Boho Kitchen Bakery. Wedding, Occasion, Birthday, Cakes, Cupcakes in Waterford, Ireland.

A New Year!

2011-01-25T14:54:00.005Z

We've been seriously busy at The Boho Kitchen over the last few months. There's lots of news!
First thing first. Valentine's is upon us.

What to get for that special guy or girl in your life? Well, I have an idea. SWEEEEEETS!

Cake ball truffles? We've got 'em.
Delicious and beautiful cakes? Yes.
Heart shaped and decorated cookies? Right here.
CUPCAKES? Of course!

Get your special sweetie a personal 6" cake for you both to share starting from just 15 euro! A dozen decorated cupcakes for 18 euro! A dozen iced cookies also for 18 euro! Email me at candace@thebohokitchen.com or text/ring me at 0879524926 to order today.

Also, we've got a promotion going at the moment on OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE to win a dozen cupcakes or a dozen cookies so enter today!

TBK has teamed up with Niamh Doherty of The Loving Spoonful! She's a swell gal and I think you'll agree! She'll be bringing lovely lemon squares, heart warming soups and delicious savory items to the next The Boho Kitchen stall near you! We've got a project in the works as well that will bring afternoon tea out of the big expensive hotels and right into your location of choice! More on that to come.

Next little bit of news is that I'm engaged! I know what you are thinking, she's already got two kids isn't she married already? No, we've been thus far living in sin but have finally set a date for the big day. We'll be getting married on May 13th, 2011-- SO, unfortunately brides and grooms who might be interested in getting me to make them delicious cupcakes or cakes for their weddings will be disappointed to know I'll be unavailable for that weekend.

NOW:

We've been set up the last two Sundays from 11pm-4pm at the indoor market in Clonmel. Where? That's right. There is an amazing indoor market and car boot sale just minutes outside Clonmel. It's incredibly well signposted by the amazing organizer Tara and its super easy to find. Even if you don't drive buses run regularly throughout the day! Just check the website. Come on down and check out all the crafters, the food and if you want-- bring along some of your unwanted items to set up at the car boot!
http://www.clonmelmarketatdudleysmills.com/

Keep a watch on this space for (I PROMISE!) tasty recipes and updates on the upcoming Waterford Festival of Food AND of COURSE the WATERFORD TALL SHIPS!

The Boho Kitchen is Busy!

2010-10-11T09:28:00.003+01:00

Well! So sorry to have been away for so long. I promise, its only good news! The Boho Kitchen has been super busy with orders and markets. Lots of news on our end.

First thing is first, you can now buy The Boho Kitchen cupcakes and assorted treats on Fridays at Walsh's Shop in the square in Portlaw. Get there early as they sell out quick! I'm looking for other shops and cafes to supply with a few in the pipelines so watch this space for updates.

Also, check out the new website! Hopefully this will be easier to navigate than searching through the blog here alone. http://www.thebohokitchen.com

Next, we ARE going to be at Savour Kilkenny.

But, only on Sunday, October 24th. I couldn't manage two full market days worth of baking at that time of the month. Look for our stall! Lots of goodies.

Lastly, Christmas is upon us. I, like many business, must accept this early in the year so I can provide you the best service! We are now taking advance orders for decorated shortbread sugar cookies and christmas fruit cakes. These make great gifts and we giftwrap!! Contact us via the website, email me at bohokitchen@gmail.com or ring/text 0879524926. Delivery is free within most of Waterford and the surrounding areas.
I'm out of town from December 2nd - 16th to visit my folks over in America. So! Deliver is available before and after this time. I will be able to receive orders during this time so keep in touch guys.

Some recent cakes! Click the thumbnail and it will link to the larger picture on our Facebook Fan page:

Waterford Harvest Festival and National Cupcake Week!

2010-09-06T16:00:00.001+01:00

Make sure to scroll down to read how to enter for a chance to win a dozen cupcakes from The Boho Kitchen! Also, a quick reminder to Like our Fan Page on Facebook, by searching for The Boho Kitchen or clicking HERE.

Click the logo to visit the official website and see the full line up of events!

The Waterford Harvest Festival 2010 is starting!
From Friday, September 10th through Sunday, September 19th you'll find lots of fun foodie adventures! Giant food markets, delicious barbeques, picnics, feasts, cookery demonstrations, taste workshops, free outdoor gigs and street parties, craft villages, as well as lots of free fun activities for all the family.

On Sunday, September 12th the South Quay in Waterford City will be closed to traffic and transformed into what they are describing will be the largest outdoor market Ireland has ever seen! Your's truly, The Boho Kitchen, will have her stall fully stocked with delicious sweets and treats. Come by and say hi between 11am and 6pm.

Now...
THE BOHO KITCHEN CUPCAKE GIVEAWAY!

September 13-19th is the UK National Cupcake Week. What better way to celebrate in our own Irish fashion by winning some free cupcakes! National Cupcake Week!
It's National Cupcake Week in the UK, and in celebration I'm offering a free dozen cupcakes to be collected from my stall at the Waterford Harvest Festival.
How to enter:
All you have to do to enter is link to my facebook fan page: or this blog on your facebook page or personal blog and comment here with a link to it! Can't wait? Treat yourself to a couple at my stall or place an order! Remember delivery is free within most of the South East.

Fun cakes for fun times!

2010-09-06T15:56:00.001+01:00

I had a chance to do a couple fun/cartoony cakes recently, though I'd share them.

And cupcakes!

Busy Busy Busy!

2010-09-06T15:43:00.004+01:00

The Boho Kitchen has been working hard and as a result I've been unable to keep this blog updated!

We had a great time at the Iverk Show, where we met many other lovely food producers such as Tastefully Yours operating from Dunhill offering amazing chutneys and sweet chili sauce, County Waterford, Derryvilla Blueberry Farms from County Offaly offering blueberries and tonic, and A Fusion of Flavors offering delicious marinades, chutneys and dips.
My cupcakes also won third place in the queen cake competition!

Before that we had a chance to show off our updated stall at Lark in the Park, celebrating 25 years of Waterford Youth Arts. A look at the delicious things we offer!

Come out to our next stall at the Waterford Harvest Festival on the Waterford City Quay on Sunday, September 12th to get your hands on some of these treats!

SOMA Garden Market

2010-08-04T19:38:00.005+01:00

Visit The Boho Kitchen along with a variety of artists selling their wares at the upcoming SOMA garden market along Lombard street.
We'll be serving up our famous blondies as well as scones, cookies and fruit bars! We'll be leaving the cupcakes to fellow baker Cupcakes by Grace to prevent any ugly competition! Also, I will be alternating my space at the market with another delightful baker and friend Niamh from over at The Lovin' Spoonful.
Come see us and indulge! The SOMA market runs every Saturday from 11am-4pm!

SOMA Garden Market Facebook Fan Page

Next Market: See us at the Iverk Show in Piltown on August 28th!

Markets Markets everywhere... and a pancake recipe!

2010-07-28T19:38:00.005+01:00

A quick reminder that The Boho Kitchen is always open for your orders. We're taking orders no matter how large or small for your meetings, parties and events, birthdays, christenings, and weddings! Just use our Enquire or Order tab to email us! Or contact us via bohokitchen@gmail.com or by phone at 0879524926.

Great news. The Boho Kitchen will be holding a stall at the 184th Iverk Show in Piltown in County Kilkenny.

The Iverk Show is Ireland's oldest agricultural show and will attract a large crowd. Come out to see many local food producers and some of our finest farmer's fare!

In addition, The Boho Kitchen may also be attending the upcoming Tramore Surf and Sea Festival in September as well as the Savour Festival in Kilkenny. We'll keep you updated!

As promised, I have a recipe for you today! Also, a tip.

I was asked about my swirled color cupcakes and how that's done. Simply use a small paintbrush and paint several lines in various colors straight up the sides of your pastry bag before adding the buttercream to pipe. It will result in continued colored swirls!

My daughter's birthday breakfast was buttermilk pancakes. Now, she doesn't really care. However, I'm happy to take any special event and turn it into a good reason to have a pancake breakfast!
Now, these are proper America griddle cakes, pancakes... not what the Irish frequently refer to as pancakes, which are simply crepes. These are thick and fluffy and dying for butter and maple syrup... and *gasp* perhaps a side of fried pig!

Plain and Simple Buttermilk Pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups AP flour
2 tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
2 cups of buttermilk (or if you have no buttermilk, add 1 tbsp vinegar per cup of regular milk and let sit for 5 minutes)
4 tbsp of melted butter
1 tsp of vanilla
2 large eggs, beaten

Directions

Begin to heat a lightly greased skillet to medium heat, favor the low side (out of 6 settings I use setting 3).

Sift dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt) into a large bowl.

In a seperate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, melted better and vanilla.

Combine by slowly mixing the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, folding slowly to avoid overmixing.

Using an ice cream scoop or ladle, scoop approximately 1/2 cup of batter out per pancake.

Leave to cook until the top side forms a bubble surface, and then flip.

Keep warm until eating, or eat immediately. Sometimes I preheat the oven to a low temp so I can stick them in there to keep them warm. Pancakes are best eaten hot!

Smear in butter and maple syrup (even if its that Lyle's maple flavored stuff) and consume immediately. Happily wrap around a sausage or a few strips of streaky bacon first. nom nom nom!

Color swirls

2010-07-22T12:16:00.001+01:00

Looking for something fun for your next party? Color swirls!

Cupcakes! and the 1M swirl

2010-07-21T09:48:00.004+01:00

I recently had an order of four dozen cupcakes for a 30th birthday. I was thrilled as I've just received my 1M wilton tip and I wanted to see how wonderful these swirls would turn out. The hype turned out to be worth indulging!

Beautiful. I look forward to icing cupcakes with this tip on site at upcoming markets!

A traditional, simple wedding cake

2010-07-21T09:38:00.003+01:00

Firstly, sorry for the lack of recipes lately. I promise some pancakes this week. I found the best buttermilk pancake recipe to make for breakfast this morning. You see, my firstborn bouncing baby girl turned 3 today. Yes, 3. I'll refrain from saying "terrible three" even though the last few weeks have given some truth to that nickname. Two was easy. However, all the things that make three hard are what make three beautiful, and what make Jane a funny, clever, and intelligent individual.

Anywho, enough about my personal life, on to what I know you care about most. Cake.
I recently did three cakes and an additional individual gluten free cake for a friend's boyfriend's brother's wedding (get that?). I didn't place the cake on the stand but did deliver to the mother of the groom in the beautiful Maryborough House in Douglas, Cork.

I will always take wedding cake orders. I don't do cakes for a flawless appearance-- before that comes out wrong, I only mean to warn off brides would would wish to purchase a flawless, expensive, but tasteless cake easily carved into a perfect block. It's important to be that my cakes are delicious and moist. My wedding cakes are delicious and reasonably priced.

Topper was provided by the bride and groom.

