet cupcakes and thought St. Patrick’s Day would be the perfect time to make it! I’ll go back soon and add in metric measurements as well. I actually used cups though when making these (though I generally don’t like doing that). I also halved the icing amount as I had half a bowl left after. The icing was pretty sweet, so you could reduce the sugar if you wanted.

Green Velvet Cupcakes

Makes about 24

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tsp green food dye colouring (liquid)

Cream Cheese Icing

4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line tin with cupcake liners.

2. Add all liquid ingredients to one bowl, stir and set aside.

3. Sift all dry ingredients into another bowl and stir to mix. Add the wet ingredients and mix using medium-high with a handheld mixer (or in a food processor).

4. Add mixture to the liners and bake for 30 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean).

5. Remove when ready, leave to cool for 10 minutes before taking out of the pan and transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.

6. Make icing. Cream butter and cream cheese together in a bowl. Add vanilla. Sift in the sugar in batches and mix.

Pancake Tuesday!

So yesterday was Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday to my readers across the pond!), but here in Ireland we tend to call it Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day. Shrove Tuesday was traditionally the last day of feasting, a way to use up eggs, fat and sugar (all the good stuff!), before Lent and fasting started. If you grew up in Ireland, you’d of course know this but honestly it’s really all just about the pancakes. Pancakes for breakfast and lunch if you were lucky and PANCAKES FOR DINNER!!! As a child, there was nothing more exciting than having pancakes for dinner. As an adult, nothing much has changed! And ya ya, of course you can have pancakes on any day of any week if you wish but there’s something magical about Pancake Day!

I am rubbish at making pancakes. I remember trying in second year of college. I’d convinced my French housemate to make them (under the allusion that surely she must be good at making crepes if she’s French!). They didn’t work. Next up was my American housemate, they didn’t work either. I gave it a whirl and after a whole jug a batter, we each got one tiny pancake! This year I was making them for 7 people in my house, including myself and didn’t want a repeat performance from that year. So I went off on a hunt and decided to use the recipe I found on Mammy’s Kitchen as well as following some of the helpful guidelines I found on Babaduck Babbles. And it worked! Well, the first one or two pancakes weren’t great but after that they were fine! And quite tasty too! I doubled the batter as well to feed everyone at mine.

Pancakes

Serves 3-4 people

Adapted from Mammy’s Kitchen

Ingredients

240g flour

2 eggs

1 pint (570ml) milk

50g sugar (optional)

Method

1. Sift the flour into a bowl (or into the bowl of a food processor). Add the remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth

2. Heat a frying pan on medium heat with a little oil (or butter, which I use. But be careful not to let it burn). Using a ladle, pour batter into the pan and swirl to distribute evenly. Once bubble appear on the surface, flip or turn over to brown the other side.

3. Serve with toppings of your choice! I love sweet pancakes, so I like to use things like Nutella, golden syrup, ice cream and marshmallows (not together mind you!). You can also make savoury pancakes with things like cheese, ham, onions etc. Though sometimes I just like to keep it simple with a sprinkle of sugar and lemon or just a small amount of butter.

They are so simple to make and can be whipped up using pantry items. I must remember to make them more often as they are so delicious!

One of the flops above! Or smushcakes as I call them

Foodie Friday: Scones

 

I’ve been so busy and uninspired when it comes to blogging these days. It doesn’t help that I’ve discovered 30 Rock and any free time is spent watching that. I have loads I want to talk about but when I sit down to do it, my mind goes blank. Forgive me!

Two weeks ago I woke with an unbelievable craving for scones. Brown scones specifically. I used to eat one everyday when on work placement and nothing beats a warm scone that slightly melts butter!

Scones (White and Brown)

Makes 9-12 (depending on size)

Ingredients

225g Self Raising Flour (For brown scones, use 125g Self Raising Flour and 125g Coarse Wholemeal)

150ml or so milk

Pinch Salt

25g Caster Sugar

25g Butter

1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 8. Sieve flour and salt into mixing bowl and stir in caster sugar.

2. Rub in butter.

3. Add enough milk to make a soft dough. Turn onto floured surface and knead to remove any cracks.

4. Roll out lightly to a thickness of 1 inch. Cut scones with a cutter dipped in flour.

5. Place on a floured baking tray and brush the scones with the beaten egg.

6. Bake for approximately 10 minutes and allow to cool slightly on a wire rack.

 

Tea and scones, how very Irish! Except, if I may quietly confess…… I’ve never had a cup of tea before.