Fook It, Just Cook It!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

2012-11-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

We're back!!!!!!

So we took the 'summer' off, we just had sooo much to do, what with all the sunshine and all...And seeing as Halloween is my favourite festivity (Pancake Tuesday coming a close second) what better time of year to start baking again. Over the last 8 years I have baked something with pumpkin for my (un)lucky housemates. It started off with pumpkin pie which the girls described as "like eating a vegetable pie that kinda tasted desserty". Bottom line they hated it. So the next year, I thought it couldn't have tasted that bad and I made it again...this time they refused to eat it. Back to the drawing board. In the following years, I experimented with cookies decorating them with writing icing(not great) and pumpkin cake (like carrot cake with pumpkin in it, not bad actually), but this year I think I have finally cracked it...Pumpkin Cupcakes...bleedin' delish :-)

The most labourious part of this recipe is preparing the pumpkin. You can buy puréed pumpkin but by the time you have driven around the country to find it, you will have roasted your own pumpkin, peeled it, mashed it, sieved it and left the water to drain off it!

Ingredients(makes 12)
110g unsalted butter, room temperature
240g soft light brown sugar
120g plain flour
125g self-raising flour
100g puréed pumpkin
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
120mls milk mixed with 1tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 160degrees celsius

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract, beat well after each addition. Add the pumpkin and beat until just combined. The mixture may curdle if the pumpkin is straight out of the fridge but don't worry it will still make delicious cupcakes.

Combine the flours, cinnamon and ginger and sieve into a bowl. Add one-third of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat until just combined. Add half of the milk/lemon and beat again until just combined. Repeat until all the flour and milk/lemon have been added.

Spoon into the cupcake cases filling them to two-thirds full. Bake for 25mins until slightly raised and golden brown.

Once they are completely cooled, ice them with cinnamon cream cheese icing.

Cinnamon cream cheese icing: 175g cream cheese, 450g icing sugar(sieved), 125g unsalted butter(room temperature), 1/4tsp ground cinnamon, pinch of ground cloves

Mix all the ingredients together and beat well until thoroughly combined and the icing is smooth and pale.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Nappy cake

2012-06-26T13:46:00.003-07:00

Ok - this isn't strictly cooking but I do promise that it is calorie free!!

Portlaoise has been crowned baby boom capital of Ireland, I think Dublin must be coming a close second - it is certainly leading the way in wishing new mums well as they prepare for motherhood with BABY SHOWERS. The baby shower has become the social highlight of many a thirysomethings social calendar and apparently a ‘nappy cake’ is a must.

What you need:

Nappies I used about 80 to make a 3 tiercake. I was told to only buy Pampers or Huggies and that size 3 was the most useful as not all new born babes fit into the smaller sizes.

Elastic Bands You need one small one for each nappy,about 80 and about 10 larger ones for arranging the tiers

Ribbon Colour of your choice, I chose a neutral-ish purple. If you know you are celebrating a boy or a girl – it should make the choice fairly obvious ;-)

Other items that the new mum will need can be added as well, I included baby shampoo and lotion, Sudocrem, cotton buds, mits, a hat and a toy. You could also include bottles, bottle brushes and soothers.

Start by rolling up each nappy and holding it with one of the small elastic bands.

What to do:

Once you have all the nappies rolled you need to start arranging into tiers.

For the top tier, use one rolled nappy as the centre point and then arrange about 6 nappies around this nappy in a circle and secure with an elastic band. This should be big enough for the top tier.

As the lower tiers need to be larger than the top tier, follow the instructions for the top tier but add another row or ring of nappies and secure with a large elastic band.

Depending on how big you want each of the lower tiers to be, continue to add rows or rings of nappies – securing each set with a large elastic band.

Once you have all 3 tiers made you need to stack them on top of one another – now you have the basic structure of the cake.

Decorating the cake:

Cut the ribbon into 3 and tie it around each tier ensuring you cover any visible elastic band.

If you are adding other items – you can remove some of the nappies from the edge of the tiers and replace with some suitably shaped items –bottles of shampoo or baby lotion, feeding bottles or Sudocrem.

You could also replace the centre nappy with some of the other items – bottles either empty or containing baby products are probably the best shape.

You can tuck things like the hat and mits around the edges and place the toy on top!

Bruschetta on a Summer's Day

2012-06-17T15:02:00.003-07:00

Now I know we haven't had much sunshine yet but on one of the few sunny days we had in May I was inspired to make bruschetta. I am not much of a salad person but I love this dish and I always feel healthy after eating it! My Dad was the first person in our family to make this dish. My mother subsequently stole the recipe from Dad and claimed it as her own. Now I'm stealing it and claiming it as my recipe. It's an easy one to make and you can add other ingredients to it such as chilli or cucumber or whatever you fancy. Equally you can add more or less of the garlic and onions to suit your taste. Dad reckons the secret is in the bread so choose carefully!