The top tier was chocolate, the middle vanilla and the larger bottom cake was a traditional fruit cake. All but the fruit cake were layered with buttercream and then crumbcoated in white chocolate ganache. The fruit cake was covered in almond paste and all cakes had a final layer of marshmallow fondant.
Each cake is wrapped in ribbon chosen by the client with flat bows and topped with handmade ribbon roses provided by me and placed on the cake by the client.

Dunmore East Food, Fish and Fun Festival

2010-07-10T21:37:00.004+01:00

I've been neglecting my followers but I have to admit, its been a busy month. We've finished the remodel on our kitchen, and just in time for an incredibly sucessful run at the Dunmore East Food, Fish and Fun Festival. We set up as the sun broke through the clouds and spent the whole day meeting lots of interesting people and making new friends through the sinful spread of fudge brownies, white chocolate and pecan blondies, cupcakes freshly iced, chocolate chip and sugar cookies and cherry crumble bars. Can't wait for our next day out under the gazebo. By then we're hoping to have a more flashy set up! Big thanks to Nancy Cox, a fellow US expat who helped me out all day for the price of a delicious plate of paella from Azzuro.

I wish I could update better on the festival but I was so busy spreading sweet treat love that my only views were on a single bathroom trip and waiting in line for my lunch! I'm ashamed I missed out on all the great other vendors out on the day.

One of our cakes here from The Boho Kitchen was also seen recently in an issue of the Waterford News and Star for the grand opening of An Croch Amach, a new youth cafe in Kilmacthomas, County Waterford.

We've had quite a few cakes in the last few weeks, check them out at picasa.

Bloom 2010

2010-05-31T16:06:00.004+01:00

Just a reminder that Bloom is here! Not sure if I'll get out there myself even though I'll be in Dublin for the Flora Mini Marathon-- but it sounds like an event not to be missed!

Bloom, Ireland’s largest gardening, food and family event, returns to the Phoenix Park Dublin this June bank holiday weekend for 5 days (Thursday 3rd – Monday 7th June). This year’s event will include over 20 spectacular showgardens, 50 floral displays and a large scale artisan farmers market. With something for everyone, visitors to Bloom 2010 can also look forward to live cookery and craft demonstrations, free gardening advice / workshops and kids go free!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bloominthepark/

Also, Taste of Dublin, Ireland's restaurant festival, is back for its fifth year in the stunning location of Dublin's Iveagh Gardens from 10th - 13th June, sponsored by Superquinn.

Sample the best local and international food and drink and pick up some great tips from world famous chefs. Join over 30,000 foodies in the must-do social event of the summer! Delight in gourmet distinction, a stunning location, truly great company and fantastic live entertainment. Get your tickets now!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tasteofdub

We Can Fix It!

2010-05-20T17:01:00.002+01:00

Handy Manny Sugar Cookies!

Are cookies more fun than cake for birthdays? Maybe!

Woman's Best Friend, too!

2010-05-17T19:55:00.001+01:00

Cookie Promotion!

2010-05-16T16:16:00.004+01:00

Promotion time! Want some free treats to arrive straight to you in the post? The Boho Kitchen wants to build up some reviews. In order to do this, we're offering to send you a free treat in exchange for a review here on the site! To participate, send The Boho Kitchen an email at bohokitchen@gmail.com with your name and... address. Ireland only (any further and I don't think I could guarantee freshness!), offer ends May 21st, 2010.

My kitchen to your postbox!
this:

becomes this:

Tortilla Pinto Bean Soup

2010-05-16T16:04:00.005+01:00

I have another confession to make. I love soup. I'd eat soup for every meal of every day. I'm probably the only member of my household who can say that, so, needless to say I don't find myself whipping up soup all too often. Top that off with the little bit of sunshine we've finally began to see and soup seems to be the last thing on anyone's mind. Except me, of course! So, I figured it was time to spice things up. If only there was a margarita along side this bowl of soup today... one can dream.

I would have topped this with coriander and yogurt... had our coriander plant not been dying and my daughter hadn't hogged all the yogurt, le sigh!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 can plum or diced tomatoes (if plum drain and chop the tomatoes, retain the juice)
2 cups chicken stock
1 can pinto beans (or black beans, I was just out and delighted to find out that pinto beans worked wonderfully)

1 tsp dried oregano (or throw in fresh at the end)
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

top with freshly cut coriander leaves

Directions

Heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the red pepper chunks and onion. After a few minutes, throw in the garlic and cover for a few minutes.

Add the can of tomatoes.
Stir in your choice of beans, chicken stock, oregano, coriander, cumin, salt, white pepper, and cayenne.

Allow to simmer stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

Remove roughly half of the soup to a blender and whiz it up, then add it back to the pot of soup. It'll give it a little smoothness. Simmer for another 10 or so minutes.

Serve with tortillas for dipping (ooo if you let the tortilla get soggy and then eat it together, its soo tasty), a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, and top with fresh coriander. I used basil, which was also delicious.

Now that's a summery soup.

Apple Streusel Bars

2010-05-08T18:51:00.001+01:00

Cormac loves things with apples. If it were just myself-- I'd live on chocolate chip cookies and blondies but, hey, its good to have someone to push the variety. I saw this recipe pop up on a blog I enjoy reading a while back and filed it to memory for the next time "I dunno, something with apples would be nice *slurping of saliva noise Homer-style*" was requested for dessert.
These are tasty-- at first, they came out lacking in bar-form until I realized we are impatient piggies who didn't wait long enough for the bars to cool down. If you do, they cut out perfectly. I used a 9x9 but next time I will use a 9x13 so the spread will be thinner. Also, the glaze isn't necessary (although it looks pretty)-- even with less-than-sweet apples this can manage just fine without the added sweetness of the glaze. Cup of tea?

Apple Streusel Bars
adapted from Lovin' From the Oven

Ingredients
STREUSEL CRUST:
2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 egg, beaten

FILLING:
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup AP flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp vanilla
4 cups (about 3 medium) baking apples, sliced thinly.

GLAZE:
1 cup icing sugar
1-2 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat your oven to 180C /350F.

To prepare pastry crust, dice cold butter into small cubes. Add to mixer and beat together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder under you have pea sized bits. Slowly add in beaten egg. If you have a large food processor that would work well, too.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
Gently pat about 2/3 of the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the dish. Preheat oven to 350 and set aside.
Apple filling: combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Toss with apples and spread apples out on prepared crust. I kind of stacked them like I'm making a fancy tartin.

Sprinkle reserved streusel mixture over apples evenly, sprinkle with cinnamon if you want (I loves me some cinnamon!)

Bake 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool completely (I was too impatient and dug straight in, which means its less bar-like and more gooey delicious.

Glaze: whisk icing sugar, vanilla, and roughly 2 tbsp milk. You might need more milk to get it to the desired thinness. Drizzle glaze over cooled bars-- I used a fork and that worked perfectly. Allow to harden. If you can!

Food Festival and Farmer's Market Fun!

2010-04-27T15:37:00.003+01:00

The Boho Kitchen is working hard to bring her delicious treats to the farmer's market near you. We're aiming for a stall coming soon to the Ardkeen Market in Waterford and finger crossed applications will be received in time to set up at the upcoming Dunmore East Festival of Food set to run June 25th, 26th and 27th!

The Boho Kitchen was out and about at the recent Waterford Festival of Food in Dungarvan handing out fliers. Please let us know if you'd like to place an order or even if you like what you see! Hopefully we'll be able to nab a stall at the next Festival of Food. A fantastic weekend sampling of local food producers and talent!

On a non-food related note: CONSIGNMENT!
First, adults:

Smoking Lily Boutique is opening soon in Kilkenny on Kieran Street. Get your consignments in today! Visit the shop on facebook:

Now, children's:

A shout out for you local mama's who might be interested in getting a little more out of your children's old clothes. We're all a little guilty of spending a bit more during the boom and now is your chance to cash in on those name brands you bought for your kids. Almost anything but Penny's is accepted by The Clothes Line in good condition for consignment. That means, you trade in your clothes for credits to buy other clothes from the website. Maternity clothes being accepted as well. She's located in Passage East and accepts clothes by post and will post items to you-- no need to consign, either, buy these cheap deals outright!

More delicious treats and recipes to come! Summer is just around the corner-- any requests?

Banana Crunch Muffins

2010-04-21T11:51:00.004+01:00

Sometimes those days arrive when you have a craving for a delicious sweet and in the corner of the kitchen you see some bananas getting a bit too ripe. Those days never happen to me because I absolutely love overripe bananas, but this time I sacrificed my bananas to make a nice treat for the family.

Now, I'll intro that I messed these up. Not really as they were still incredible, but my add-in didn't work the way I would have liked. I decided to use up old granola bars I made last week instead of making some granola or using pre-made granola. Next time I'll make some or just add in oats and nuts. Ooo, I bet a crunchy oats and nuts type of cereal would be fantastic!

On to the recipe.

Banana Crunch Muffins
adapted from Ina Garten, my hero

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 medium or large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large mashed bananas (if you want some chunks of banana in the muffin, dice one of the bananas)

2-3 cups add-in. Vary it. Granola, pecans, walnuts. I used a seed mix from Lidl. It had sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, cranberries... some other bits. I also broke up 2 homemade granola bars. Go crazy. Anything you think might be tasty with banana.

Direction

Preheat the oven 350F/180C.

Now, use muffin liners. Did you read that? Check it off in your mind? USE THE PAPERS. These muffins will stick to a muffin pan. You need those cupcake/fairycake/muffin cases.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

Add the melted butter and blend it together well with the dry ingredients.

Combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas.

Gently fold them into the flour mixture until its combined. Don't overmix. Stop when it all starts to look wet.

Use an ice cream or cookie dough scoop if you want, to put the batter into the cases. This will give you even muffins with the exact same amount of batter in each muffin. Top with granola and sugar if you'd like!

Fold in your add-in. Gently. DON'T OVERMIX.

Bake for 25- 30 minutes. Let them cool before you eat them.

Easter

2010-04-06T18:17:00.004+01:00

I hope everyone had a nice Easter with their families, or perhaps a non-religious regular relaxing long weekend. Either way, I want to share a few pictures of the nearly half-inch thick sugar cookies decorated for Easter with royal icing I made as gifts. They are tender and buttery. These make great party favors! More information under 'What We Offer' if you are interested for your next event.

Unconventional Christening Cake

2010-04-03T10:07:00.005+01:00

Your baby's cake needs no frills or pastels, go bold!

Cupcakes for your next occasion?

2010-04-02T21:05:00.006+01:00

Next time a birthday or special event rolls around, consider a dozen or more decorated cupcakes. You can keep them as simple as these, or we can personalize them with whatever you'd like! The most important thing, these American-style cupcakes are moist and delicious, topped with vanilla buttercream.

A whole spread of cupcakes, instead of cake!

