Cream Cheese Icing (on a budget)

This weekend, being mother's day weekend, I have been doing nothing but baking. For my own mother some delicate and delicious chocolate desert and for the boyfriend's mother, it has to be, carrot cake. I've previously posted here about the carrot cake recipe that I use. I should mention that it says to use melted butter and I mean clarified melted butter, to ensure the cake is not too heavy but also has that flavour that only butter can bring. However no matter how good your carrot cake recipe as Ina Garten so aptly puts it 'carrot cake is merely a vehicle for the frosting.' Therefore without a good cream cheese frosting, you might as well leave the kitchen all together!!

A good cream cheese frosting is not as easy to make as you might imagine. It can so often be runny, greasy, lacking in volume or, as I once saw, contain lumps of butter. So how do we avoid these pit-falls? Well the lumps of butter was a simple mix-up, the baker must have introduced the butter after the cream-cheese and therefore doomed the frosting from the start. It is essential to whip up room temperature butter, then add the icing sugar and continue to beat for lots of lovely volume. Now for the cream cheese; here-in lies the secret to a thick, firm, luxurious frosting. I also should admit that it was the initial advice of one Eric Lanlard that opened my eyes in this respect. Monsieur Lanlard pointed out that it is essential to purchase 'good,' cream cheese as it contains less liquid and therefore results in the best frosting. But my response is that many of us are lowly students and cannnot afford to purchase our cream cheese from the deli counter, so what do we do????
I will tell you!

This is my little secret to beautiful cream-cheese frosting every time. Buy whatever cream-cheese you like, my one condition is that it must taste good because there's not much we can do there! You will need to buy slightly more than is called for in your recipe, so if your recipe calls for 150g cream cheese, make sure you have a 200g pack to be safe. I chose lidl's finest for the icing you see here.

Now the day before you need to make your frosting, take out your cream cheese, your sieve, a small bowl, some kitchen paper and some cling-film. Place a piece of kitchen roll into your sieve and position your sieve above your bowl as shown below.

Now scoop all your cream cheese into the sieve on top of the paper towels. Use your spoon to push the cream cheese down so that it is tightly pressed into all the edges. How take a second piece of kitchen paper and push this down on top of the cream cheese. Cling-film the s**t out of this bowl. I mean this seriously; there needs to be no way for air to get in, or else your delicious cream cheese may borrow some flavour from your garlic chicken dinner for Tuesday night and you can forget about that carrot cake! Now leave the assembly in the fridge until you are ready to prepare your frosting.

When you remove the cling-film you will notice that the kitchen paper will be wet and probably slightly yellow in colour. Don't worry it should come away from the cheese cleanly without any sticking to the paper. There may be some liquid in the bowl, but that depends on your cheese, the kitchen paper should be saturated. Now you have removed the excess water and you can continue your baking, knowing that you will have a delicious frosting at half the price. Enjoy!

I may or may not have taken a little bit of icing before I even managed this pic ;)

Belated Valentines post

So myself and the bf don't really celebrate Valentines day, because you know.... we're too cool for all that......... yeah right! So ignoring our coolness for a moment I decided to make something cutsy out of left over pancakes. Heart shaped chestnut pancake cakes.

 

This is a very simple recipe that takes minutes to pull together.

You will need:

8-10 Pancakes

Chestnut spread

Orange zest

Heart shaped cookie cutter

Chocolate Sauce

 Place your first pancake on a board. Mix together the orange zest and chestnut spread. Spread a layer of chestnut spread over the pancake and then layer on another pancake and repeat until all the pancakes are stacked. Place the heart shaped cookie cutter on top and carefully, using something flat and heavy (e.g. a book), push the cookie cutter through the stack and repeat until you've cut as many hearts as you can. Drizzle with chocolate sauce and serve to your loved one = )

No-one could call me un-romantic ;)

And finally so you can see the delicious chestnut-ness

Oh the sweet zesty earthy chestnut goodness

Hope you try these and enjoy!

Revisiting Breaking Bad

I have a little valentines post planned which I had hoped to have ready for last week and then for today but time has not been on my side this week. Work, work and more work would sum up my week and with all that work there was very little time left for baking. Today I spent a significant amount of time making another type of desert but I made one mistake that ruined the perfection and I would not subject you to that so instead I offer an opinion that I have been working on the last few weeks.

My boyfriend has been watching through all five seasons of Breaking Bad. It is interesting to watch through from the beginning again. I am not one of those people that enjoy re-watching (with the exception of Gilmore Girls). My whole childhood my sister loved re-watching episodes and it drove me mad but now she's a gifted academic and I wonder whether I was missing something, revisiting brings many more insights than the first time.