Maybe if everyone makes bruschetta the sun will come out for us, here's hoping!!

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

12 medium sized ripe tomatoes(plum, cherry, any sweet tomato works well)

1/2 red onion

1/2 yellow pepper

2 cloves of garlic

2 stalks of basil

2 thickly cut rounds of tiger bread(or any fresh crusty white loaf)

Good olive oil

I served this with rocket leaves and balsamic dressing.

Collect all your ingredients

Chop tomatoes roughly into half, then quarters and then chop once more across the middle. If using cherry tomatoes you can just chop them in half.

Place in a bowl.

Chop the pepper and onion finely and add to the tomatoes.

Crush the garlic into the mixture and mix well.

Shred the leaves of basil and add into the mix. Add enough olive oil to coat the mixture.

Place the mixture in the fridge to chill.

The bread can now be toasted in the oven

To assemble drizzle a small amount of oil onto the oven-toasted bread. Spoon the tomato mixture onto the bread.

Serve with salad and sunshine!

Dr. Rita Hand's Carrot Cake

2012-05-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

Ok Strawberry, I am super impressed by the blog so here is my first contribution under my alias, Dr. Rita Hand. I made this cake for a cake sale in work and made the mistake of mentioning it to the girls and of course, I was volunteered for dessert duty the following Tuesday.

Ingredients

For the cake:

2 eggs

150ml vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)

200g white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

125g plain flour

1 teaspoon bread soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 large carrots grated

65g pecans (chopped, or pulverised in the liquidiser; whichever your preference)

For the icing:

65g butter

110g cream cheese (I used low fat and it worked perfectly)

240g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.

Into a large bowl, place the eggs, white sugar and vanilla essence.

Beat this mixture together with a fork.

Sieve the flour into the mixture.

Add the ground cinnamon.

Using a fork, mix until you achieve a smooth consistency.

Add the grated carrots.

Pop the pecans into the liquidiser and turn on for a few seconds.

Stir the grated carrots and ground pecans through the mixture.

Grease a loaf tin with a little butter and dust with a little flour. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin.

Bake in the oven for approximately 45-50 minutes (for a fan-assisted oven). Stick a skewer into cake and if it is clean when removed then the cake is ready! Leave to cool before trying to remove from the cake tin.

For the icing, use soft butter and chop into small pieces. Add to liquidiser or bowl if you have a hand mixer (my kitchen equipment is limited). The liquidiser is from Aldi- thanks Mum! Sieve in the icing sugar and add the cream cheese and vanilla essence. Pop the lid on and turn the liquidiser on full blast until you achieve a nice, smooth consistency. You may need to stop for a few seconds and mix with a spoon to ensure no pockets of icing sugar are forming. You may find it necessary to taste it at this point. You may also find that plenty of willing volunteers will suddenly materialise to "help".

Pour the icing over the cake. Even with a generous layer, there will be plenty left over. This icing is also really good for cupcakes.

Top with a pecan or two to make it look pretty.

Battenburg cake

2012-05-13T14:57:00.001-07:00

Our gang is like rent-a-crowd and a catering company all in one. We love it ! We love cooking, we love eating and we love parties. So we had a baby shower for who we now know as baby Scott. Here is the recipe for one of the many things baked for the shower, a battenburg cake with pink and blue squares. The almond paste uses water and a little sherry instead of raw eggs for the mammies-to-be. By the way, this is the most frustrating cake to make. It looks so pretty but it is difficult to put together. So from now on, I'm sticking with Mr. Kipling next time ;-)

Ingredients

175g butter or block margarine, softened

175g caster sugar

few drops vanilla extract

3 eggs, beaten

175g self raising flour

225g almond paste:
-225g icing sugar

-225g caster sugar

-450g ground almonds

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

-water mixed with sherry and 2tsp lemon juice

caster sugar , to dredge

225g apricot jam, melted
Baby themed decorations(I used pink and blue feet from Kitchen Complements)

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract. Add the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually sift all the flour over the mixture and fold it in lightly.

Grease and line a 30 x 20cm swiss roll tin. I made double the amount of mixture to make one pink sponge and one blue sponge. But you can make this mixture and pleat the baking paper lengthways in the swiss roll tin. You will need to split the mixture between 2 bowls then add pink colouring to one bowl and blue into the other one and spoon the pink mixture into one side of the swiss roll tin and the blue into the other side.

I used 15 drops of pink liquid food colouring made by PME arts and crafts. The colour was peach more than pink so you might like to use more drops of pink colour. The blue colour was Gentian by Squires Kitchen Professional. It only took 6 drops to get a deep colour but it was a green-blue colour so try another blue colour.

