Cornish Fairings

The commercial Furniss Cornish fairing.

Quite why this is a Cornish recipe is something of a mystery to me.  I may be wrong, but I think it may simply have been a spot of marketing genius by someone at Furniss bakery.  The recipe has been going for years, and this simple, easily packaged recipe has been sold in Gift shops County wide ever since.  According to their website -

Fairings biscuits were originally bought as gifts for sweethearts
at the Cornish Whitsuntide & Corpus Christi Fairs. In 2007, Furniss preserved the recipe for future generations.

I am left chuckling after looking at their website.  Loving Furniss Fact no 3 - You should dunk your biscuit horizontally so that it soaks up the liquid evenly.  Come on now - how on earth do you dunk a biscuit horizontally?  Serve up a brew in a cereal bowl?

I've never found them anything to get excited by, but hey-ho, I've never attempted the home-made version, and they're Cornish, so I thought I'd give them a whirl.

Ingredients    (recipe source from Linda Collisters Baking Bible )

100g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
40g golden caster sugar
50g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
1 tablespoon of mixed peel, very finely chopped
3 tablespoons of golden syrup (in cold weather, warm the syrup before adding to mix)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Prepare a couple of baking sheets.
2. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and mixed spice into a larger bowl.
3. Stir in the sugar.
4. Add the diced butter and rub in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
5. Stir in the mixed peel, and then the syrup.
6. Using your hands, roll the dough into about 20 marble-sized balls. Space them well apart on the baking sheets.
7. Bake in oven for about 7 minutes or until golden.

Notes

Quick to throw together from standard store-cupboard ingredients.  I'm thinking this would be a good recipe for the kids to have a go at.  Supervise the golden syrup (mind you - would be hard to be in a claggier mess than me), and rename them Icky-Stickies - you could be onto a winner.

The first batch have gone in the oven, and we shall await developments.

Uh-oh.  That means I've got to get my hands all yukky again in a few minutes.

The finished result ought to be flat biscuits with a cracked top, similar to ginger nuts.  We'll see.

 Verdict

This may be a disaster.  The first batch out look nothing like they're supposed to look, which is odd as I've followed the recipe exactly.

Cracked?

Ha ha ha.  Mine resemble doughy lumps, and there's not a crack in sight.  I tried banging the tray down hard on the worktop, in the hope it would frighten them into cracking.  I don't recommend this.... it achieved nothing other than hurt my wrists.  If I pop a postulating glob into my mouth with my eyes closed though, the flavour is rather lovely.

Let's try a second batch with the oven turned down to 160C and leave them in for longer.  They can't turn out any worse.

Not worse - but certainly not any better.  Good grief.  These are a sorry excuse for biscuits, and I'm ashamed of them.  I wonder if anyone has baked this recipe with success?  They are so far removed from where they should be, they taste and feel exactly like ginger-snaps that have been left at the back of the cupboard for months and gone soggy.  Suppose they'll be alright dunked in a cuppa, but I certainly won't be handing them round to visitors.

Right ho.......  Are you ready for a laugh?

A baking boo-hoo if ever there was one

Will I be making these again?

Not on your life.

Chocolate Guiness Cake

This is Nigella's version - hope mine turns out looking something like

Ever since I tasted a slice of this in a cafe in Christchurch I have been smitten.  It was without a doubt the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted.  I always assumed the recipe would be an extensive, difficult one to follow.  How wrong was I?

After googling Chocolate Guiness Cake, this recipe by Nigella was the first one that popped into view.  How simple it looks.  How can I not try this at home?

The ingredients that set it apart from a normal chocolate cake are the Guiness and sour cream.  Prior to reading the recipe I assumed a vast amount of expensive high quality chocolate was included.  No - just plain old Cocoa powder.  There is an astonishing amount of sugar in this recipe, required perhaps to offset the bitterness of the Guiness and sour cream.  The only change I have made to the recipe is to use Stork margarine instead of butter.  I intended to use butter, especially as it's just melted on the hob, but realised at the last minute that I didn't have quite enough.  

I find myself rather stunned by just how simple this is to make.  In moments it was all whisked in together and in the oven.  Can something so easy really turn out so great?  Whilst writing this, I can smell it baking in the oven. (whilst also enjoying what was left from the can of Guiness used). 

  OMG - it smells amazing.  Please, please turn out okay.

Here's the recipe I've used....

Recipe sourced at Nigella.com

FOR THE CAKE

• 250ml Guinness
• 250g unsalted butter
• 75g cocoa
• 400g caster sugar
• 1 x 142ml pot sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
• 275g plain flour
• 2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

FOR THE TOPPING

• 300g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 150g icing sugar
• 125ml double or whipping cream

 

Method

Serves: Makes about 12 slices

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm spring form tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Notes

 Mine is a fan oven, and after 45 minutes, the cake looked cooked on top, but was still gooey inside after testing with a skewer.  I turned the oven down to 160C and left it in for a further 15 minutes.  Looks pretty darn good to me.  Rather than a spring form cake tin, I've baked it in a large silicone "tin".  Here's hoping it turns out OK once cool.

It looks well risen, which I was a bit worried about, as I only used a hand balloon whisk to whizz everything together.  It was only after I'd started, that I wondered if I should have used my electric hand whisk.  It certainly doesn't look as though it needed it.

Oh hurry up and cool - I can hardly wait to cut into you - you gorgeous thing

For the topping, I didn't add any cream to the mixture.  I was going to add a spoonful of creme-fraiche, but it was already so rich and creamy it simply didn't need it.