During this re-watching of Breaking Bad something potentially controversial occurred to me and I want to share this insight for your consideration.  Everyone hates Skyler, and yet I honestly think Skyler is one of the most important characters in the whole show and the work of Anna Gunn is absolutely pivotal. Ok, now you may be thinking 'Shut up Cat, I hate Skyler!' I'm right there with you, but why do we hate Skyler? Why?

(Below I discuss this further, with spoilers, in white writing. Highlight to read)

If we consider every action taken by Skyler, they are all reasonable. She discovers that her husband has terminal cancer and she throws herself into his care and treatment and we think 'Go away Skyler.' She pushes to get him the most expensive doctors and searches for ways to pay for that treatment and we think 'Just mind your own business Skyler.' She starts to notice that her husband is drifting away from her, leaving his home for long periods of time with no explanation, acting in odds ways that are even affecting his job and she tries to address it with him and we think 'F*** off Skyler.' She sees through his lies and we become more annoyed rather than notice how smart she is. 

Skyler has struggled with the changes and felt understandably felt betrayed and disgusted by Walter's decisions and in many ways reflects how we should be feeling. However I would wager that she actually feels so strongly negatively throughout the show that we rally against her. We project our negative feelings about Walter's decisions onto Skyler, making her a super-ego style figure for us all to rebel against. Even in season five when Walter has jumped right off the edge and abandoned any notion of doing this for his family we continue to cheer for him and boo Skyler and I believe this will continue.

It takes some amazing writing and some wonderful acting to create a character who behaves in such normal rational ways and yet with whom none of us are intended to relate.

 This is just my opinion but it's safe to say that this truly is a brilliant, intelligent and wonderful show and one which has viewers absolutely gripped, if you haven't watched it yet, why not?

All images property of AMC, meme from quickmeme.com

A simple delight: Buttermilk Waffles

Last week was not a great week for me. However my boyfriend got some good news and therefore Saturday morning required some celebration. What says a little celebration better than waffles?!

These waffles were basic buttermilk waffles with a little extra twist. I scan a few different recipes for inspiration and saw that a few people were seperating their eggs to give th dough a lighter airy quality and oh boy does it work?! The texture is beautifully light on the inside and crispy on the outside. The hidden trick, they also contain very little fat which helps when you find yourself eating your 3rd waffle!

Buttermilk Waffles

500ml Buttermilk (or any milk with 2tsp lemon juice)

2 eggs separated

1 pinch cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp brown sugar

50g granulated white sugar

Beat your egg whites with the pinch of cream of tartar until light and fluffy, beat in the white sugar to form a meringue. Change the bowl and beat together the buttermilk and egg yolks. Sieve the flour, baking soda and powder over the buttermilk while continuing to whisk. Once the mixture is smooth add the brown sugar and vanilla extract. Once these have been incorporated, let the mixture sit for 20-30 minutes. Preheat the waffle iron and fold in the egg whites. Your waffle iron will give you an accurate indication of timing for cooking your waffles. Serve with syrup, fruit and frozen low fat yoghurt, or ice-cream depending on your inclination. Enjoy ;)

And in case you were wondering if the boyfriend enjoyed this celebratory meal... well here's the same waffle 30 seconds after I stopped photographing it.

One bite left and one happy bf, congratulations to my lovely man.

Christmas is over but baby it's cold outside!

There is something so unbelievably unjust about snow in January. Don't get me wrong I like snow but there is a time and a place; the time is in lead up to Christmas in a place near my house or after Christmas and far away, on a skiing holiday, but NOT after Christmas near my house because that is just cumbersome and depressing. However the weather doesn't seem to understand this because look what happened today, just as I was cycling home -

Snow in January :(

The main problem is that cold weather makes people want to curl up with a blanket and some comfort food but in the wonderful post-New Years tradition, everyone is watching what they eat and spend which doesn't equate to much time for relaxation or any of the delicious baked goods that one may have enjoyed prior to the 31st December. Which is where brown scones come in. Brown wholemeal scones combine everything that you crave about baked goods with all the high fiber and low fat health benefits.

Brown Soda Scones
320g    Whole meal Flour
130g    White Bread Flour
1 tsp     Baking Soda
1 tsp     Salt
2 tbsp   Brown sugar
200ml  Buttermilk
2          Egg yolks
30ml    Melted butter

Preheat your oven to 200'C/400'F/Gas Mark 6. Mix together the whole meal flour, bread flour, salt and baking soda. Whisk together the butter milk and egg yolks and incorporate this into the flour mix.Gradually incorporate the melted butter. If you have a stand mixer knead the dough for 5 minutes, adding a small amount of bread flour after 2.5 minutes.Form 8 similar sized balls of dough and arrange them on a baking tray. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle the top with a pinch of white sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes then cool on a wire wrack.