Depending on the food colouring you are using gradually add the pink colour to half the mix until desired depth of color is achieved. Do the same to the other half of the mixture with the blue colouring. Turn the mixtures into the swiss roll tin(s).

Bake for 40-45mins until well risen, firm to the touch and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Next make the almond paste.
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and mix in the caster sugar and the ground almonds. Add the vanilla extract, water, sherry and lemon juice and mix to a stiff dough. Take care not to add too much liquid, it makes the paste very difficult to work with. Knead lightly. Cover until ready to use.

Assembling the battenburg:

When the sponges are cold, trim the cakes to an equal size and cut each in half lengthways, then quarter if you used double the mixture. Sprinkle caster sugar on the work surface and roll out the almond paste to a rectangle 30x40cm. Spread a thin layer of melted apricot jam on the rolled out almond paste. Place one strip of the pink cake on the almond paste so it lies up against the short edge of the paste. Carefully brush the top and long side of the cake with the jam. Place a strip of blue beside the pink strip. Then stack alternative coloured strips of cake on top on the bottom strips.

Have a bowl of icing sugar beside you when rolling the almond paste around the layers of cake. Press the paste firmly against the cake. In a hot kitchen, with hot hands, this is a very sticky and messy exercise. So I had to keep brushing my hands with the icing sugar.

Now seal and trim the join and trim the edges using a sharp knife.

Dredge with caster sugar and decorate.

Cheery scones

2012-04-18T13:59:00.001-07:00

No it's not a typo, cherry scones make me happy:-) They are so colourful looking and if the cherry colour runs a little into the mix they have a pretty pink tinge!

I got this recipe from Mrs C after I had the fluffiest scones ever one weekend in Mayo. You can add any fruit really. I heard somewhere if you add fresh fruit you should coat it in flour to stop them sinking in the oven...can anyone confirm or deny this trick?

Cherry SconesIngredients(makes 12)900g flour170g butter

3 eggs

pinch of salt

60g caster sugar

3 heaped tsp baking powder

425mls lowfat milk

100g glace cherries(or other fruit)

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees celsius.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together.

Rub in the butter. Cut the cherries in half and add to the dry ingredients.

Whisk the eggs with the milk, add to the dry ingredients and mix into a soft dough.

Put lots of flour on your work surface.

The mixture is quite sticky. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough before kneading lightly into a round shape.

Roll out to about 2 and a half inches thick and cut into scones.

Place on a baking sheet.

Brush with egg wash...

...and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake in a hot oven for 10-15mins until golden brown.

Baby Boom

2012-04-04T14:49:00.001-07:00

Coming soon to a blog near you!!!...Baby Battenburg Cake, Baby Blue and Pink Cupcakes and Lynders Amazing Nappy Cake...

Breaking news: We have become aunties!!! Two of our group had little boys this week, one arrived yesterday and another cutie today...Congrats girls!
...and we still have one more baby due in 3 weeks, so it's a very exciting time for us. We have been busy making baby-themed goodies over the last few weeks so we will post those recipes soon! The nappy cake was deadly, so don't keep us in suspense for too long Lynder, we want that "recipe"!

Smoked salmon and sweet potato frittatas

2012-03-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love the idea of those websites where you can search a list of ingredients in your fridge/cupboard and it gives you a recipe suggestion! Ingenious!

The inspiration for this recipe came when I had smoked salmon to use it up so I searched for smoked salmon recipes on google and I came across "mini frittatas with smoked salmon and herbed creme fraiche" on salmon recipes.net, eh yummmm! So then I had a look in the kitchen for potatoes and creme fraiche...I found sweet potatoes and sour cream...that'll do pig, that'll do;-)

Sweet potato frittata with smoked salmon and herbed sour cream

Ingredients(serves 2)
15ml spoon olive oil

1 small onion, finely sliced

3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

Quarter of a red pepper

Quarter of a green pepper
Half a 285g jar of artichoke antipasto, drained
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 medium size eggs, beaten
125g pack smoked salmon

75g sour cream

15ml spoon freshly chopped dill/dried dill

Gently heat the oil in a 20cm frying pan. Cook the onions for 1 minute, then add the peppers and cook for another minute.

Add the potatoes and cook for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Sprinkle over the artichoke and mix in gently. Now season the beaten eggs and gently pour over the base.

Allow the frittata to cook gently for a further 7 minutes until almost set, finishing off the frittata under the grill until golden brown.

When cool to the touch slice into wedges and pile the smoked salmon on top. Mix the sour cream with the dill. This can be served on top of the salmon or on the side.

ENJOY!

Sweet, sweet potato, roasted chilli & feta muffins

2012-03-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

More Savoury Muffins...