Follow us on Facebook

2010-03-25T23:03:00.001Z

Please join us on facebook for updates and blog posts!
The Boho Kitchen Page

New Cakes from March

2010-03-17T22:02:00.010Z

Have had a few more cakes come in, still need to improve my photo skills. I'm lucky enough the last cake went to a friend who takes good pictures, so I snagged it. I'm loving the chocolate cake orders, mostly because I'm aware how utterly delicious my chocolate cake is.

Click the thumbnails to see larger images:

White Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

2010-03-01T17:49:00.003Z

February 28th was my birthday. My quarter of a century on this Earth. So, while I make lots of amazing birthday cakes for everyone else, I wanted to have something a little different for myself. This was the result

Breaks my heart but as I sell these at my stall, I can't share the recipe. Sorry!!

However:

Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (without an ice cream machine!)
from David Lebovitz

Ingredients
1 cup milk
pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar (I used caster sugar, which is more fine)
1 vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan on low.
Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk.

Whisk egg yolks together in a large bowl.
Slowly add about half of the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks while continuing to whisk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

Cook over low heat (unless you want scrambled eggs!), stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

Strain the custard into the heavy cream.

Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping.

Pour into a roasting dish and allow to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Remove and give the mixture a bit of a whisk, and put the roasting tray into the freezer. Every 30 minutes, take it out and quickly whisk it very quickly, and put it back in the freezer. Within 3 hours it should be set. If its not, just leave it in there a bit longer. I simply scooped it out and put it into an old ice cream container! So decadent.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

2010-02-26T19:55:00.000Z

Made by request for my friend's daughter's third birthday. Not everyday someone wants a baby goat cake! This is just about the tastiest chocolate cake on the planet. Super moist, my go-to chocolate cake. Below is the recipe for both the cake and the icing.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 ts pbaking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F/180C
Grease 2 8-10 inch round cake pans. I used spring form.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.

In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.

With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely in pans.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Ingredients
4 ounces of 60% or higher dark chocolate
1 cup cream
a pinch of salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Chop chocolate roughly or break into pieces and place it with the cream in a heat proof bowl or pan over another pan full of boiling water (or a double boiler if you have one). Stir until its all melted. There will be a point when you get worried about the flakey bits floating in cream, but they will all melt eventually and you'll have a creamy looking bowl of chocolate.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Cut up room temperature butter and mix it on high with the chocolate, vanilla and icing sugar until fluffy.

It might appear to runny, but don't worry. Refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. It'll stiffen. If you leave it in the fridge, a quick pop in the microwave will also make it spreadable again. This stuff would make excellent truffles. SO, so tasty a few days later left in the fridge!

Apple Cake for a Birthday?

2010-02-21T13:33:00.003Z

It's my partner Cormac's birthday. He's turning 21, again, of course ;). He requested an "apple pie or cake thingy whatever". So, I figured as long as I used up the apples in the kitchen I'd be fine.

Apple Cake with Oatmeal Crumble
adapted from The Knead for Bread Apple Tart Bread

Ingredients

Cake
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup apple sauce (or any extra large apple or 2 small ones, I just happen to have some applesauce already in the fridge to use up).
3 large or large apples or 4 smaller ones sliced or cubed

Oatmeal crumble
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup oats
3 tbsp sugar (I like brown sugar, but white is fine)
1/4 tsp cinnamon (or more if you like it, I'd have 1 tsp for myself but Cormac isn't a cinnamon fan)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Grease a 9" or 10" round pan... I used a springform pan to make my life easier and lined it with baking paper. You could probably use a ~10" square pan.

Peel and slice your apples (if you really care, you can soak them in cold water with a few squirts of lemon juice to prevent browning but it really doesn't matter since you're just tossing them in the cake in the end).

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together.

Melt butter and leave it to cool.

In a another bowl or your mixer the eggs and sugar. Mix on high until its nearly syrupy and a bit pale colored. ~3 minutes.

Add the cool melted butter and the vanilla to the egg/sugar mix.

Add the applesauce and mix (if you have it).

Add the sliced apple pieces, mix gently until they are coated.

Add in the flour mix and mix until its well combined.

Start your crumble topping in a separate bowl. Use room temperature butter, and toss the oats, butter, sugar and cinnamon together. Squeeze it together until it forms pebbles of crumble topping.

Pour into your greased pan, sprinkle on the crumble topping, stick it in your oven for 50 minutes.

Supernatural Brownies, Part Deux

2010-02-20T20:24:00.006Z

I love brownies. I, like many children, grew up eating brownies. I've been in search for a long time for the perfect brownie recipe. I've said it before and I'll say it again, a cake-like brownie is not a brownie. It's a cake. Brownies are slightly crunchy on top and chewy in the middle. And these brownies fit the bill.
I'm a huge fan of David Lebovitz, as I would be of anyone who spends most of their days fluting around Paris. So, I trust his suggestions. My recipe is an adaptation of his brownie recommendation.

credit Elana Kehoe for this great shot

Supernatural Brownies
adapted from Nick Malgieri
--edit-- sorry guys, my changes are now secret but go ahead and try thrr original which is also super tasty!

Happy Valentine's Day with Cheesecake!

2010-02-14T20:01:00.004Z

Valentine's Day is upon us and I had a request from friend for a cheesecake. The conversation mentioned both chocolate cake and cheesecake so I knew I needed to incorporate chocolate. So, while I should have been baking my dearest something for lover's day (hey, he said he wants to lose some weight anyways!), I was whipping up this amazing cheesecake. I would have loved a slice!
The cheesecake recipe I have is a basic play on a New York style cheesecake (and a cheesecake isn't a cheesecake to me unless its been baked). You can use the basic recipe and throw in whatever you'd like. Melt down some white chocolate, throw in cookie pieces (I used Oreos), pieces of candy bar or chocolate chips. Leave it plain. Go crazy. Now, if you want just cheesecake, no thick crust or topping, go to the Lindy's link below and use the full recipe. I cut it down because I wasn't aiming for a thick cake.
Crust, that's up to you. I used chocolate cookies, oreos, a bit of sugar and a bit of butter. I don't measure anything, but you can look this stuff up. I usually prefer using graham crackers for cheesecake crust.

Basic New York Style Cheesecake
adapted from Lindy's New York Cheesecake

Ingredients
600g (that was three tubs for me) of cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
2 vanilla pods, seeded (or 2 tsp vanilla... you can omit if you don't like vanilla).
4 tbsp heavy cream

Directions

Preheat that oven of yours to max. 450F, 500F, 230C, whatever you've got.
If you have a lower rack, put it on the bottom and put a pan of water in the oven.

Beat your cream cheese.
Add sugar, vanilla, flour.
Add eggs one at a time, then the egg yolk.
Add the cream.

Don't over beat, just beat it until mixed. On a low speed. If you mix it at a high speed you are going to put bubbles into your cheesecake and its going to crack in the oven.
Gently stir in your mixins, if you want any.

Pour it in a springform pan, 9 or 10". Then, run a knife through the batter in a S-shape a few times.

Put in the oven for 10 minutes. In 10 minutes, cut the oven down to 250F/120C. For one hour. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN. EVER. AT ALL. FOR THE WHOLE HOUR AND TEN. You'll crack that cheese cake.
------------

On my cake, I waited for it to cool, melted down some chocolate and made sure it stayed tempered, then poured it over the top of my cheesecake and put it in the fridge overnight. Perfect. The writing on my cake is in royal icing.

Scrumptious Scones

2010-02-08T13:03:00.005Z

I'm promising everyone that I will be trying and perfecting at least one recipe a month. I had an order for scones recently, and its been a while since I made them. I decided what a great way to start my resolution.
Any scone I've paid money to eat, in Ireland anyways, has been quite typically dry and tasteless. I was determined to adapt a recipe to be much more decadent without being over the top. I think I'm getting there. In my research, I've found that scones seem to differ region to region. These are somewhere between a cake and a biscuit, a bit flaky but tender not dry. Plenty of rise. That's the perfect scone, to me.
These just melted in my mouth with a cup of coffee. Now, I'm not one for loads of cream and jam but I'm sure that they would be even more delicious served up that way! I'm thinking of messing around with the recipe a bit more but all in all these are top notch.

Scrumptious Scones
adapted from Ina Garten's Cranberry Orange Scones (less butter and few eggs in mine!)

Ingredients
Scone:
4 cups all purpose flour (and an extra 1/4 to toss your fruit in)
1/4 cup sugar (if you like a very sweet scone, add another 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (I used flaky sea salt)
1 cup butter, very cold, diced into cubes (or frozen and grated)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten (cold!)
1 cup cream (make sure its cold! use half and half if you want)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of sultanas (or whatever dried fruit you want.

Eggwash:
1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F/200C (this is so important. For good rise, you need that initial blast of heat. So, crank up the oven before you even start the dough.

Mix 4 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, the baking powder and salt in your mixer (with a paddle or food processor.

Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas. Using a mixer/processor keeps the dough cold and gets it mixed quick.

Combine the eggs, vanilla and heavy cream.
Slowly pour into your flour mixture with the mixer/processor on low. Expect lumps-- that's going to be your delicious flakes!

Toss your sultanas or other dried fruit in 1/4 cup flour and add them into your dough. Do NOT overmix. DO NOT OVERMIX! (don't overmix it).

Dump on the counter-- if its very wet, just dust the outside of the dough with flour. Try not to mix more flour in.
Lightly pat the dough into a ball so you can roll it out, about 3/4 - 1 inch thick. Cut as you want. 3" rounds, wedges, what have you.

Brush the tops of the scones with egg wash. Just the top. If you go down the sides it will not rise as high. I sprinkled the tops with demerera sugar.

Bake 15 minutes. Check on them around 10 minutes though, my oven is variable and not all ovens are equal. You don't want to over bake. They should be done when the tops are golden brown.

Banana Pecan Crumble-topped Muffins

2010-01-13T18:40:00.003Z

Happy New Year and all that jazz. Things are getting back to normal here with Harper growing like a weed, Jane transitioning into true toddlerhood (buddha help us) and the holidays over. In the spirit of new year's resolutions, I'm posting a muffin recipe that sounds like it should be healthy, but is probably far from it :) My new year's resolution was to give up Diet Coke, because of the aspartame, and its going perfectly for me. Of course, instead I want to bake sweets and drink coffee instead. We all need our vices, yeah?

Okay, muffin time. PUT AWAY YOUR MIXERS! That's an order. Overmixing is the reason so many muffins fail.

Banana Pecan Crumble-topped Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

3 large ripe mashed bananas
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup oil (I used Sunflower)
1 tsp of vanilla, give or take (or give some more!)
1/4-1/2 cup of pecans or walnuts

Cinnamon Oat Crumble Topping:
1/4 cup oats
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup white sugar (or all the same... I even threw in some demerera, you want 1/4-1/3 cup sugar total)
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter

Directions
Preheat your oven to 200C/400F. You are going to bake at 190C/375F. I'll explain later.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.

