'Twas Brillig (part two)

The saga continues... The cupcakes which were made were a big cheat - yes, it is okay to cut corners where you can. These are the Macro brand vanilla cupcake mix which are, except for excessive vanilla, failsafe. Plus I knew they worked with egg replacer for our allergic guest. Two batches of these were made in different sized and coloured papers and with a few different coloured frostings (Hoppers natural colours) to give the illusion of more variety. You could also add some carob powder or golden syrup to some of them to give flavour variety without having to make separate batches of cake. They were also used as a party favour.

The cakes for taking home were placed in plastic tumblers which were bought from a cheap shop and then put into cellophane bags and tied with a ribbon.

There was also fairy bread with natural sprinkles - some was gluten free and some made with Baker's Delight bread. My friend brought the gluten-filled type and used cookie cutters to achieve the teapot and teacup shapes.

There were also gluten free bread-and-butterflies; these were made using my bread recipe that was sliced, spread with nuttelex and then cut with butterfly cookie cutters.

Pink milk was served as the main drink - a sugar syrup made from two cups of sugar and 2 cups of boiling water was made with vanilla essence and cochineal added. This was mixed into both rice milk and dairy milk and put into teapots on the table. You tend to need a bit more cochineal than you think and as it is diluted again into the milk.

The lolly table had most of the usual failsafe lollies, plus a few that I had made.

The last picture was a recipe I found for conversation hearts (does anyone remember these?). The recipe needed tweaking and in my rush I didn't measure or write anything down. So, unfortunately, a recipe for that will have to wait.

Activities were kept minimal. The kids played croquet and had a great time doing so. I had planned to have a caucus race, but the ground was uneven ad covered with lots of sticks, so I abandoned the idea as I didn't want any injuries. I tried to think of a way to paint roses red without getting paint on party clothes too. They could have coloured with pencils, but in the end they had too much fun playing amongst the trees, eating party food and playing croquet.

The birthday girl - Making the dress also filled a lot of my party prep time

There were party favours other than the cakes. I chose to keep these non-food items. There had been plenty of lollies and sweets consumed at the party, so I felt that the the kids  didn't really need to take more home. We had a variety of different Alice in Wonderland books that the kids received depending on their age. The older children got a paperback version of the stories, the younger ones got a few different colouring books, and the older boys who I knew would not be into these at all got a pack of jumbo playing cards. They also all got a bubble wand (I mean who doesn't like bubbles).

The wrapped book and bubble wands ready to be taken home.

I'll put the cake in it's very own post, in order to make it easier to find.

We Shall Eat Cake

We had a little birthday party to attend yesterday. Some of the food was going to be failsafe, but I needed to take cake for us. It's something that drives me a bit nuts. Not the taking of cake, I don't mind that. It's the going to the effort of making cake and then my son deciding he doesn't want to eat it. This has been happening a lot. He has decided that he doesn't like vanilla cake anymore, nor does he like caramel cake. These have been my easy fall back cakes, but he is over them, so I offered to make something different. I offered pear, lemon or carob. Completely out of left field, he chose the carob. We're not big fans of carob here; he eats it sometimes, but it has taken me a real long time to stop gagging at the smell. It is easy enough to convert a chocolate cake recipe to carob and I decided to team that with a caramel icing. He didn't like the icing, but the cake was good. The cake was actually so good that I (who gag at the thought of carob) enjoyed some. So today I experimented with something else - Marshmallow frosting. Bingo! We have a winning combination.

The cake was adapted from a Hummingbird Bakery book that I own and the frosting is straight from Martha Stewart

Carob Cupcakes makes about 24 patty sized cakes
Ingredients

• 200g plain gluten free flour (I used white wings)
• 40g carob powder
• 280g caster sugar
• 3tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 90g nuttelex
• 220mls rice milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170℃
2. Put flour, carob, sugar, baking powder, salt and nuttelex in the bowl of an electric mixer (or you can use a hand held mixer) and beat on a slow speed until everything is combined and it looks sandy.
3. Whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla together in a jug and slowly pour half into the flour mixture. Beat on high until it is smooth
4. Turn the mixer back to slow and add the rest of the milk mixture. Continue mixing until you have a smooth batter. Do not overmix.
5. Spoon the mixture into patty cases until two thirds full (don't be tempted to over fill them, it is a very runny cake batter and it will overflow)
6. Bake for about 15 mins or until cake springs back when lightly touched or a skewer comes out clean. 
7. Cool on racks.