This recipe came from a book I bought in work from the Book Club of Ireland. The book is called Home Made Baking and is a UK publication. It's one of those cookbooks I had to get at the time but I haven't cooked anything from it since I got it(we are talking years!). I have many cookbooks like that :-(

But the recipe was easy to follow and was tasty so I will have to use that book again:-)

Sweet Potato, Roasted chilli and Feta muffins
Ingredients(makes 12)
1 medium orange-fleshed sweet potato
1 fresh hot red chilli
300g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Half a teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
Half teaspoon cumin powder or 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
225mls low fat milk

Tulip wraps

3 tablespoons olive oil
75g feta cheese

use a 12-hole muffin tray.
Again I used tulip wraps for presentation purposes. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius/400 degrees fahrenheit/Gas mark 6

Bake the sweet potato for 30-45mins having stabbed it with a fork several times and placed it on a baking sheet. I made the mistake of peeling the sweet potato before I baked it. However once it is cooled you can scoop out the flesh, mash it and set aside.

I have always wanted to get a blowtorch for cooking but thought creme brulee would be the only reason to use one, so couldn't justify it. For this recipe I could have done with one to blacken the chilli. Instead I brushed it with a little oil and put it under the grill until it was scorched. Then put the chilli in a sandwich/freezer bag until cool enough to handle. It can be easily peeled now. Slit the chilli open lengthways and remove the stem, seeds and membranes. Finely chop the chilli flesh and set aside.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the garlic, cumin and basil. In a separate jug, beat the eggs, milk, olive oil and cooled mashed sweet potato together.

Add the egg mixture and the chopped chilli to the dry ingredients. Now crumble the feta in and briefly mix until just combined.

Crumble the feta in

Yes, I know, it looks like a bowl of vomit.

Spoon the batter into the muffin wraps, dividing evenly. Bake for 20-25mins or until well risen and golden.

Cool in the tin for 10mins, then turn out onto a wire rack.

These muffins had a much more subtle flavour than the spinach and cheese muffins

Spinach & cheese muffins

2012-03-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, muffins...

So maybe the word "muffins" sounds like I'm cheating at Lent, but sure I have to live on something!! Actually I offered to bake these for a retirement party in work. I knew there would be lots of goodies at the party so I thought I would make something tasty so I wouldn't feel like I was missing out!

I got this recipe in the The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. It's a very pretty book with lots of yummy looking cupcakes/muffins/pies/ brownies/cakes and cookies. Thanks to Áine who gave me the book as a Kris Kringle present this Christmas.
I adapted the recipe based on whatever cheese was in the fridge at the time. I used half mature Wexford cheddar cheese, half parmesan in the first batch and then just mature Wexford cheddar cheese in the second batch. Using the parmesan meant the mixture was quite dry but they were tasty muffins. If you don't like a strong cheese flavour, mild cheddar would be fine to use.

Spinach and cheese muffins
Ingredients(makes 12)
30g butter
half a small red onion, finely chopped
360g plain flour
2 and a half teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
250g mature cheddar cheese or
125g mature cheddar cheese and 125g parmesan, grated
220mls low fat milk
1 egg
65g spinach leaves, cut in strips or 130g baby spinach leaves

use a 12-hole muffin tray
I got some tulip muffin wraps in Kitchen Complements(Chatham Row, Dublin) for presentation purposes, the muffins expand alot so you will need big muffin cases. Bake in preheated oven (170 degrees celsius /325 degrees fahrenheit/Gas mark 3.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat,. Fry the onion until cooked and set aside.

Put the flour, baking powder, cayenne pepper and cheese in a large bowl .

Mix the milk and egg together in another bowl, then slowly pour into the flour mixture and beat with a handheld electric whisk* until all the ingredients are mixed well.

*A word of warning, the mixture can be very dry, so be careful when using the handheld electric whisk because I was afraid mine was going to explode under the pressure. It's possible that another egg could be added to make the mixture easier to blend.

Stir in the onion and spinach with a wooden spoon until evenly dispersed. Spoon the mixture into the papercases until half full* and bake for 30-35mins, or until deep golden and sponge bounces back when touched.

*the cookbook said two-thirds full but I found these to be quite filling to eat so I felt half full was plenty.

The second batch without the
parmesan as you can see was wetter.

Leave the muffins to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

YUM!*

* - If I do say so myself ;-)

40 days and 40 nights of savoury stuff

2012-03-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung.

It's Lent. I know it's a bit strange to start a food blog during Lent but I have given up eating chocolate, crisps, sweets, biscuits, desserts and cakes. I have such a sweet-tooth, I'm actually dreaming at night that I break Lent by tucking into a big lump of chocolate. Weird!

Think it's time I discovered the joys of eating savoury foods.

FROM SMALL ACORNS...

2012-02-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our new blog, we hope you like it...

Before we start blogging, here's a nice picture of last night's dinner:

Veggie paella