Daring Bakers: Whoopie Pies

The December Daring Baker's Challenge had us all cheering. The lovely and talented Bourbonnatrix of Bourbonnatrix Bakes was our hostess and challenged us to make fun, delicious and creative whoopie pies! Delicious little cake-like cookies sandwiching luscious filling in any flavours we choose... what else is there to say but "Whoopie!".

Incidentally, that was exactly how this cake-biscuit treat got it's name. Apparently, according to the ever reliable (?) Wikipedia, Amish women used to sneak this into their husband's lunch boxes every now and again. When the men opened their lunches and discovered the treats - after a long morning's work - they let out a "whoopie"!

This is my first attempt at making whoopie pies. I've eaten them before but have never gotten around to actually making them. I like me a big old cake rather than mini cookie cakes ... they just require so much more work. 

But this was fun because while I chose the very basic chocolate for my pies, I experimented with the filling a little and settled on this yoghurt, lemon and coconut cream cheese filling. Whoa, that's a mouthful.

Chocolate and coconut go together well, no doubt about that. I didn't want a really rich filling like buttercream or marshmallow simply because I don't have a sweet tooth. Yoghurt, though, I love. And lemon? Double love. 

The filling was definitely luscious but also a little too soft. It didn't hold together all that well which proved a little messy when handling the pies. I chilled them and that made it a wee bit better.  I think perhaps it could be because I opted for low fat cream cheese which is a little softer than the full fat version. 

Also, because the tops of the pies are curved, they are a little wobbly when set on a plate or surface. Oh heck, let me just say they toppled. Well, some of them did. I should have consulted the daring baker's forum for tips because only after I'd assembled my pies did I see Agos of Sabor Pastel's top of weighing half the pies down with a baking tray once they're out of the oven so they'll have a flatter base. Genius! 

Nevertheless, loved the challenge and the pies. Especially the filling!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

11/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1tsp vanilla extract

113g butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp instant espresso (optional)

1 egg

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda together and whisk in the salt. 

Mix the vanilla extract and buttermilk.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix till incorporated. With the mixer on low, add the flour and buttermilk, alternating between the two until the batter/dough (it's a thick batter) is well combined.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Using a table spoon, drop mounds of dough on a lined baking sheet, about 1.5 inches apart as they expand slightly.

Bake for 11-12 mins. 

FIlling

1 cup Greek yoghurt

113g cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup dessicated coconut

Cream the cream cheese, yoghurt and sugar till light and well combined. Add the coconut and mix. Chill until the pies have cooled and you're ready to fill them. 

Daring Bakers: Battenburg Cake

I've been watching episodes of The Great British Bake Off (a competitive baking show for British home bakers) almost non-stop this past month and have been so inspired by the delicious bakes the contestants of the show were challenged to create. I am also in LOVE with English baker and "cake queen" Mary Berry. She's delightful. One week, she challenged the contestants to bake her famed Battenburg cake, a basic sponge in two colours, arranged in a checkerboard pattern and then wrapped in marzipan. It was such a pretty cake and I wanted to jump right up and march into my kitchen and join the challenge myself. 

Well, I didn't. I remained in the lounge chair watching the episode and then another two after and then I went to bed. Oh well. 

And then I logged on to the Daring Baker's site to see what our challenge for July was. In a "celebration" of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lis challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we'd like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try. 

I knew immediately what recipe I wanted to try: the Battenburg cake, of course! This was originally a challenge posed by Mandy of What the Fruitcake? last June. Mandy provided some neat tips on the techniques and flavours for making a beautiful Battenburg cake, referring to Mary Berry's recipe.

I dove right in.

Battenburg Cake

175g softened butter

175g sugar

175g self-raising flour

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup coconut, freshly grated

pink colouring

To assemble

5 tbsp apricot jam

200g marzipan

The first step is to prepare the baking tin: a 8" X 8" cake tin which is divided in two parts with just parchment paper. What? here's how.  First, grease the base of the baking tin with butter. Next, cut a sheet of parchment paper that is twice the length of your tin (so, 16"). Make a crease in the center and then fit the left and right sides of the parchment to fit the tin. Because of the butter, the paper will stick to the bottom and you will be left with extra paper in the middle. Perfect, fold this up to form a divider between the right and left sides of the tin. 