Enjoy with jam.

Update - It looks like the weather didn't even listen to my opinions on appropriate snow etiquette despite announcing them online. This morning Dublin awoke to a small blanket of snow!! Oh well, at least I still had one scone left for breakfast ;)

Note the layer of white visible in the background!

Ninja-bread men: let's start this season right

The Tae Kwon-do Christmas party was this week and having been confined to the couch for so long I was excited to go. I also had a family event to attend on the same evening so I would be jumping straight back into socializing and Christmas prep.

On the day, I got out of work, got to the gym as fast as possible, worked out like a devil, got home, cleaned up, picked the outfit, made the dough for these ninjas, chilled the dough while doing the hair and make-up, cut the cookies,chill the cookies, baked the cookies, cooled and decorated them, strapped on the high heels, wrapped up warm and hit the road. At the family event we walked around for 2 and half hours and then I head to............headed to................gonna go to...............bed. As it turns out, you can't quite go from 0-100mph when you're just better. Damn! So these cookies didn't quite make it to the party, but they were enjoyed none-the-less ;)

These are definitely a twist on gingerbread, there is very little ginger if I'm honest. However with all the flavour packed into them you will barely miss it. They have an amazing combination of dark chocolate, orange, ginger and almonds that make a wonderful alternative to the ole gingerbread men and to say that these little guys pack a punch is an understatement. I chopped the chocolate and almonds into tiny slivers so that they would disperse throughout the entire cookie;I've included a little video below showing how I cut the chocolate for these. I've zero knife skills but hopefully it will give you an idea of what to do.

Ninja-Bread Men (Dark Chocolate, Orange, Almond and Ginger)

150g         Unsalted Butter
200g         Sugar
400g         All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp      Baking Powder
1/4tsp       Salt
1/2 tsp      Ground Ginger
1               large Egg
1 tbsp       Milk
1 tsp         Orange essence
100g         Dark Chocolate very thinly sliced
100g         whole Almonds

Preheat your oven and toast the almonds for 10 minutes. Beat together the butter and sugar. In a separate bowl sieve together the flour, baking powder, salt and ginger. In a jug, beat together the egg and milk. Slowly add the flour and egg mixture alternating between the two until the mixture is combined. Don't worry if the mixture appears dry at this stage, the oil from the nuts is an important element of this recipe. Chop your chocolate as thinly as possible, almost shaving the chocolate with the knife and then chop the almonds as thin as possible also. Add the nuts and chocolate and beat until everything is fully incorporated.

Chill the dough for 2 hours or so and then roll out. Cut with the gingerbread men cutters of your choice. Preheat the oven to 190'C/375'F/Gas Mark 5. Chill for another 20mins before baking for 10minutes. Cool on a wire rack and decorate with icing sugar and little stars =)

A bit of down-time before the storm

I am frequently jealous of Americans for having Thanksgiving. It's like a warm up to the big event with just enough time in between for a breather. Here the Christmas seems to set in on November 1st and I even found myself shopping with my sister on the 15th November and feeling bad for not being in the Christmas mood yet. What?? This madness is catching!

Image Property of Universal Press Syndicate

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I love the mood, the weather, the time with family and, obviously, the food. The one thing I do not like is the commercialism and the sense of panic that spreads when people are running around looking for the perfect gift. As I have mentioned before I make edible gifts for all my friends at Christmas and I hope to continue this tradition, probably adapting the edible goodies as time goes on, but keeping the essence of the handmade gift forever. Even if I had all the money in the world and could pay someone to make treats for everyone I know that I would still do it myself, because the point is to give them something from the heart, something that took time and effort and a little love to boot.

One of my usual presents

This panic for a bought gift, however, is somewhat inevitable, even when you start early like I did last year there are always a few people that you are unsure of, or for whom the perfectly planned present could not be acquired. Still it's only the 2nd December, and for reasons we will ignore for the moment I was confined to the couch this weekend, so I decided to put the feet up and relax. I watched 'Miracle on 34th Street,' 'The Muppets: A Christmas Carol,' and thoroughly soaked up the Christmas feeling at it's best. But I am aware that this is the second weekend I haven't baked so to make up for that I thought I would share some other items that I have worked on until I start some of the Christmas cooking next week. I hope you enjoy these little pics.

This cowl scarf was designed specifically for my rough and manly bf, it is thick and sits very close to the neck making it a perfect fit under a jacket.

To match his scarf I also knitted him this little hat, which he is very proud of, despite some first timer idiosyncrasies