Frosting 
Ingredients

1. 6 egg whites 
2. 1 1/2 cups sugar
3. 3/8 tsp cream of tartar
4. dash vanilla essence

Method

1. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Turn down to a gentle simmer.
2. Place egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar into a heatproof bowl and place on saucepan. Make sure the water isn't touching the bottom of the bowl.
3. Using electric hand beaters, beat on a slow speed until the sugar is completely dissolved and the egg feels warm (approx 3-4 mins).
4. Take the bowl off the heat and keep beating at increasing speeds until the mixture is glossy and stiff peaks form (8-10 mins)
5. Add vanilla, beat until combined. Scoop into a piping bag and decorate cakes as desired.

 

Variations - Amines - Use cocoa

                    If you have a little blow torch, you could use it lightly on the frosting for a toasted marshmallow finish. (I have one. I have yet to figure out how to get the gas into it.)

The biscuit on top is half an Orgran Rotondo which is almost failsafe.

These cakes are deliciously moist and you won't want to stop at one.

The Main Meal and Cake

So there was some food that got devoured at the party and some that did not. The only thing that didn't really get eaten by the kids was dinner. Not because it wasn't good, but because they were having too much fun to sit down. No matter how appealing the red clothed tables were and the little boxes of food, there were games to be played and anything that couldn't be eaten while playing didn't get eaten.

The main meal was chicken nuggets and chips. The nuggets can be made in advance and kept in the freezer until you need them. I made a lot as I made sure that there was food for the grown ups to eat too. So I didn't spend a day crumbing chicken, a couple of times over the two weeks leading up to the party, I bought some chicken then cut, crumbed and froze it. Put it in an air tight container with baking paper in between layers so they are easy to separate.

Chicken Nuggets
Cut enough chicken in to strips or chunks
Toss in corn starch
Dip in egg lightly beaten with a few teaspoons of water (If you don't want to use egg, blend the cornflour with water and dip the chicken into that then the crumbs)
Coat in rice crumbs (I like Casalare white rice crumbs)
Freeze until needed.
Then bake at 180℃ for approx 20 mins or panfry on medium heat until golden and cooked through or deep fry at 180℃ for approx 5 mins (depending on thickness).
The frying methods make it nice and golden, the oven does not. It depends on how much you are trying to cook which method you can use.

If you can't find those crumbs use your usual ones, or if you like get some gluten free puffed rice and blitz it in a food processor or put it in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin. 

Chips
If you like you can chop up potatoes, stop them going black and then double fry them to yummy crispness... Or you can be like me and take the easy route with something and buy frozen ones. I used homebrand (Woolworths) crinkle cut chips. They are pretty good for a frozen chip and they are failsafe. The adults marveled over the crinkle cut which they had forgotten existed, it was like a flashback.
They can be cooked in the oven or a deep fryer.

Doesn't everyone deep fry in a tutu?

I did the nuggets in the oven and the chips in the deep fryer. I borrowed another fryer so that I could cook more at the one time. I had bought little cardboard take away boxes to put it in. I had grander plans of red and white striped hot dog trays, but I couldn't quite justify the expense on top of everything else.



The cake was devoured. Completely. Four dozen patty cakes, gone. Not bad for a gluten free, dairy free cake. The recipe is brilliant, I've since made it egg and soy free too and a friend used the recipe with normal flour and milk and still had great results. It's so very versatile and I found it on a great little blog.

This is my adaptation of it


Ingredients:

• 200g nuttelex
• 1 1/4 Cups caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 Cup golden syrup (you can make your own syrup, there is a recipe on the above link)
• 2 each eggs, at room temperature (or equivalent egg replacer)
• splash vanilla essence
• 2 Cups all-purpose flour (I used Orgran - it's convenient)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1 cup milk of choice, at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 160℃ 
2. Place patty papers into tins (it makes approx 4 doz so you may need to do batches)
3. In the bowl of a mixer, cream nuttelex until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
5. Sift flour and baking powder.
6. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients.
7. Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Fill patties approximately 2/3 full.
8. Bake for about 12 mins or until golden and a skewer test comes up clean.

My frosting varies from the original because I wasn't sure that kids would care for caramelised butter frosting and I wasn't sure nuttelex would caramelise, then there is the cream. So I just made a basic butter cream with golden syrup added.

• 125g nuttelex
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• pinch of salt

1. Beat the nuttelex in a mixer a gradually add sifted icing sugar
2. add other ingredients while beating

It comes down to personal taste how heavy you like your icing or how much you want on your cakes, if you want to spread it or pipe it. I made mine reasonably thick and piped it. If you want it softer add more nuttelex or a dash of milk or water until you get the consistency you want. If you like mountains of it on cakes you might need to make more.

Delicious caramel cup cakes

Once I had the icing on them, I very lightly sprinkled them with natural sprinkles. This is totally optional and not at all necessary. The other thing I put on them, which really seemed to excite the kids, was mini pinwheels bought from the same packaging and party wholesaler that I bought a tonne of other stuff from.





Thus ends the party saga. There are sure to be more party related posts at a later date, but I'm going to try to post about some normal food next.