Beat egg, oil, vanilla, sugar and mashed banana until well combined.

Create a well in the flour mixture and pour in your banana mix. Take a spatula and gently fold the dry into the wet ingredients. Just barely. It's okay, desirable, to have some flour visible and not completely wet.

Mix the crumble topping. Put oats, sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and stir together. Cut in 2 tbsp of butter like you would to make pastry. My house is cold enough at the moment to just use my hands, but sometimes that makes the butter melt to much and two forks do the job. mash and mix it together until it forms crumbs.

Fill a muffin tin (this makes 12) with muffin cases and fill each one about 2/3 full. I use a large cookie scoop. Sprinkle about a tbsp or so of your crumble mix on top.

Okay, stick them in the oven. Turn the heat down to 190C/375F after 5 minutes. That burst of hotter air will help the baking powder activate and cause better rise in the muffins (and that light fluffiness you want!). Bake a total 20-25 minutes. Just test them with a skewer and take them out when it comes out clean.

Have with a delicious cup of coffee. So tasty.

No Fail Sugar Cookies

2009-12-12T19:16:00.002Z

I haven't gotten any good pictures this year, but I have my amazing spread from last year captured. I hope I'll have time with two little ones to get them iced (I use homemade royal icing), I'm baking up a batch tomorrow, I think. I've been piping a lot over the last year, so I'm hoping they turn out even nicer this year.

No Fail Sugar Cookies
from Lovin' From The Oven

I found this recipe last year and I have to say, she's nailed it as "no fail". I remember, no offense to my own mom, the sugar cookies we made every year for Christmas and well, the memory isn't good. Always fun to decorate, never the first cookie I wanted to eat. I'd scoff down the chocolate chip cookies or the spritz. But these, guys these are delicious. Kind of a shortbread/butter cookie taste. Let's just say I've already made one batch and they didn't last long enough to get iced.

Ingredients

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

Directions
Simple.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla.
Sift dry ingredients.
Add slowly to butter mixture.

Chill for at least 1-2 hours.

Roll to 1/4-1/2 inch thick, and cut your shapes.

Bake at 180C/350F for 8 to 10 minutes. You'll get 4-5 dozen cookies, depending on how big you cut them.

Thanksgiving Feast

2009-11-27T18:10:00.006Z

Well, the Thanksgiving feast has come and gone. A whole day of cooking over in 30 minutes of shoving food down our hungry gobs! I was lucky enough to have a few friends over (5 friends, so 7 adult mouths and one tiny mouth to feed total) to enjoy our American tradition. It's not so hard to talk the Irish into showing up for some free delicious food! I feel strongly there is no point in spending the time and energy to cook up a feast with no one to share it with. Plus, they always show up with the booze ;)

Now, not only did I not grab pictures of all my dishes but I didn't even snap a shot of my bunch devouring it all. I'll share the recipes anyways, as nothing failed me. My cornbread stuffing could have used a little less bread or a little more stock, but besides that, I was content.

Our menu consisted of fresh no-knead rolls, a cider-roasted 18lbs turkey (stuffed with apple and onions, the apples I mashed for applesauce), sage and pecan sweet potato casserole, cornbread stuffing, garlic buttered carrots, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, finished with pumpkin tart with cream cheese. I'll list the important recipes

No-Knead Dinner Rolls

from The Pioneer Woman
These came out okay. I felt they had a weird consistency and were a bit too sweet for me. Next time I'll probably adapt for a different recipe. They are great for thanksgiving, though, when you have limited time for cooking food and all you have to do is mix the dough and leave it rise. I halved the recipe because I had no need for 24 rolls. This is halved:

Ingredients
2 cups Milk
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
4.5 cups Flour
1 packages (4 1/2 Tsp.) Active Dry Yeast
1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1 Tablespoons Salt

Directions

Pour 2 cups of milk into large saucepan or crock on the stove (you will let the dough rise in here so allow lots of room)

Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Stir to combine.

Scald the mix on medium hear(between 90 and 110 degrees, I used a candy thermometer to be sure).

Add in 2 1/4 cups of flour and 1 packages of (2-1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast.

Next, add another 2 cups of flour.

Cover with a towel and leave someplace warm for an hour, it should double in size.

After it rises,
When it had risen sufficiently add 1/4 more cup of flour, 1/2 heaping teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and about 1 tablespoons of salt. Stir or knead (eh?) just a little to combine.

Oil or butter a muffin pan. Form the rolls by pinching off a walnut sized piece of dough and rolling it into a little ball.
Repeat and tuck three balls of dough into each buttered muffin cup. Continue until pan is full. Cover and allow to rise for about 1 to 2 hours.

Bake at 400F/200C until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Cider Roasted Turkey with Roasted Applesauce

Ingredients
2 liter of cider
2-3 apples
2 onions
1/2 cup room temperature butter
2 chopped cloves garlic
handful of fresh thyme and sage.

Directions
Prepare your turkey as usual, wash and pat dry.

Place in a deep cooking try.

Take your butter and smash down in the center. Add chopped garlic, thyme and sage. Knead butter together and separate into two small chunks and two large chunks.

Shove two chunks under the skin of the thighs and smooth across the meat with your hand through the outside of the skin. Shove the other large chunks under each breast and smooth across.

Quarter your onions and put inside the turkey cavity. Quarter your apples and place them skin side down in the cavity.

Pour enough cider to fill the pan 1-2 inches full.

I cover the turkey then for 3/4 of the cooking time with tin foil, and remove for the remaining time to brown.

When turkey has been removed and has rested, take out your apples and remove the skin, and mash the apples for a quickie applesauce side :) You might want to roasted a few apples separately to add to this if you are feeding a lot of people.

Sage and Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole
from A Cozy Kitchen
This was ridiculously delicious. I spread my sweet potatoes a bit more thinly in the pan and didn't pack the pecans on as tightly as she has (I wish I had taken a picture!) but this is recipe gold. This is going to remain a permanent Thanksgiving feature in our house! I think I'll make this again for Christmas, or at least, I'm pretty sure Cormac will want me making this again before next turkey day rolls around.

Ingredients
3 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1 ½ cups milk
1/8 cup maple syrup

For the Topping:
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions
Boil sweet potatoes (or steam) until tender, 10 minutes or so.

Preheat oven to 375F/190C.
Melt 1 stick of butter with the chopped sage in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer for 1 minute and remove from heat.
Add butter mixture, milk, and maple syrup to the potatoes. From here decide what you want-- I didn't want two smooth mashes, so I used a hand masher and just slightly chunked the sweet potatoes together with the mixture. You can, alternatively, beat with a blender until smooth.

Lightly toss pecans, butter and maple syrup on low heat in a saucepan, for a few minutes.
Sprinkle the pecans over the top of the potatoes.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until pecans start to brown and edges bubble.

Cornbread Stuffing
This is my favorite stuffing. I made this two years ago as a test, and I'm so pleased. I really like my mother's stuffing, and she's made stuffing the same way since I was a child. However, I'm happy to say I've found my own way and this stuffing is MY stuffing. It's mouthwatering delicious and every day after you make it, it tastes better and better.

Ingredients
1 full cornbread recipe (listed below this recipe, you can use your own recipe if you want)
1 large loaf of wheat or white bread, or 12 slices
3-4 cups of stock (optional 1-2 tbsp white wine or 1 tbsp white wine vinegar)- I say 3-4 cups because sometimes I'll add more if I think I've got too much bread and not even wetness.
1 can cream of chicken
3 large eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup chopped celery (I omitted it this year and added a bit of celery seed instead, I just, didn't have celery and didn't see it at Lidl during my shopping)
Fresh thyme
Fresh sage, both to taste. I usually grab a handful of each to chop up
1/2 lbs of sausage
few strips of bacon, optional

Directions
Cube your corn bread and bread the night before and leave out to go a bit stale. This isn't totally necessary but makes the stuffing a bit more chunky.

Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Saute celery and butter in pan, add in sausage and bacon if you choose.

Mix all other ingredients, I whisk it all together. Add in your meat, celery and butter mix. Pour over your cubes in a large pan. Wider the pan, more yummy crispy bits on top, the deeper the pan, the more delicious soft fluffy stuffing.

Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Buttermilk Cornbread
from The Hungry Mouse

I like using this recipe because it doesn't have butter, and well, I'm adding a load of fat to my stuffing already. This cornbread doesn't need it! It's delicious on its own, and if you're buttermilk is low fat its a healthy cornbread recipe to accompany your southwest dishes, too.

ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F/200C and grease your 9x9 pan.

Whisk eggs, buttermilk, sugar, and oil together.
Mix in cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.

Pour in a 9x9 inch pan and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the center comes clean with a toothpick

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Tart

adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking

This came about as a pleasant surprise after a bit slip up on the original recipe I found on a random food blog. The pie was my first bake of the day, and in typical Candi fashion, I made a silly mistake. As I was adding my spices, I picked up the jar of garlic powder instead of ginger (which look incredibly similar, ahem) and as I was dumping it into the mix I realized my mistake. So, halfway through the recipe I flubbed. Thankfully I hadn't wasted any pumpkin puree-- but I did wasted 8oz of cream cheese (the only 8oz I had), so I flipped open my BHG Old-Fashioned Home Baking for a basic pumpkin pie and combined the ideas. I will make this again and try to eliminate the can of condensed milk (probably through using yogurt or cream cheese as that was sort of the way my original recipe did it)... because it was only by strange chance I even had a can of condensed milk at home.
Cormac actually said to me it was the best pie he'd ever tasted. We had vanilla ice cream and whipped cream to go on top. Real whipped cream. Although, the American in me bets this would be topped off perfectly with that fake-o Cool Whip.
And yes, I pureed a real sugar pumpkin for this recipe, not a butternut squash (although...)

Ingredients
For Filling:
2 cups fresh pumpkin puree or 1 16-ounce can of pumpkin
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 can evaporated milk

For Crust:
24 graham crackers or 30 digestive biscuits
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 - 1 cup melted butter

For Dollops:
2oz of cream cheese
1 tbsp sour cream or yogurt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Crust:
Using a food processor, turn your graham crackers or digestives (I used half and half because you can't buy graham crackers in Ireland, but I DID have half a box left over from my generous friend E) into crumbs. I usually add the sugar in at this stage to get it mixed well. You can go old school and put the crackers in a bag and hit it with a rolling pin, too.
Slowly add your butter. I added a full cup, but I didn't measure my crumbs exactly so you may need less (you should need roughly 1 1/2 cup crumbs, but I like a thick crust so I probably used 2 cups). You want it to be wet enough that the crumbs are clumping together as you mix it.

Grease 9 or 10 inch round pan (you can use a tart pan for the cool crinkle edges, or use a springform pan like I did for ease of removing it).

Pour the crumbs in the pan evenly and pat it down until covered. I just sprinkle it in higher around the edge so I can create/pat the crumbs into a crust.

