Halloween battenburg take #2

'Cause once just wasn't enough! lol.  Same cake, but better I think, just things I learned from the first time.  Fridge the cake between sticking it together (tightly wrapped in cling film) and applying the marzipan.  Work very clean, use lots and lots of cling film, lol.

 Instead of pumpkins we have poisonous (obviously, they are after all red with white dots, it screams poison dont you know?) toadstools and foil wrapped pumpkin sweets.  Yum, unfortunately.

 

Happy Halloween!

Yay! my favourite holiday.  I was actually invited to (rather than hosting, lol) a Halloween party last night.  Any excuse being a good excuse in my eyes I decided to push the boat out and make Martha Stewarts candy corn sugar cookies.  Push the boat out? yeah, living in the UK and all I usually flip right past recipes involving candy corn (which costs around a whacking $4.50 here)  or a half pound of butterscotch/cinnamon/peanut butter chips/Hershey kisses... all far too pricey for a midweek cookie session. 

Anyhow, these are the cutest damn cookies ever! quite tiny, just a little larger than the candy corn itself, but cute and delicious.  I weighed both the chocolate and vanilla doughs and the (raw) cookies were 7g each.  I was really worried, but they baked up just fine, though I thought I let the vanilla ones go a minute or two too long, next time I'll get them out faster.

 Recipes goes like this...

Makes about 36.


4 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
About 36 candy corns

Preheat oven to 350/180 degrees. Place butter and sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a wooden spoon until combined. Beat in egg yolk, vanilla, baking powder, and salt. Add flour, and mix until a dough forms.


Scoop out level teaspoons of dough (or weigh each ball then roll), and roll into balls (chill dough briefly if it becomes too soft to handle). Place balls on baking sheets, 2 inches apart.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are firm and cookies are dry to the touch (do not let cookies color), 10 to 12 minutes.

Remove from oven; gently press a candy corn into center of each cookie (surface of cookies may crack slightly). Cool on sheets 1 minute; transfer to a rack to cool completely.
 
For the chocolate cookies use half a cup of flour and add a quarter cup of cocoa powder.
 

Cute little cookies

Please, be gentle.  Cookies, iced cookies, not one of my strong points.  I prefer the roll into a ball, dunk in sugar and bake variety, or maybe the cut out with a cutter and pretend it's a plain/folksy/Steiner thing.  However, perhaps all this will change? I borrowed the totally gorgeous Biscuiteers book from the library (and would like to have my own copy eventually! ) the other night and have since been itching to make something, well, cutesy.

The recipe (adhered to strictly, I love this level of do as we say in a book) produced a lovely lemony cookie, despite the fact I rolled them a little to thick I think.  Applying the icing, it wasn't exactly a breeze, but for a first attempt I'm pretty pleased with them.

 Obviously the first ones I tried were Halloweeny, I love Halloween! seriously, a lot, I'm like a crazy dyke version of Martha Stewart (only without her gazillions of dollars, hordes of minions and snappy dress sense, obviously) and it is now officially pumpkin season! I noticed while making these biscuits I only have one exceptionally crappy pumpkin cutter, this must be put right, as soon as possible... because, who knows when the strange urge to bake may strike? after all, I do have half a batch of this dough in the freezer and another box of royal icing in the baking cupboard.

And finally... a tip, from me to you (because I care) if you should happen to be in the trade department of a well known home improvement store, enquiring as to the availability of 2" thick insulation grade styrofoam board, do not, I repeat, do not tell them it's to make a gravestone.  They look at you funny, just saying.

Halloween Battyberg (get it, get it?!)

Ooh... inappropriate baking!

 I've always loved battenberg cake, it's delicious.  Even the supermarket version, slightly stale, sugary marzipan.  It's a gastronomic experience.   Since seeing a tin designed to create a homemade version I've been dying to give it a shot.  I know, you can do a fancy pleating thing with foil and a brownie pan, but I hate pleating foil and hoping for the best.  It doesn't suit my brand of kitchen ocd.

I'd love to say this counted towards the b2/m2 project, but it doesn't.   I just used the recipe that came with the tin (although adding copious amounts of orange and black food paste and a bit of cocoa to the black cake mix).  The pumpkins are honestly nursery school stuff, just a ball of marzipan, a bit of toothpick stabbing and a leaf cutter.  I'm not artistic! not at all, so if I can, you can too.

 Next time I might tint the marzipan for wrapping, just because the black colouring bled a little... but otherwise I'm delighted! lol.  This will definitely be featuring at our Halloween afternoon tea, but more on that later.