Verdict

 
This has turned out quite beautifully.  Tops marks to Nigella for a deliciously simple recipe.  I couldn't resist scraping a little shamrock into the top of the icing.  This is a superb chocolate cake, and so quick and easy to do it will be frequently repeated.

Straight after baking, I wasn't sure if this was exactly what I was hoping to achieve.  I thought the texture was a bit too spongy.  However, after storing in an airtight container overnight, the resulting cake is perfect.  Dense, moist and divine.  My idea of chocolate heaven.

Zingy Lemon Cupcakes

Today I'm baking one of my favourite cupcake recipes - a zingy Lemon variety.


I'm adapting* a recipe from one of my favourite baking books - Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery.  May I stress that the original recipe is perfect in every way, it's just my preference and what I have in store.

Ever since I chanced across this little gem of a cook book, it has become my most used source.  I think I've made every recipe in it, and they all come out true.  It's not all cupcake recipes either, there are recipes for full sized cakes too.  I would (and have) recommend this book to anyone.

One day, I will have a kitchen with room to move.  At the moment I am confined to a worktop area so tiny it's ridiculous.  Honestly.... I've owned caravans in the past with more room.  This is my entire workspace -

If I can manage in such a small space - no-one can say they haven't got the space to cook.

 

 Ingredients

Makes a dozen large cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 160C (fan)   180C/350F/gas mark 4

Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases.  I use silicone cake trays, and pop Muffin cases inside.  I've tried lots of different varieties, but find Morrisons own brand not only one of the most economical, but the best size and most able to hold it's shape.

Cupcake batter

• 110g Stork baking margarine
• 225g Caster sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 150g self-raising flour
• 125g plain flour
• 90ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature
• 1 juicy unwaxed lemon
• 1 tablespoon creme fraiche

*The original recipe uses butter instead of margarine, and sour cream instead of creme fraiche.  It also states 1 tea-spoon of lemon zest, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.  I'm more than happy with the whole lemon option.  I simply prefer margarine in the mix, and always have creme fraiche in the fridge.  I've even been known to substitute mayonnaise when desperate - works a treat.

 

Lemon Buttercream icing  (my own version)

350g icing sugar sifted into bowl
125g butter
zest & juice 1 lemon

For my icing, I have also added the tinest dab of lemon/lime professional food colouring.  Really just the tip of a skewer dabbed into the pot and mixed in with the icing.  It gives just the faintest tinge of colour to the icing, and won't be missed at all if not used.

Method

 In a large mixing bowl cream the margarine and butter together until the mixture is pale and smooth.  I use an electric hand whisk and it takes about 3 minutes on full power.  (You notice when it's ready as it lightens a lot in colour)

Tip - replace the weighing bowl from your scales with your mixing bowl, and reset the scale to zero.  Then weigh your fat and sugar straight in.


Add the eggs one at a time, mixing for a minute after each one.

Weigh out the flour on your scales and roughly combine.

In a jug, combine the milk, juice/zest of one lemon and the creme fraiche.  A whizz with a fork will be sufficient.

Next sift the flour and add the liquid to your fat/sugar mix.  I do this in two stages - adding roughly half the flour and liquid, whizzing thoroughly with the electric whisk and then repeating.  (If I was using my food mixer I would simply chuck everything in at once, and after a moment on slow speed to stop flour flying everywhere, crank it up to full speed for a couple of minutes).  I'm of the firm belief that cakes can be over-processed.

This mix divides perfectly into 12 cases.  I use an ancient ice-cream scoop to dollop it in.  It was totally useless for ice-cream, but works a treat for baking.

 Place on the middle shelf of the oven for about 25 minutes, until slightly raised and golden brown.  Before removing from oven, always check they are cooked thoroughly by inserting a skewer into the centre of a cake.  It should come out clean.  If not, return to oven for a further 3 minutes and check again.

 Remove from the oven and place tins on a cooling rack.  After about 10 minutes remove the cakes from the tin so that they can cool thoroughly.   Don't rush to mix the icing, as once it's made up it's best to work with it fairly quickly.  Wait until they're cool.

Icing

Weigh your icing ingredients into a bowl, sifting the icing sugar.  I always use my electric hand whisk for this.  Be warned.... always start off on the slowest speed, otherwise the kitchen will resemble a snow storm, and you will look like you've been pulled from an avalanche.  I recommend draping a clean tea towel around the bowl and over the top of the whisk for the first few moments, to avoid a snow-scene.

Whisk thoroughly on full power until the mixture is smooth and glossy.  The mix should be easy to move around with a palette knife, but not too soft that it doesn't hold it's shape.  Don't worry if it's not quite right.  Either add a drop of water at a time (and I mean drop), or a tad more icing sugar.

You can of course ice the cakes any way you want to.  You may want to use an icing bag and pipe the icing on.  That's far too much faffing about for me.  Let me show you the method I use.  It's fairly quick and foolproof, and looks surprisingly professional.

Using a palette knife, splodge some icing onto the centre of a cake and roughly smooth out towards the edge.

Next place the palette knife in the centre of the cake at a slight angle.  Keeping the knife still, rotate the cake whilst moving the knife slowly out towards the edge of the cake.  To begin with it looks horrendous, but as long as the consistency of the icing is okay, it will soon start to work it's way into swirls.  It may take a few attempts to get this right, but once you've cracked it, you'll get it right each time.  If it's a disaster, simply scrape off and try again.  The buttercream will stay workable for quite a while as long as you keep giving it a good stir.

You can add further decoration by using the sugar lemon slices you can find in the bakery aisle.  My personal favourite is to add a mini meringue to the top of each, and a few slithers of lemon zest.