Stick this in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes to prebake, just keep an eye at it towards the end that it doesn't overbrown or burn. When you take out the pie crust, pop the temp up to 375F/190C.
------------------------
Filling:
In a bowl or mixer, combine your pumpkin, sugar and spices, mix well.

Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.

Slowly pour in your can of condensed milk. Mix well.

Pour mixture into your pre-baked shell (you can obviously use a regular pie crust or one of those store bought crusts if you want).

Mix roughly 2 ounces cream cheese with 1 tbsp sour cream or yogurt (or if you have neither, thin it out a bit with just plain milk). With a tsp, plop dollops along the top of the pie. Mine sunk down a bit because I used real pumpkin puree which is a bit more watery (and I couldn't be bother to strain or cook it down too much) than canned. You can then take a knife or other sharp implement and swirl it around. I'm sure yours will look prettier than mine, but it all tastes equally delicious.

Bake for 1 hour or until the center is set and not wobbly at 375F/190C (and if you didn't skim my direction you'll have already popped the oven up to this temperature after pre-baking your crust ;) )

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

2009-11-25T16:01:00.003Z

So, I loved that bread so much I made it twice. The second time I used mini loaf pans (and if I do it again I'll cut the cook time by 10 minutes because they were a bit dry). As a result, I got pumpkin-breaded-out and it was sitting in my cake box getting old.
Inspiration struck-- I'll make bread pudding with it! And it was so delicious. I hate waste. Cormac loves a good pud or custard, so between the two of us and my little monster we nearly finished it off that evening!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups of pumpkin bread

Directions
Break/cut your bread into cubes and lay in an ungreased 9x9 pan.

In another bowl, whip together your eggs, milk, vanilla and spices.

Pour the egg mixture over your bread cubes.

Bake at 350F/180C for 40-45 minutes.

I wish I had a picture but, it didn't last long enough. Eat it straight out of the oven on a cold night for best taste-- with some custard poured over it, yumyum!

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

2009-11-13T18:54:00.003Z

Spiced Pumpkin Bread
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking

I love this time of year, excuse to use loads of pumpkin. That is, in my case, butternut squash, since I'm a big cheat. However, I still believe firmly that it tastes nicer than pumpkin. This makes 1 ring of bread (bundt pan) or two loaves.

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour (the original recipe uses all white flour)
1/4 cup wheat germ (you can omit this if you want or don't have it)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon (shoulda added more)
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup pumpkin/butternut squash fresh or canned puree
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs (I used 3 medium eggs)
1/3 cup shortening (I suppose you could use butter if you wanted to)

1 cup of either dried berries, nuts, raisins, or seeds like pepitas (I used a prepacked mix of sunflower seeds, pepitas, cranberries and goji berries from Aldi)

Directions

Preheat oven to 175C/350F

In a mixing bowl (or the bowl of your mixer) mixed half the flour (1/2 cup WW flour, 1/2 cup AP flour), baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.

Add pumpkin, milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening. Use mixer and beat 30 seconds to mix and a couple minutes on high.
Stir in nuts/seeds/dried fruit.

Bake for 1 hour for a ring mold/bundt like I used, or 45 minutes for two loaf pans.

You can make a glaze with a bit of powdered sugar and water, and a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, or just do what I plan to do, which is slice it up and smear it with butter or cream cheese. I plan on making french toast with a few slices for my breakfast, yum!

Ginger Molasses Cookies

2009-11-12T18:18:00.005Z

Firstly, I have to apologize. I haven't posted anything in a long time-- but I'll admit, I've been busy baking up a new baby girl. We welcome Harper Jamie into the world Halloween 2009 :) at our own home (I had a planned home birth).
I've got my birth story posted on my personal blog: The Crunchy, Contrary Yank
I'll resist the urge to spam this blog with pictures of my beautiful baby girl (and her big sister of course).

Now, to the good stuff that you all actually care about-- baked goods!

Ginger Molasses Cookies
adapted from bakingbites.com
These are everything that ginger cookies should be -- soft, chewy, cracked, spicy... and delicious with a hot cuppa. Not the best picture I've ever taken, but I'm pretty sure you can see that delicious combination of sugars crystallized on the outside of that perfectly cracked cookie. These taste of Christmas. And, here in Ireland, the weather has turned and now we face 6 months or so of cold, wet weather. To beat this, I need delicious, soul warming food to keep my spirits up.

Ingredients
1/4 cup shortening (you can omit this and use 1/4 cup butter (thats 1/2 cups total) instead, but they just don't crack as well.
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tbsp honey
1/4-1/2 tsp vanilla (okay, I admit, its not in the original recipe but I just can't make cookies without a little touch of vanilla. I didn't measure, like I said, I just added "a touch" ;) )
1 large egg (I used 2 medium sized eggs)
2 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon (I love cinnamon so I'm always generous here)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
1/2 tsp ground black pepper (I know, its strange, but they taste great!)
1/2 tsp salt

spare sugar, for rolling in (I used white sugar, demerera sugar, and a sparkly clear sugar sprinkle I have for cake decorating-- you can just use all white sugar, but adding in a coarse sugar with it just makes them look cool)

Directions
Preheat your oven to 175C/350F-- I think this is really important for these cookies.

Cream together butter (and shortening) and sugar.
Add in molasses, honey, vanilla, and egg(s). Beat until creamy.
Sift together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
Add flour to butter mixture, slowly.

Roll your dough into 1 inch sized balls, and then roll them in your bowl of mixed sugars. Place on greased baking sheet (I use some baking/parchment paper).

Bake for 10 minutes, then keep an eye on them. I like soft and chewy cookies, so I take them out at 10 minutes. If you leave them in a few extra minutes they will likely go crunchy-- I always do half of them a little over cooked because Cormac likes crunchy cookies (bah!).

Let the cool on the sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
As always, shove several in your mouth and enjoy. These are particular good with a cup of coffee. nom nom.

You can get about 3 dozen cookies out of this recipe.

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Oat Blondies

2009-08-22T13:45:00.003+01:00

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Oat Blondies made with Applesauce
Ingredients
3/4 cup Peanut Butter
2/3 cup Applesauce (if you want to be naughty, and make these chewier, use butter one for one)
3/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar (I used splenda)

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup oats
1/4 cup wheatgerm (optional)
1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup milk

~ 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

-Cream together your peanut butter, applesauce and sugars.
-Add eggs one at a time.
-Add vanilla.

-Mix dry ingredients together.
-Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with milk.

-Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake for 30-40 minutes at 325F/160C

And they are healthy, too! I'm on this low fat kick at the moment to help reduce my chances of getting a bad case of a condition I had with my first pregnancy called Cholestasis.

Cormac's Chicken Caesar Salad with Bruschetta

2009-08-16T20:25:00.004+01:00

Now and again, I enjoy sitting on the couch and letting Cormac make the dinner. I carved up a chicken we bought a few weeks back and froze the thighs/legs/wings, and that meat made for delicious chicken caesar. I have recipes for each little bit here.

Chicken for Tearing Up
Ingredients

2 thighs and legs
2 wings
Knob of Butter
1/4 cup red wine
1 tsp brown sugar
Fresh thyme
Sea salt and black pepper

Directions
Melt the butter on medium heat.
Place the chicken pieces in the pan of melted butter for 2-3 minutes on each side.
Deglaze with wine and brown sugar (combined).
Season chicken while cooking with thyme, salt and pepper.
Total cooking time roughly 10-15 minutes. Keep pan and juices aside for bruschetta.
Place in oven on olive oil greased pan at 400F/200C covered for 25 minutes.
Tear off the bone into pieces for your salad.

Bruschetta
Serves two

Ingredients
1 Large Tomato, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 basil
Large ciabatta roll, halved.

Directions
Add all ingredients to the pan you cooked the chicken in.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, don't let the garlic burn!
Remove from heat.

Ciabatta cut in two, grilled under toasted.
Dip the cut side in the butter/oil left behind in the pan.
Top with tomato/garlic mix.
Grill again for a few minutes.
Top with fresh basil if desired.

Caesar Dressing
Ingredients

1/4 cup good mayonnaise
1/4 good olive oil (or all mayo)
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup Parmesan, shredded
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Blend! Add milk if needed to thin to your liking.

Salad assembly
We used fresh lettuce, spinach and a small bit of rocket from our garden. Topped with chicken, bit of corn cut from the cob, homemade croutons, dressing and Cormac added a few cashew nuts to his own. Traditionally, add extra Parmesan and pine nuts! ENJOY!

Blueberry Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

2009-08-16T15:02:00.005+01:00

So I've got a bad habit of making food items outside of their desired season. First I'm hitting you with pumpkin cinnamon rolls, now I'm on about muffins. I even made the applesauce from scratch (just boil them up with a touch of cinnamon, lemon juice and vanilla!) and the house smelled like autumn. In Ireland, its easy to forget its not truly summer, its just, a little warmer than the rest of the year.

Blueberry Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients
10 ounces or 2.5 cups cake flour (or -2 tbsp for each cup using all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup wheatgerm (optional)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon (depends on how much you like cinnamon, my applesauce had some cinnamon already so I stuck with 1/4 tsp and it was just enough of a pinch).

1 cup sugar or 3/4 cup Splenda (yes, I used Splenda-- I'm going to get cancer but hey, I'll look good!)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup applesauce (if you don't have applesauce, you can use a vegetable/sunflower/canola oil here instead, but it won't be as healthy!)

1-2 cups blueberries

Demerera sugar for sprinkling on top

Directions
- Mix sugar, vanilla, egg, yogurt and applesauce well.
- Sift flour
- Combine dry ingredients
- Add wet to dry, and fold together until the whole mixture is wet. The key will fluffy muffins is not to overmix.
- Fold in blueberries.

Now, I use a handy dandy ice cream scoop/large cookie dough scoop to fill my cups. After you fill your cups, sprinkle a bit of demerera or vanilla sugar on top of the muffins. This will melt down and make a bit of a crunchy, shiny, sweet

Bake for 20 minutes at 350F/180C. Smear with butter while warm and enjoy! See that pan with all the staining? Well used! These silicon muffin cups are the business, just to let you all know. I'm happy to make my cupcakes for the family in them as well!

My daughter Jane turns 2

2009-08-02T16:12:00.004+01:00

It's her party, and she'll stick her fingers in the hip surfboard cake mommy made for her if she wants to.

This isn't good advertising for my business! However, it was too cute not to share. She loved it, of course. She was picking out bits of marshmallow fondant to eat. I did cry though (hormones, I blame) when I saw the disaster zone, as I had been exhausted (7 months pregnant now!) and forced myself to get it done the day before so I didn't have to worry about it on the day of her party. So is life!
When the birthday girl is this cute, you forgive! We were lucky, sunshine and a great party-- and no complaints about the finger holes while everyone scoffed down the cake! This was vanilla with vanilla buttercream, two layers and covered in marshmallow fondant. Simple.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

2009-07-18T18:29:00.002+01:00

So, I know its summer and all and making a pumpkin anything is a bit taboo, but hell, sometimes we want it, don't we? I'm 6 months pregnant, and even though I'm fighting a chest infection and have no appetite, I wanted to make these babies. You'll want to make them, too.

told ya.

