St Patricks Day Soda Bread and Pistachio Cupcakes

Happy St Patricks Day! Coming from an Irish family, we celebrate in a wonderful way... with food of course! In this case, bread. 

When I think of Ireland, I think of my Grandad, potatoes, green shamrocks, Mrs Brown's Boys and Leprechauns of course. But when I think of Irish food, my bread brain always thinks of soda bread. However, other countries have there own claim on the soda bread, but its mainly associated with Ireland. 

The Plain Soda Bread I made in pastry class.

My Grandad, (aka Gramps) is your typical, stereotypical Irish man and so he has to share his memories with me constantly. He told me that his granmother (my great-great granmother) would make her soda bread with currents to make it sweet. 

When I told him that I would be publishing a soda bread, which you can add cheese to. 

He looked mortified. 

So in this recipe, you can add currents or cheese and a little paprika (Just don't tell my Gramps!)

Ingredients: (Recipe Inspired by my Gramps and My patisserie tutor Faye)

·       300g Strong Flour

·       4g bicarbonate of soda

·       15g baking powder

·       15g Sugar

·       4g Salt

·       30g Unsalted butter

·       210ml buttermilk

(Add about 75g currents or 80g of a cheese of your choice with a pinch of paprika but this is optional)

Equipment

·       Sieve

·       Bowl

·       Jug

·       Baking sheet covered with silicone paper

Great with cheese or currents baked in it.

    1.    Sieve all the dry ingredients into a bowl.

    2.    Rub the butter into the mix until it resembles breadcrumbs

    3.    Make a well in centre and add most of the buttermilk but not all of it. Only add the last part if it’s too dry.

    4.    Mix all the ingredients together to form a dough. (Add the currents or cheese at this stage)

    5.    Turn out onto the table and knead until the stickiness has gone. Mould into a round and place on a baking sheet.

    6.    Make a cross with a very sharp knife almost cutting all the way through. Dust with a little flour.

    7.    Leave to rest in a proofer for 10 minutes then put into a hot oven 230c/450f/ Gas Mark 8 then turn the oven down and finish cooking for 25 minutes.

   8.    When cooked, it should appear golden brown and sound hollow when tapped when tapped on the bottom. 

    The next recipe is not traditional, in fact when I saw it, I went: “Huh, this is erm.. different? At least it's green.”

     In fact, I didn't think it would work! But the saltiness of the pistachios contrasted with the sweetness of the icing. It is a combination that will make your tastebuds dance a little Irish jig! 

    Recipe: Pistachio Cupcakes Makes About 16 (Adapted from Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman)

·       150g plain flour

·       1 teaspoon baking powder

·       1 teaspoon salt

·       190g unsalted butter, softened

·       150g dark brown sugar

·       3 eggs

·       1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

·       125ml natural yogurt

·       150g salted pistachios, roughly chopped

       Recipe: Green Icing

·       20g unsalted butter, softened

·       4 tablespoons hot milk

·       220g icing sugar

·       2 drops of Peppermint flavouring

·       Green food colouring paste (I used Gooseberry Green)

·       Green sugar

·       Gold and green glitter or other decorations.

       Equipment:

·       Knife

·       Chopping board

·       Bowl x3

·       12 hole muffin tray filled with cupcake cases x2

·       Electric whisk/handheld whisk

·       Scales

·       Spoons

·       Small palette knife

1.    Preheat oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4

2.    Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3.    Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and add vanilla. Alternately beat in the flour mixture and the yoghurt. Fold in the pistachios.

4.    Spoon batter into cupcake cases, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Green icing was used to top the cupcakes

5.    For the icing: Mix the butter and milk together in a large bowl. Slowly beat in the icing sugar until the icing is of a good spreading consistency. (You may need to add a little more milk depending on how runny you want your icing, but it should but thick but spreading).

6.    Add the food colouring and the peppermint flavouring, mix well and spread on cooled cupcakes. Decorate as desired. (Glitter and tried to do some shamrocks.)

Have a Happy St Patricks Day and Bake On!

A Cake in a Shape of a Burger?!

As mentioned in a blog post, (that was a while ago now), I have taken up a challenge in making my boyfriends 21st birthday cake. I know it's a month late but at least I managed to get it posted!

And yes it was a challenge and theres tons of buttercream involved!

