Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I was making a couple of batches of apple cakelings, using Jo Walton's recipe: two batches because I had almost half an apple left after the first, and didn't want to waste it. I also wanted to try using lemon extract, which I added to the sugar at the beginning.

I was about three steps in when I realized I'd used the normal amount of butter/margarine, but 1/3 more sugar, because I had somehow grabbed a 1/3 cup measure instead of the 1/4. So I used 1 1/2 or 1 2/3 eggs instead of one (no measuring here, just not-exactly-separating the second egg and putting about 2/3 of the egg white and I think about that much yolk into the bowl with the other ingredients. I increased the flour by an unmeasured amount, by using a heaping quarter cup instead of the usual measured amount. That was going to be 1/3 cup as well, but the cat knocked the 1/3 cup measure on the floor.

Overall, these worked well. adrian_turtle, you might like these, they're not as greasy as they sometimes come out. I will probably try this again, with a bit more lemon, and possibly measured amounts of other things.

Here's Jo's cakeling recipe, for reference. I had the oven at 200C/400F, and baked for a full twenty minutes.

Next time, try: 4.5 or 5 tablespoons of margarine (instead of 4); 1/3 cup sugar; a measured 1/3 cup of flour, and 3/8 tsp baking powder (I'm starting with what King Arthur calls all-purpose flour, which doesn't contain baking powder), and 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract. Having looked at Jo's currently posted version of the recipe, I might try actual lemon juice and zest some time, instead of apple bits+lemon extract. (For that she advises increasing only the amount of flour.)

These came about because of a suggestion cattitude made when I did lemon-walnut cakelings a while ago. He was right--pecans are better for this.

This time, I didn't bother zesting the lemon.

2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces (measured, not weighed) sugar
one large egg (which weighs 2 ounces)
one tablespoon fresh lemon juice, with pulp. Well, slightly over, because I had slightly over from juicing the large half of a lemon.
A capful of lemon extract (it's probably about a teaspoon, but I used the cap from the bottle, because that worked last time)
a handful of roasted unsalted pecans, broken into small pieces
a little over a quarter cup (yes, 2 ounces again) self-rising flour

The standard cakeling method: preheat oven to 400 F/200 C (gas mark 6, thanks Jo). Line two cupcake pans (total of 12 cupcakes) with muffin papers.

Melt the butter. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon extract. Whisk in the egg. If you're used to making cakelings, notice that it seems a bit thinner than usual.

Fold in the pecans.

Sift and fold in a quarter cup of flour, look at the result, and fold in a little more.

Spoon batter into muffin cups. Break up two more pecan halves and put the pieces into the last few cups, because while there's plenty of pecan in the first ones you made, the last few are very thin.

Bake 17.5 minutes.

They're now nice and just a little brown around the edges when they come out of the oven.

Note, when posting the recipe for your friends, that you have a slow oven, and those with fast ovens might bake this for 15 minutes or less, and should certainly look at them by the 15-minute point. Note also that you meant to use cinnamon sugar, and then forgot until they were in the oven, but they seem to be better without it, unlike the apple cakelings.

These were the result of having to change dinner plans in mid-preparation. I was going to make scallops newburgh, and had decided that lemon zest would be a nice addition, since I had the lemon anyway. I'd prepared all the other ingredients, then opened the package of scallops and discovered they'd gone bad. Thus, we had baked chicken for supper--but I had lemon juice and lemon zest prepared (along with various irrelevant items, like two egg yolks, beaten slightly).

I was chatting with barberio after the chicken had gone into the oven, and he suggested I use the lemon stuff to make a dessert. Okay, let's do another cakeling variation (for those who came in late, the cakelings are basically a scaled-down pound cake recipe, baked in muffin/cupcake tins instead of as a loaf cake). No exact numbers here, but:

4 tablespoons butter, melted (NB: that's half a stick of butter; 4 tablespoons=2 fluid ounces)
4 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice, with pulp
I capful of lemon extract (probably a bit under a teaspoon)
zest of 1 lemon
1 handful walnut halves, broken into smaller pieces (4-6 pieces per half)
1/4 cup self-rising flour (=2 fl. oz., again)
Cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 375°F (this is the temperature I was baking the chicken at). Put paper muffin-cup liners into the muffin tins (12 muffins worth; for me, this is 2 six-muffin baking tins).