Now, first a note. I'm in Ireland and I know some of my reader's won't have access to canned pumpkin. I simply roast up a butternut squash. Same taste-- some would argue its even nicer than pumpkin. Most canned pumpkin, you'll be interested to know, is actually squash anyways. Simply cut your squash in half, and cut each half in half (that's four pieces)-- scoop out the seeds and place flesh down in a pan. Fill that pan with 1/2 inch of water. Put it in your oven, HOT. I'm talking 400F/200C or so. Cook for 30-45 minutes (until the skin starts to brown and pucker a bit). Then you scoop out the innards, voila, you have your pumpkin/squash. You'll want 1/2 cup of that so you'll have lots left over for a nice bowl of soup or some muffins.

The Rolls
Dough Ingredients
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup pumpkin (canned or fresh) or butternut squash
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg, beaten
1 package active yeast
3 ounces (or 2-3 packages) of instant vanilla pudding/custard

1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 1/2 cup bread (or strong) flour

Filling Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp margarine

Directions
Heat milk and butter in a saucepan until the butter has melted, remove from heat.

Mix pumpkin/squash, salt and sugar.
Add in vanilla pudding/custard powder
Add in milk/butter
Add beaten egg
Mix in yeast

Sift flours
Slowly add flours to your mixture to form a dough.

Leave this to rise in a greased bowl in a warm place for about an hour.

Roll dough into a rectangle however thick you like, mine ends up a little less than 2 ft long by 12 inches.

Take your butter and margarine (I'll be honest, I don't measure this out I just take a small handful of each, but the estimate is probably close. You can't really have too much. Margarine will help keep the filling gooey as butter will be somewhat absorbed into the dough as it cooks) and smears it all over the dough. I use my hands. Get messy. Then I use the butter/margarine on my hands to grease my pan.
Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle all over the dough.

Now roll the dough up longways to make more rolls (if that makes sense). I use a piece of string to cut the rolls so they don't smush down, but of course you can use a knife-- about 1 inch thick.

Place them in your greased pan and allow to rise for 30 minutes. You'll get maybe a bit more than 12 rolls.

Bake at 350F/180C for 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered/icing sugar, sifted
dash of lemon juice, optional but helps lift that tang!

Directions
Mix butter, vanilla and cream cheese... and lemon juice if you want.
Slowly add in powdered/icing sugar, add more if you want a thicker icing. This will be glaze like.

Smear all over the hot, delicious pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

Devour them.

Homemade Spinach Pasta with Garlic Parmesan Sauce and Battered Chicken

2009-05-04T19:30:00.004+01:00

Homemade Spinach Pasta and Battered Chicken Breast

Okay. I have a confession. With as much as I've baked and cooked I've never made my own pasta. I was intimidated as I have no pasta roller or press. I have made plans to buy the attachment for Big Red (the kitchenaid), and I may well ordered from amazon now to have delivered to the states during our visit (have I mentioned we are about to head off to Florida for a month to visit my family? Sun tan, here we come).

I don't even need to write up a recipe, this was so easy.

For each person you are cooking for, mix
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt

In my case, I added in 1/2 cup of spinach (not per person) and a heavy handed sprinkle of garlic powder.

Mix the egg and spinach first, then add your flour. Either use your dough hook or knead by hand into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut the ball in half or thirds, and rolling out the dough (or use your pasta roller, lucky you!). Let it rest for another 30 minutes or so. Then cut into slices. I was impatient and busy baking cookies at the same time, so I just cut it after I rolled it.

Then, lay it out to dry for an hour. When you are ready, boil it like you would your dry pasta! It cooks much quicker.

Now. Sauce!

Garlic Parmesan Sauce

Another quickie. I cooked for three people, so I cut one head of garlic in half, chopped off the top end to expose the bulbs, smother in olive oil and wrap tin foil around the bottom. Sick it into a hot oven (200C/400F), and cook until the garlic starts to brown/caramelize.
I than squeezed out the cloves into a garlic press and it oozes straight out. I added about 1/2 cup of Parmesan and 1/4 cup milk. Simple and much healthier than whipping up an Alfredo sauce. I would have loved to have Alfredo, but I thought in combo with the battered chicken I was about to make, I'd take it easy.

Battered Chicken

Now, I use Sunflower Oil. I convince myself this is healthy. I put on about 1/2 cup to heat up in a pan on medium-high heat.

I pounded out two chicken breasts and cut them into large pieces. Salt, Pepper, White Pepper the pieces.

For the batter:
1 cup flour
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Adobo seasoning (you can just use a smashed up chicken bullion or well, omit, but it gives a nice taste)
1 tsp ground black pepper.

Add milk until you get a batter consistency.

-Dip the pieces into the batter, and carefully place into the oil once the oil is hot. Cook a few minutes on each side. MAKE SURE the oil is hot BEFORE you put the chicken in. If its not hot, your chicken will be very soggy, nasty and oily.

I like to dry freshly fried items on newspaper. This drains the oil out of the chicken like nothing else, and it just tastes crisp.

Enjoy!

Soft-Baked Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-04-27T10:28:00.006+01:00

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from fellow expat Laura English Painter's recipe!

1 1/4 cup plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (if you use salted butter leave this out)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter (I was low so I threw in a few tbsp of cashew butter)
1/2 cup sugar (I used half splenda, so we can all get cancer)
1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla (I'm known to be quite generous with vanilla when it comes to cookies)

optional:
Maybe, 1/2 cup chocolate chips? More? Whatever you'd like.

Directions

Preheat oven to 190C/375F

1. Sift flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
2. Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars.
3. Add egg and vanilla to creamed mixture.
4. Throw in your chocolate chips now (I just crushed up a bit of a left over dark chocolate bar)
5. Slowly add the flour mixture.

I used a small scoop to make the perfect small cookies. Just remember these make better small cookies, so don't be too generous when scooping on to your pan.

Bake for 6 minutes (mine needed 7, could be my oven).
Take then out of the oven and leave to cool for 1 minute on the pan. Then move to cooling rack.

I think these are best the next day. They will seem as though they are not done on the inside. If you leave them, they will be like soft bake the once they are entirely cooled!

Pepperoni Pizza with Mushroom Sauce

2009-04-17T18:21:00.006+01:00

Pepperoni Pizza with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:
Jamie Oliver's Basic Bread Recipes:

• 1kg/just over 2lb strong bread flour
• 625ml/just over 1 pint tepid water
• 30g/1oz fresh yeast or 3 x 7g/¼oz sachets dried yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 30g/1oz salt

This will make enough dough for three large pizzas. This is a great bread recipe, and its very very versatile. Thanks Jamie, you stud.

Sauce
6 plum tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup water
1 heaped tsp oregano
1 heaped tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp black pepper and a dash of salt
4 chopped chestnut mushrooms

I would normally use a can of tomatoes but I didn't have any left. Thus the puree- but it worked out so well! Puree the tomatoes and garlic, add to sauce pan with the rest of ingredients, adding the water little by little until you have the consistency you like.

Topping
Whatever you want.
I used a layer of sauce, a fine layer of parmesan, a layer of torn up fresh spinach, a layer of large thin pepperonis, a layer of shredded and soft mozzarella (I was cleaning out the fridge with these pizzas!) and more parmesan. I added more mushrooms and onions to Cormac's pizza.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375F/190C or until its as crispy as you like it. The best pan for pizza is the kind with holes in the bottom, I find, or straight on the rack!

Sultana Scones

2009-04-13T20:30:00.003+01:00

Buttermilk Sultana Scones

Ingredients
2 cups (225g) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup of butter
2 tbsp of sugar (preferably caster sugar, fine grain)
1/3 cup of sultanas/raisins/cranberries/blueberries whatever you fancy
2/3 cup buttermilk

Directions
Sift together flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until its crumbly.

Stir in the sugar and fruit of your choice.

Slowly add the buttermilk and mix together-- just until its mixed. Don't over mix. If you over mix, they will not be as delicate and tasty. I'm warning you now.

Knead until a soft dough, and roll out the dough a little less than an inch thick. I like them on the thicker side. Cut them out with cookie cutters-- I use a round cutter, or the top of a cup will do. I get about 12 out of this recipe.

Bake on cookie sheet at 230C/450F for 8-10 minutes

Chicken Curry with Sweet Potato

2009-04-13T20:19:00.003+01:00

Sweet Potato Curry with Chicken
adapted from Vegan Planet

1 small chopped onion (which I omitted because I hate onion, to Cormac's dismay)
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 large red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 3/4 cup stock (I used fresh chicken stock from Easter roast chicken)
1 can of tomatoes
2 medium sized sweet potatoes, cubed.
dash of sea salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
Approx. 1 cup shredded chicken.

Directions:
Heat some oil in a pan, saute onions for 5 minutes. I skipped this part.

Add curry powder, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and cayenne.

Add red pepper, garlic and ginger. Stir around for 30 seconds.

Add tomatoes and chicken stock.

Add sweet potatoes. Cover.

Simmer for around 30 minutes. I took out my trusty hand blender and smoothed out the mixture. Add in the chicken, dash of salt and brown sugar. Simmer another 20 minutes (I put on the rice after this). I served this over brown basmati rice. Delicious!

Cake for Twins

2009-03-10T10:56:00.005Z

I had a first birthday cake to make for twins this weekend. This was complicated by the fact that I had to go from Friday-Sunday to a La Leche League conference. So, time had come for me to employ some of the tactics of my busier counterparts. After being very reluctant to freeze my cakes, but reading many a baker saying they often freeze on PURPOSE to improve taste, I went for it.

Baked Thursday night, froze, removed on Sunday, layered and crumb-coated with buttercream and covered with marshmallow fondant. I found clear vegetable shortening, and my god, the difference it makes in handling the fondant is unbelievable. It's ever more delicate, however. I was so tired but honestly having split up the days for decorating it wasn't as big of a task as I had thought. Each cake is three layers- one is vanilla/chocolate/vanilla and the other is chocolate/vanilla/chocolate.

The rainbows nearly came out too light, but I brushed darker royal icing over the fondant and the colors came out just how I pictured them. I really hope the customer liked the cake as she had a very clear idea how she wanted them to look and I'm unsure how close I came to what she had pictured. They are not exactly the same, but they flow together, and they are each special in their own way.

The good news is I had Cormac taste test the cakes when I cut them to shape and he said they tasted just fine (he may as well be an expert at these sort of things). I'm off sweets, as we are expect spawn #2 and they are making me feel pretty horrible. So much for the worry that all this cake making would pack on the weight!

