Traditional Irish Apple Cake

Lately I find myself wondering about how our grandparents baked. What kind of stuff did they bake? How did they manage without a weighing scales? A fist of this and a fist of that is the answer I get when I ask. After being given a wonderful present of cooking apples I wanted to try something new.  So here it is.....

Ingredients
3 Cups Plain flour
2 Tsp Baking powder
1/8 Tsp of salt
4 oz Butter
3/4 Cup of sugar
4 Cooking apples
2 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
2 Tbsp of sugar to sprinkle.

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Grease a 9 inch round cake tin.
2. Get an enormous bowl and sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix thoroughly.
3. Slice the butter fairly thick and rub the flour mix and butter together until you either drop or breadcrumbs appear.
4.Add the sugar and mix.
5. Slice the apples into quaters of course making sure they are peeled.
6. Beat the eggs and milk and add to the apples and flour. Mix.
7. Pour the mixture into the baking pan and flatten the top. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 50  minutes.

Not so Marvellous Creations

Until recently I hadn't even heard of these bars. So clearly for baking purposes I tried one and my goodness they are tasty. Inside the chocolate there is wait for it.... popping candy! Wow such a blast from the past along with jellies and smarties. I knew my plan of action with the popping candy and smarties but the jellies were a mystery. I figured they might disappear when baked. So I decided to put jellies in for the full cooking time in 6 cupcakes and try putting frozen jellies in the other six. Neither worked. Oops. However the popping candy and chocolate was delish.

Ingredients
4 1/2oz Plain flour
45g Cocoa
11/2 Tsp baking powder
81/2 oz caster sugar
150ml Milk
75ml Oil
150ml Boiling water
3 boxes of smarties ( some frozen)
30 jellies (some frozen)

Icing
2 sachets of popping candy
113g Butter softened
300g Icing sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
2 Tbsp Milk
Pink colouring

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. In a bowl mix flour, cocoa,  baking powder and sugar.
3. Add milk, oil and egg and whisk till smooth.
4. Add boiling water and whisk.
5.Pour the batter into the cases. Put frozen smarties in all and I put frozen jellies in 6 and regular jellies in the rest. Then bake for 15 min.
6. Once baked allow to cool.
7. I chose pink frosting as there is pink on the wrapper of the bar. Although I wanted electric pink the lack of colouring in my press determined it would be baby pink :).
8. For the frosting whisk the butter for 3 minutes.  Add icing sugar and whisk for a further  few minutes.  Then add vanilla, colouring and milk.
9. Pipe onto the cupcakes, sprinkle popping candy ontop and decorate with smarties and jellies.

I intend to revisit this challenge with some advice a friend gave me so fingers crossed !!

Ferraro Rocher Cupcakes

Ferraro Rocher have always been popular in the Mac Mahon household. The hulk himself wouldn't hold mammy Chrissie back from a box. I wasn't quite brave enough to bake a Ferraro Rocher in the centre instead I infused it with Nutella. I may possibly have shares in Nutella by now! The most sickening thing about this challenge had to be the thoughts of spending a fortune on a box of chocolates when I only needed a few, then it struck me...... remember those wee packs of 3 chocolates hmmm I wonder if they are still about. After some manic searching involving 4 supermarket staff the final pack left in the store was found.

Ingredients
4 1/2 oz Plain flour
45g Cocoa
1 1/2 Tsp of baking powder
8 1/2oz Caster sugar
150ml Milk
75g Olive oil
1 egg
150ml Boiling water
Nutella
12 Ferraro Rocher
Icing
230g Unsalted butter
240g Icing sugar
222g Nutella
3-4 Tbsp heavy cream
2 Tsp Vanilla essence
Sprinkle of salt

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and eat a Ferraro Rocher :)
2. In a bowl mix flour,cocoa, baking powder, sugar and sweat and tears.
3. Add milk, oil and egg and beat till smooth.
4. Add boiling water and beat then pour into cases and bake for 15 minutes.
5. Remove and allow to cool. Eat another Ferraro Rocher and have a sip of wine to wash it down :)
Now using a knife carve a hole in the centre of the cake and fill with Nutella.
6.To make the icing. Whisk the butter for eternity or 3 minutes. Then add icing sugar and whisk. Then add Nutella, cream and essence. Keep whisking until satisfied.
7. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.
8. Now for decor! Grab a sandwiche bag and pop a few chocolates in, then using a rolling pin crush the chocolates by banging them. Then remove from the bag and sprinkle ontop of the frosting.
9. Place a chocolate ontop of each cake. 

I hope you enjoy these as much as mammy Chrissie x 

Bake a difference Pieta House fundraiser

The prevention of suicide and self harm is something very close to my heart. It can knock on anybody's door at anytime including my own. Pieta House offer a service second to none.They now have a staff of 170 and the demand for their services hasn’t let up. In 2013, nearly 4,000 people came to Pieta House for help and the numbers contacting are rising all the time. As 90% of their income comes from fundraising events, they rely heavily on fundraising. This is where us bakers come in.

As part of my recovery I depend on baking as a form of therapy and this is where the idea of 'Bake a difference' came from.

Last year I held a bake sale to raise money for Pieta House. This year I have a new concept which I would love your help with. Each baker would pledge some of their home baking to be sold with all the money raised going to Pieta House.Every little counts so no matter how big or small your contribution would make a massive difference!

Rather than holding a giant bake sale event at 1 venue my new idea is a little different. Its called 'Bake a difference'. It has its own donation page on my charity.ie.  Each baker then advertises their own baking and sells it with the final amount being donated through the my charity page. For example i'll advertise some on my facebook page and sell from there.This allows bakers from all over Ireland to come together and bake a difference at a time most suitable to them. The end date for donations would be October 19th. Your support would mean the world and I really do feel together we can Bake a difference.

Please let me know if you wish to join me by private messaging me. 

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/bakeadifference

Bready Bears

I have tried to avoid baking bread as much as possible but there comes a day when one must face their fears! Bread puts the fear of god through me. However I figured if I could make it fun it might not be so bad. Introducing bready bears my solution.

Ingredients

1 pack of yeast -The same stuff used for pizzas. See I've saved you looking puzzled in the baking aisle like me. 

1 - 1 1/2 cups of warm water - its recommended 110 degrees but I'm too cheap to buy a thermometer instead I stuck my finger in and tested for warmer than tepid.

1/2 cup of warm milk -Same genius temperature check of course.

3 Tbsp butter softened.

3 Tbsp caster sugar.

2 Tsp salt.

5 1/4 - 5 3/4 cups of plain flour.

12 raisins.

1 egg.

1 Tbsp cold water.

Method

1. In a gigantic bowl dissolve a sachet of yeast in warm water. Add milk,butter, sugar, salt and 3 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. 

2. Stir in the rest of the flour until a stiff dough forms.

3. On a floured surface get the guns out (strong arms) and knead for approx 8 minutes. Pop it into a bowl greased of course and cover with cling film. 1 hr later it should have doubled in size.

4. Uncover the dough and punch the air out. I got to admit its great fun. Then divide into 4 sections. 

5. Cut 1 ball into half shape balls. Cut another into 14 pieces.  

6. On 2 greased baking trays start to assemble. Use the 2 biggest balls as the body. Then the 2halves as the heads. Then position the small balls to make the ears, nose, arms and legs. Cover for another hour to rise.

7. Uncover and cut slits In the ears, eyes, nose & belly button. Insert a raisin in each slit.Glaze with egg.

8. Pop in a preheated oven at 175 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove and cool.