Sift sugar into melted butter. Mix.
Beat in the egg, lemon juice, and lemon extract. (Beat well, so it'll be fluffy)
Fold in the lemon zest and the walnut pieces.
Sift the flour into the bowl containing all of this, then fold in gently.
Spoon into muffin cups, filling each about 1/3 of the way. (This filled ten muffin cups, so I removed two paper muffin tin liners.) Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top (a bit over 1/4 teaspoon, total, for the ten cakelings.)

When the chicken is ready, take it out of the oven, raise temperature to 400 (200°C), put the cakelings in, and bake for 20 minutes.

These came out good, but slightly burnt at the edges; if I do it again, I'll try 17 or 18 minutes. cattitude suggests pecans instead of the walnuts.

N.B.: In different moods--or any mood, ten years ago--I'd probably have given up on the entire project, and either gone for something a lot simpler, or picked up the phone and ordered takeout, as soon as I discovered that the scallops weren't food. As I observed to ladysisyphus recently, while I'm no genius cook, some of the cooking fu can be acquired. As it says in The Bakery Men Don't See, maintain positive attitude.

It's papersky's basic cakeling recipe, this time withouyt the apple, beating in half a teaspoon of orange extract just before the egg; folding in a large handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips after beating the egg in, and sifting in a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon just before sifting in the flour (and folding both in at the same time).

The proportions worked: it's noticeably but not overpoweringly cinnamony, and still orangy and chocolaty.

This is based on papersky's apple cakelings, plus suggestions and comments received the first time I tried this. These came out properly chocolately--in a cake way, not a brownie way--with a nice hint of ginger, and stronger ginger when I bit into a bit of the crystallized ginger. Note: crystallized ginger that is quite strong when eaten by itself is tamer after baking in these cakelings.

2 ounces butter (1/2 stick), melted
2 ounces sugar
1 large egg
1 ounce Baker's chocolate, melted with a few random chocolate chips (to make up for the amount of chocolate that sticks to the pan)
Crystallized ginger, cut small (a handful)
2 ounces flour
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 400 °F (200 °C; you're still on your own for gas marks).

Beat the sugar into the melted butter. Beat in the egg, whisking thoroughly to get plenty of air in.

Fold in the melted chocolate and the ginger.

Sift the flour, ginger, and cocoa into the liquid mix, then fold it all together, stirring thoroughly.

Spoon into muffin tins, and bake 20 minutes. Enjoy.

(This was going to have cinnamon sugar, but I forgot about it until the tins were in the oven, and it didn't seem worth pulling them out.)

Annotations, 20 November 2003: The cinnamon sugar makes no discernible difference to the flavor. Sifting in more cinnamon, with the ginger, cocoa, and flour, might be worth trying.

A Droste dark chocolate pastille as part of the melted chocolate works. Spoon the melted chocolate from the saucepan into the mixing bowl instead of pouring: less is lost that way. (If you have a microwave and are melting the chocolate in a bowl, bravo, and the principle probably still applies.)

This is an experiment based loosely on papersky's apple cakeling recipe, but all errors are my very own.

2 ounces butter (1/2 stick), melted
2 ounces sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 ounce Baker's chocolate, melted
1 large egg
2 ounces flour, sifted

Preheat oven to 400°F (sorry, I don't know the Centigrade or gas mark equivalents). Put paper muffin/cakeling cups into muffin tins.

Whisk sugar into butter. (This produces a thick, pale yellow substance). Next, whisk in vanilla, ginger, and chocolate.

Whisk in egg.

Fold flour into the liquid mixture.

Pour the resulting mixture into paper muffin cups, filling about 1/3 full. (I got eight cakelings). Dust top with cinnamon sugar.

Bake 15 minutes.

Evaluation:

It's a decent start. A little too sugary. A bit more flour, or less sugar, might help. More ginger is definitely needed: try a full teaspoon next time. Also, the cinnamon sugar might as well be omitted, since I can't taste the cinnamon.

I just took another look at papersky's fine cake-making poem, because I made cakelings for eleanor yesterday and she wanted the recipe.

Oh. The sugar's supposed to go in before the egg. I wonder how much difference it makes that I've been doing it the other way around?

Oh again. Peel the apple. Nah, too much trouble, and I like them with the peel.

Apple, then flour. Am I doing any of this as specified? Well, I'm melting the butter, and the proportions are as given.

Maybe if I do it in the other order, I'll manage to get 12 cakelings out of a batch. (I usually get ten or 11--yesterday only produced nine.)