I decided on a burger cake, not only to test my decorating skills but to celebrate my boyfriends birthday and celebrate our silly coupley in joke.
My boyfriend is a huge fan of comedy and adores the comedy style of Lee Evans. We both love his style of comedy and we have a little in joke of just saying:
"Burger"
So I made cake in the shape of a burger! Pretty simple really!
The original recipe and the tutorial was originally published by My Cake Decorating Magazine 

Recipe: Basic Chocolate Cake

•        4 Eggs
•        225g  diced unsalted butter, room temperature
•        225g  cup of caster sugar
•        175 self raising flour
•        1 teaspoon baking powder
•        50g  cocoa powder

Equipment:

•        Sieve
•        Bowlx2
•        Mixer
•        Measuring jug
•        Scraper
•        Cake tins 20cm/8inch x3
•        Angled palette knife
•        jug

1.    Preheat oven to 180c/350c/Gas Mark 4. Line and grease cake tins.

2.    Sieve together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a bowl.

3.    Beat the butter, and sugar until light and fluffy using a mixer. Stop occasionally to scrape down the bowl.

4.    Crack all the eggs into a jug.

5.    Add the eggs a little at a time with the mixer on a higher speed. (if the mixture splits add a little bit of flour)

6.    Fold in half flour using a wooden spoon.

7.    Fold in the rest of the flour and fold in well.

8.    Divide the mixture between the two tins and smooth it down with an angled palette knife.

9.    Bake for 15 to 25 minutes.

Recipe: Decorating Materials 

•        200g buttercream
•        300g/1 pack of pale yellow sugar paste
•        150g/1 pack of brown sugar paste
•        20g/ 1 pack yellow sugar paste
•        25g /1 pack green sugar paste
•        15g/1 pack of red sugar paste
•        Chocolate brown blossom tint
•        Deep yellow blossom tint

Equipment:

•        Cake carving knife
•        Non stick cake board
•        No stick rolling pin
•        Cake smoother
•        Fluting and veining tool or a toothpick
•        Kitchen paper towels
•        Flat paintbrush
•        5/6cm round cutter
•        Small knife

     1.Once your cakes have cooled. Place them in the freezer to make them easier to carve. I left it overnight but you can leave it for about 2 hours.

    2. Using a cake carving night, trim around the top and bottom edge of the cakes to create a smooth rounded shape. Once edge of two of the cakes should be more rounded than the other, so that they look like a bun.

    3. Carve the third cake so that it’s rounded on both edges. Once trimmed, cover each cake with buttercream to crumb-coat and put in the fridge for an hour.

   4. Roll out the pale sugarpaste to about 2-3mm thick and place it over one of the bun cakes. Use hands to smooth it over the top of the cake down and around the curved sides and tuck it under the bun. Tuck it in as neatly as you can. Smooth over the cake with the cake smoother, using a circular polishing motion. Do the same with the other cakes. Cover the second cake with pale yellow sugar paste and the third more rounded cake with brown sugar paste.

   5. Using a fluting and veining tool or a toothpick, make tiny little holes in the burger cake, press it into the side of burger to make pitted details in varying shapes and sizes. Make it look as random as possible.

   6. Tip a little chocolate brown blossom tint onto a kitchen paper towel and dip in a clean flat paintbrush. Sweep it over the sides of the burger to make it look more ‘greasy’.

   7. Tip a little bit of the deep yellow blossom tint onto another kitchen paper towel, tint the sides and top of the ‘top bun’ cake. Brush around the edge of the ‘bottom bun’ cake as well.

   8. Spoon a little buttercream onto the top of the ‘bottom bun’ (This is the unfinished side and should be facing upwards) and spread it out. Place the brown burger on top. The buttercream should glue it in place.

   9. Roll out the yellow sugar paste as thin as you can, about 1mm thick. Cut out a square using a cake smoother to get a straight edge. Roll out the paste again and roll out 3 more squares.

  10. Smear more buttercream on top of the burger and place the yellow squares on top of the burger, so that corner of it drapes over the edge to look like cheese slice.

  11. Roll out green flower paste as thinly as you can (it should ideally be a bit thinner than the cheese and larger diameter). Cut around the edge to make a wavy line and neaten it up. Dab a little more buttercream onto the cheese slices and place the green paste on top of the cheese. Pinch the top to create folds and make it look like green lettuce. Make 2 more lettuce leaves using the same technique.

  12. Roll out the red sugarpaste to 2mm thick and use a round cutter to cut 4/5 circles. Attach each one to the top of the lettuce with a smear of buttercream. Position them near the outer edge of the cake so that they can be seen. 

   13. Now put a decent layer of buttercream onto the tomatoes and lettuce, then carefully stick the top layer of your burger bun onto the cake.

i 

   I've got to admit that I'm very proud of this cake! I took a ridiculous amount of photos and even decorated the cake long into the night. 

   That's why I'm in a dressing gown and looking very tired. Not the best picture ever. 

   I used white chocolate letters to spell out 'Happy 21st Birthday Rob', which I stuck on with some more, you guessed it, buttercream!

   

   This cake is not for one person. Don't be greedy with it Grandad. It must be a generational thing.  

    

    My boyfriend and his house mates loved it so much the cake didn't late long. It was eaten so quickly I didn't get the chance to take a single picture!!

   Bake On!

   Penny x