Next the batter. The cake is a basic sponge with equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour. Mix all ingredients together. Yup, you don't have to cream the butter and sugar together first and then add the eggs and flour. You can chuck everything in and mix them all together from the start.

Divide in two.

I flavoured one part of the batter with ground ginger (and no colour) and the other with fresh coconut and a drop of pink colouring (I coloured this batter pink, reminiscent of the coconut candy desserts that my mother used to make).  

Fill the batters into the separated sections of the tin and bake for about 30 mins.

Once the cake is done, allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins and then rremove them gently onto your cutting board, allowing them to cool completely. Both sides should be equal but if, like me, you divided the tin slightly unevenly with one side slightly larger than the other, you need to gently trim the cakes to size. Cut off uneven edges too. If one cake has risen a little more than the other, gently press the one that's taller so that they are equal in height.

Cut each cake in half, lengthwise. 

So now you have two long strips of pink and two long strips of yellow. 

Place the one strip of pink and one strip of yellow side by side and once again, make sure they are identical in length and height. Keep the pink one of the right and the yellow on the left. 

Heat the apricot jam until it thins out. 

Using a brush, spread the apricot jam on the side of one log and then bring then two strips together. The jam should act as glue and with a little pressure the two strips should join as one. Perfect. Now, repeat with the remaining strips, this time put the yellow on your right and the pink on your left. Brush with jam and join them together. 

Now you have two pairs. Brush the top of one pair with jam and gently lift the other pair and place it on top of the jammy surface. Gently press together so they are stuck. You have your checkerboard cake!

Now for the marzipan. I didn't have 200g of marzipan. I thought I did but it turns out I only had about 100g - I'd apparently used the other 100g for another recipe some time back and forgot all about it. Sheesh. I therefore had to cut my cake in half and wrap only one portion, thus creating mini Battenburg cakes. Boo hoo hoo. 

So, knead the marzipan so it's soft and easy to work with. Dust the cutting board with icing sugar and roll the marzipan out: it should be oblong and big enough to cover the sides and top of the cake. 

Brush the top of the cake with jam and then gently place the cake, jam side down, on the sheet of marzipan. Brush the remaining three sides with jam and gently fold the marzipan over the cake, making sure the seams are either along the sides or at the top of the cake. 

Now, flip the cake so the seams go to the bottom. My seaming was rather untidy but I will do better next time :)

Using a small, sharp knife, score the top surface of the marzipan so you get a square (or diamond, if you like) pattern and decorate.

Chill the cake and then cut and serve :)

Daring Bakers: What A Cracker

Sarah  from All Our Fingers in the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers' host and she challenged us to use our creativity in making our own crisp flatbreads and crackers. I was quite pleased with the challenge simply because I love eating crackers and flatbreads and this was the impetus I needed to actually get down to baking some for myself (sometimes when it comes to munchies like crackers, I find myself buying them rather than making them).

As I looked at the recipes Sarah left on the Daring Bakers site, my eyes lingered on the one for Onion and Poppyseed Crackers. I love everything and anything onion and poppy seeds are such a delighful addition be in cakes, breads or even crackers. I read through the recipe and was intrigued at how Sarah uses real onions, not a flavouring in her crackers and we're not talking about a hint of onion, we're talking about a whole cup of pureed onions (which in my case came from 3 medium onions that were chopped and then blended). 

Whoa, this has to be one helluva onion cracker. I was pleased. I decided to add a couple of ingredients o the recipe: cheese (for I do love my cheese and a cheese cracker is just the most perfect crunchy snack) and chilli flakes (for I am an Asian who needs heat in anything I eat). 

Sarah's recipe (you can get it from her blog, or by clicking here) was a breeze to follow and her method was uncomplicated. The only bump in the road I encountered had nothing to do with the recipe but my execution of it. My first batch of crackers turned out more puffy than crisp simply because I didn't roll the dough out thin enough. As it turned out, the puffy, chewy crackers were delicious also, so that wasn't too much of a  bump!

I made these crackers in the morning and took them with me to the office. They were gone by midday. Everyone loved them .. well, not the onion haters as the flavour of the allium was definitely apparent. The addition of the cheese and chilli worked out well too, the kick of the chilli and the saltiness of the cheese (I used cheddar) added punch to an already delicious cracker.