Stir fry-like chicken and rice

2009-03-10T10:50:00.004Z

This was a creation of necessity, as are many of my dinners. I open the cupboards and the fridge and pull out what I've got. This time I threw on 5 cherry tomatoes halved, and cut one red pepper into cubes, tossed them in olive oil and put them in the oven to roast.

I put on rice to cook with 1 cup rice to 1 cup chicken stock(homemade from the freezer) and 1 cup water. I slowly added more water as the rice cooked, and some of that Goya seasoning I mentioned earlier. Dash of white pepper, sea salt, and dumped in the tomatoes and peppers when the rice was cooked and the peppers and tomatoes were roasted. Add a big lump of butter. Handful of baby spinach, stir until softened. Done.

Chicken. Chop into cubes. 1 tbsp of white vine vinegar. Cover the chicken in a tiny coating of flour. Few lugs of Worchester sauce. Dash of white pepper (I love white pepper, god help me) and a good huge dash of garlic powder (or some minced garlic but I was feeling lazy). Lob of butter (yes, I used up a lot of butter in this recipe. I had butter sitting out left over from making cakes and felt, why not?).

Consume.

Lucky I remembered to take the picture, I was halfway done inhaling this before I remembered to share it with all of you ;)

Baked Bean Chili and Roasted Potatoes

2009-02-14T21:18:00.004Z

I am aware how difficult it is to make beans look appetizing in a picture, so I made sure you could get a good glimpse of those deliciously crisp potatoes.
We're going away to England next week, so this was a meal of "use up all the stuff in the fridge so nothing will go off" necessity.

I made roasted potatoes and a beefed up version of American-style baked beans, and it was gorgeous. I got a thumps up from Cormac, my measure of delicious, so I thought I'd share it here-- in spite of the fact that the photo doesn't do the taste justice.

Baked Bean Chili

2 cans of beans (I used pinto and kidney, you can use anything you've got in the cupboard)
1/2 cup BEER (I used Guinness left over from my chocolate cakes!)
1/2 cup bbq sauce OR ketchup (I had bbq sauce so it was a bit zippy)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup dijon mustard
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Worchester sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red pepper
3-4 tomatoes (I had vine tomatoes, medium sized)
2 strips of bacon
3 slices of ham (can you tell I was using up the contents of the fridge? Obviously, adjust this to suit yourself. I'd say a 1/2 lbs of bacon would be awesome, or a chuck of ham chopped up)

Directions
1. Cook up your ham/bacon in a large pot. Add garlic.
2. Remove from and lower heat, add your beer, molasses, ketchup/bbq, dijon, brown sugar, worchester sauce and stir well.
3. Return to heat, add chopped tomatoes and chopped red pepper. Add rinsed beans.
4. Let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The longer, the better-- but keep stirring so nothing sticks to your pot (or maybe you have such a nice non-stick pot that its none of your concern, but I don't, so be forewarned).

Roasted Potatoes in Bacon Fat
That left over bacon I used in the beans was left over from our Valentine's Day breakfast-- from which I saved the bacon grease. It was very little, and I'm sure if you replace that little bit with more olive oil these will turn out just fine.
Ingredients
4 potatoes
3 pinches of sea salt
several large glugs of olive oil
optional: approx 2 tbsp animal fat
polenta/corn meal

toss it all together on a pan, sprinkle potatoes with a tiny bit of polenta, cook 30-45 minutes at 180C (350F). Stir them around occasionally to keep them from sticking. If they are sticking too much, you need more oil.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T18:11:00.002Z

Red Velvet Cake made for promotion at my last LLL meeting. Red marshmallow fondant, decorated with royal icing. Vanilla buttercream filling. The cake went down great and I ever got an order from it!

Red Velvet Cake
3 ½ cups cake flour (you can use AP flour, minus 2 tbsp per cup + 1 tsp baking powder)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tbsp red food coloring
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar (I've used regular vinegar without issue)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. This recipe can make 2 8-9" round cakes or ~24 cupcakes.

1. Sift the cake flour.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.

3. In another bowl, whisk cocoa, red food colouring, and vanilla.
4. Add to creamed mixture.

5. Stir salt into buttermilk, add to your batter alternating with the flour.

6. Combine vinegar and baking soda and fold into your batter.

For cupcakes, bake about 20 minutes. For cakes, bake 30-40 minutes.

Cake Balls
adapted from Bakerella's Cake Balls

Red velvet cake crumbs (I used a whole 10" round cake)
8oz cream cheese
1 cup butter cream icing
(alternatively you can use one of those cans of premade cream cheese icing from the grocery store).

Mix together with your hands and refrigerate.

I melted a large bar of cadbury's milk chocolate in a double boiler, and used two spoons to cover my balls. I probably didn't use enough chocolate so they were sticking a lot. I don't like keeping extra chocolate in the house if you know what I mean!
The pink balls were melted strawberry chocolate chips from Ardkeen Food Stores.

Christening and Birthday Cake

2009-02-07T13:44:00.004Z

The other cakes I made for this weekend. I had a great time making these first "for clients" cakes. These are also chocolate with buttercream filling, and covered in thick buttercream before I placed the fondant over them. I'm a little sad my fondant dried out on the christening cake-- it just took so long to roll out!

Christening Cake

Birthday Cake

Time to deliver!

First Birthday Cake for Ruben

2009-02-06T13:52:00.002Z

This is the first "1st Birthday" cake I've made, and sold today. I desperately undercharged after I thought about my ingredients and the time I put into the cake, but that's alright. I knew the customer and it was great practice with the fondant. Now I know why most cake decorators buy the crappy tasting stuff. Oh well- I'd rather be proud of the work and the taste.

This is a moist chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in buttercream and fondant. It's the same cake I'm making today and tomorrow for a Christening which I'll post by tomorrow.

Again, I apologize for the quality of the photos. I blame it on lack of natural light this dim winter! I'm mostly annoyed that the light/flash bounces off any of the moist bits- those decorations don't actually appear so wet. The letters on this one were probably a tad too big. I wasn't completely happy with the text. I want to get some letter punches, but sometimes the bubble letters turn out great (see the 'Breda' cake). The customer was delighted, though, so that's all that matters!

I should also announce that I recently won the theme contest on the BakeBakeBake community on Livejournal for my LLL cake. Not so much the decoration but the cake/recipe. I won 2 months paid LJ account :)

Vanilla cake with Fresh Strawberry and buttercream filling topped with Whipped Cream Icing

2009-01-30T16:52:00.005Z

So on a whim I whipped up a little cake to try out a recipe I have for whipped cream icing. I'm no fan of plan whipped cake just spurted on to a cake, so I wanted to experiment with something nice.
I made a quickie round cake with fresh strawberry and buttercream filling, and my vanilla cake altered a bit. Then, I topped it with a small bit of whipped cream icing. Oh boy-- was it yummy! I'm fattening up my family. Each cake is better than the last.

I took a stroll through Superquinn today, and it must be cake day as they were whipping up about 20 cakes at once. I watched them saw through what looked like pretty dry sponge cake. Bleh. I'm glad they are one of just a handful of competitors out there in Waterford. I priced a cake off them just to get any idea, and trust me, I'd rather pay an extra and get one of my cakes than walk off with one of theirs!

Birthday Cake for Cormac's Mom

2009-01-25T21:57:00.004Z

I learned a few lessons doing this cake for Breda's birthday, one of them is that marshmallow fondant doesn't keep well in the fridge. It got too dry. Perhaps if I had heated it a bit and then worked it I wouldn't have had the cracking that I did.
My first attempt at fondant roses went well, I think. I did a good job of covering the areas that cracked as well. Cormac thought the cake looked great-- I have to agree. Next few cakes I'll do will be simpler. Maybe just cream or buttercream.

note: the rose of the top right got knocked over off its buttercream anchor and I didn't notice until after I took the picture. Bah! I also need to improve on my photo skills. I try all the settings on my camera that I think will work, and it doesn't.

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger image:

Oatmeal Pecan Pancakes

2009-01-24T10:32:00.003Z

I've just realized I've been feature in the Blog Digest at the Irish Independent

...which is pretty neat. So if you are visiting me from there, welcome! Feel free to ask me for conversions for some of these recipes-- I realize most of my recipes are in cups and not by weight.

Update: I will be going into business selling cakes. We checked out the farmers markets and I think to shell out the money for a table, covering, insurance, etc it's going to rip me a new one. I'd rather spend that money on cool gear for cake decorating and truly make a profit. Plus, there is nothing fun about baking zillions of cookies and just breaking even on expenses. So, if you are in the Waterford/Cork/Kilkenny area and need a cake for a special event (no weddings, yet, I'm not ready to tackle the bridezilla cartel quite yet! too much pressure), get in contact with me. After playing with the various combinations Candi + cake can create, I've decided to leave my sweet name out of it and stick with Boho Kitchen (creations)!

Anyhow, on to the food!
-----
I knew last night that I wanted a hearty little breakfast this morning. We're out of bread (you'll recall I discussed this phenomena in our house before), and I'm totally egged out.
Pancakes it is! I'm able to convince myself these pancakes are healthy... because... there are nuts, and, er, oatmeal.

Problem: My stovetop isn't great. As a result my pancakes don't always come out golden and beautiful. So I'll leave you with the recipe and you'll have to trust me there are as delicious (more delicious) as they sound. I've got left over batter SO I might snap a good shot of these babies later this week.

Oatmeal Pecan Pancakes
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup pecans
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 LARGE eggs (if your eggs are medium sized, you need 3-- most recipes are like this and I notice a lot of people make the mistake of not adding an extra egg to baked goods when they are using medium eggs)

Throw your oats and pecans (and flour, baking powder and soda, salt if you don't have a sifter) into a food processor.
Mix your buttermilk, vanilla and oil and add to the dry ingredients. Then mix in your eggs just until its blended. Try not to over mix it.

Scoop onto a hot griddle, flip when the top bubbles, eat with butter and syrup-- yum!

Choux

2009-01-22T18:33:00.001Z

I recently tried my hand at making choux pastry. I didn't have any cream, so I later smeared chocolate on top (which wasn't pretty so I didn't take pictures). However, these babies are purty.

I robbed this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2003/10/sugar_puffs.php

Moist Pink Vanilla Cake with Buttercream Filling Covered in Marshmallow Fondant

2009-01-22T18:20:00.007Z

So, I mostly started this blog because I'm thinking about selling my cookies and cakes. I've had a lot of rave responses to my very American style cookies and cakes here in Ireland, so I though, why not set up a market stall in a few places. I'm still looking into the specifics.
However, I have a cake order for the first week in February for a Christening, so I'm trying to decide between buttercream icing and a marshmallow fondant. I had never made marshmallow fondant before, so naturally I had to practice. It was about 8pm, Jane running around while Cormac watched her and I rolled out the icing to put on my cake, so I didn't get too creative. I was bringing this to a little La Leche League meeting, so I put three L's and some boobs nursing a baby on it for funsies. Fondant is fun, you can really play with it. I'm looking forward to having more time to make something that looks amazing.

Yeah, there is a little wetness shining on the cake. It looks a little blah, I know.
Dear God, though, this cake tastes amazing.

Try the Magnolia bakery vanilla cake, as mine is an adaptation of that.

Marshmallow fondant is pretty easy:
Melt about 16 ounces of marshmallow in the microwave on low heat with a few tablespoons of water. Just stop the microwave every once in a while and give it a stir. When its pretty much melted take it out and stir until its all melted. Slowly sift in about 2 lbs of icing sugar. The instructions were to grease you hands with crisco-- I don't have it here so I didn't do that. It was fine. You just want to knead it for ages, like bread dough. Once its smooth and not sticky, stick it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. Do not, DO NOT, put a cake into the fridge after you've rolled out and laid fondant over it. Bad idea.

Roast Veg and Apple-basted Ham

2009-01-18T20:58:00.002Z

Some nights Cormac arm wrestles me to cook dinner. Sometimes, I let him. Tonight was a delicious little roast. We found the ham we picked up at Lidl was a little meh, however. I basted a ham for New Years from the butcher (it was a smoked joint) and it turned out much, much nicer. So, lesson learned. If you are going to eat pork (which I do infrequently anyways, outside of nice sausages from our butcher in the village), make sure you get a decent cut.

The roast veg are an idea stolen from my good friend, Angelica. At dinner recently she served up the same sort of roast veg. Here we have carrots, sweet potato, white potato, and red pepper. Toss in generous amounts of olive oil, sea salt and pepper, a bit of garlic, thyme and rosemary. Just put this in a very hot oven for about an hour, keep tossing them around so they won't stick (honestly if they start to stick you aren't using enough oil). Delicious. We're going to start making this healthy sidedish more often. It's handy if you are like us and find yourself pathetically staring at one potato, one sweet potato, one carrot and half a pepper in your pantry!

I'll post the ham glaze later when I've got my recipe notebook in front of me.

Quick dinner or sandwich rolls

2009-01-17T15:37:00.000Z

I often hear the sound of the bread box opening and shutting, and Cormac's voice from the kitchen complaining there is no bread. We very rarely buy bread, and usually Cormac makes a family soda bread each week. However, some times, come lunch, we are all out of bread.
Cormac has an aversion to carbless meals, and will say to me somedays "can we get some sort of bread product please?!?". So, I went in search of a quicky bread recipe I could whip up in an hour's time. These are slightly sweet and fluffy and very satisfying. Next time I will make smaller rolls and smear on the butter and jam, yum!

1 cup water
2 tbsp softened butter
1 egg (room temperature)
3 1/4 cup bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp yeast

Mix in order (you could toss this in you bread machine on the dough setting and let it rise). I let this rise in my oven (warm) for 30 minutes (longer is probably better). I only tore the dough into 4 long rolls since I wanted to make sandwiches-- but this recipe would make awesome dinner rolls, maybe 8-10 round rolls. Let them rise again for 20 minutes or so.

375F 8-10 minutes

Ham and Potato Quiche

2009-01-16T23:08:00.001Z

Another delicious comfort food-- and easy to make! Another recipe born of necessity. What's in the fridge? Left over ham, eggs... any veg... potatoes, spinach... excellent!

Something you will notice is a lack of onions in recipes that scream "onions!". I have a strong distaste for onions. That said, I acknowledge which dishes should have/need them. This is probably one of those.

Ham and Potato Quiche
Filling:
1 cup chopped ham
8-10 sliced baby new potatoes (3-4 diced regular sized potatoes)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
optional: handful of spinach, and an onion

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp thyme (fresh is best)
4 eggs
salt and pepper

Crust:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup plain flour
pinch of salt
-- add milk until forms a non-sticky dough. About a cup maybe? Probably less.

1. Make up crust and line a greased pie pan/quiche pan
2. whip cream, milk, eggs and seasonings
3. add in ham, potatoes, cheese and veg
4. pour into crust
5. bake 30-40 minutes at 180C/350F

Baguettes

2009-01-16T23:07:00.000Z

My first baguette attempt. I've done this several times since. They are delicious, but each time they get closer to the sort of baguette Cormac and I consumed a zillion of during our time in Paris. It just takes patience and more important, time, which I have little of!

This is the rough recipe. I'll admit, I have a bad habit of writing down my recipes in short hand.

First make the "sponge". This is the nice bit that makes all those air pockets in the middle of the bread. You simply fold this into the rest of the dough later.

Sponge:
280g flour (roughly 2 1/5 cups)
280g water
5g yeast

mix, let rise for 2 hours. After 1 hour, reach in and mix it up a bit. Don't start the dough until the sponge has been able to rise.

Dough:
720g flour (roughly 5 1/2 cups)
370g water (1 1/2 cup water)
5g yeast
20g salt (1 tbsp)

If you have a mixer, yay! You want to mix up the dough, add in the sponge (after the sponge has been allowed to rise). 1st speed in your mixer for 3 minutes, then 7 minutes on the 2nd speed. You can just knead it by hand, but that will suck.

Let rise 45 minutes in a warm place. It's always chilly here, so I warm my over a bit and stick it in there.

Split into two loaves, slice a few diagonal slices with a knife-- let rise another 30 minutes in a warm place.

Bake 225C for 25 minutes. CONSUME WITH RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS OF BUTTER/HONEY/JAM.

Mexican Cottage Pie

2009-01-16T22:59:00.000Z

I have to explain that a lot of these pictures were snapped quickly before I knew I was really going to start this blog, so I didn't do a whole lot presentation-wise. I promise I will try my best to improve the picture quality!
On to the Mexican Cottage Pie. It is a layer of 1/3 any cornbread recipe, ground beef mixture, topped with a mash of white and sweet potato:

I have the bad habit of making things on a whim, with what is in the cupboard.

I can guess what was in this. Let me introduce you to a staple in my kitchen. It's such a staple, that I bring back several boxes of this every trip I make to the states. Blame my Puerto Rican best friend who introduced me to this in college.

Cook up your lbs of ground beef, with one packet of this (or some other stock cube seasoning-- don't mind that its chicken).

Few pinches of (to taste, just keep sampling it until it tastes good to you)
white pepper
chili powder
cumin
basil
half tube of tomato paste
2 cloves of garlic, I put them throw a garlic press, you can finely chop
shake of Worcester sauce (another staple)
1 red pepper
mix in a rough cup of shredded cheddar cheese and 1/2-1 cup peas.

I actually cooked a 1/3 recipe of cornbread in the bottom of this pan before I added the hamburger meat. Any all recipe will do. You can skip this step, but it makes the pie oh-so-nice. You can make half of a jiffy cornbread mix if you'd like.

Spread the ground beef into a 9x9 or other pan (or on top of your cornbread). Press it down nice and tight.

The top is a mash of both white and sweet potatoes (2 white, on 1 sweet). Steam and mash, spread across the top. Sprinkle some cheddar on top.

Bake 20-30 minutes at 350F

Spoon out and consume, comfort food!

Pecan and Brandied Fig Pie

2009-01-16T22:55:00.002Z

Bites:

Just absolutely delicious. Holiday pie? Done. Make this pie!

Pie Filling
3/4 cup finely chopped dried figs (about 5 ounces)
2 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons water
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
3 large eggs
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups pecan halves, toasted
Pie crust

Cream
1 cup chilled whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon brandy

Preparation
For filling:
Stir figs, brandy, and water in heavy small saucepan over low heat until liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes; cool. Mix brown sugar, corn syrup, and next 4 ingredients in medium bowl. Stir in pecans, then fig mixture.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish. Fold edge of dough over, forming double edge, and crimp decoratively, pressing to top edge of dish. Pierce all over with fork. Freeze crust 15 minutes.

Line crust with foil; fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until sides are set, about 12 minutes. Remove foil and beans. Bake until crust is pale golden, pressing with back of fork if crust bubbles, about 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

Spoon filling into warm crust. Bake until filling is puffed at edges and set in center, about 40 minutes. Let stand until cool, at least 1 hour. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

For cream:
Beat cream, sugar, and brandy in medium bowl. Whisk until peaks form. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover; chill.) Serve pie with cream.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-01-16T22:16:00.002Z

I came across this recipe when I messed up another recipe. After some other personal tweaking, its my go-to cookie recipe. Not only are they delicious, with a subtle crunch on the outside and perfect chewiness in the center, but they look darn pretty.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
3½ cups flour (add up to an extra cup towards the end, more flour, the thicker they will be without compromising taste).
3 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

225g (1 cup) melted butter
1½ cups caster sugar
1½ cup light brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F.
Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
Preparation
In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Set apart.
In a large bowl or mixer, mix the butter and sugars, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Slowly add in the flour mixture.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Form balls (¼ cup approx.) of dough and press them slightly between you hands. Place on the lined baking sheet (I put 6-9 cookies on one baking sheet). I use a large cookie scoop.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges are very lightly colored.
Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack. I found they were best after completely cooling, but who can wait that long!

Chocolate Stout Cake

2009-01-16T22:05:00.003Z

The sinfulness that is Nigella's chocolate cake recipe. I've yet to find a chocolate cake to come close to this recipe in richness. It's so moist! I'm not usually too much of a cake gal, but this cake makes a believer out of me. I would normally do a cream cheese icing with this cake (to resemble a pint of Guinness), however, I'm practicing smoothing my icing so I did a chocolate buttercream.

Chocolate Stout Cake:
butter for pan
1 c. Guinness
6 tbs. unsalted butter
3/4 cup good quality cocoa (cheap cocoa, cheap cocoa taste)
2 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 c. all-purpose flour
2.5 tsp. baking soda

Heat oven to 350. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Preparation
In a large saucepan over medium-low, combine Guinness, butter, and cocoa. Stir and cook very gently until butter and chocolate melt and the mixture is fairly smooth; remove from heat. Whisk in the sugar.

In a small bowl, mix the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk this mixture into the Guinness mixture. Add the flour and baking soda and mix again until smooth.

Pour the batter into buttered pan and bake 45 min to an hour, until risen and firm. Place pan on a wire rack and cool completely in pan.

Thank Nigella! Adapted from Feast.

Blackberry Jam

2009-01-16T22:05:00.001Z

Apple Turnovers

2009-01-16T22:04:00.001Z

Chicken Pot Pie

2009-01-16T22:02:00.000Z

My Kitchen, Old Red

2009-01-15T22:23:00.000Z

I should introduce you to my babies.

First, is Red. Red is a 5 qt. Artisan KitchenAid Mixer. I got Red off Amazon for $165. How did I catch this incredible deal? I have no idea. She was worth checking as baggage to bring back from my parents (did I mention free shipping?) to Ireland.

This is my other baby, Jane. Jane is nearly 18 months now. Is she anything but gorgeous?