Baking Mad

Iced Daisy Biscuit

I may have mentioned once or twice that I find baking to be therapeutic, in much the same way as any physical task that fully occupies the mind and hands. I used to do embroidery for this very reason - the detailed work and the focus required prevents my mind from racing in circles around a problem or issue that is stressing me out. A session of yoga, a walk along the beach or a hike in the mountains gets the endorphins rushing in, renders me calm and creates a sense of well-being, but sometimes energy levels, poor time management, or the lack of opportunity means I can't do any of these things. 

A crackle of honeycomb

As someone who finds true meditation a near impossible task (all the more reason to keep trying no doubt), I seek a meditative state through the kind of precision, detailed work that would drive most people insane - the repetitive needlework for an embroidery piece, moving tiny stitch by tiny stitch, or piping delicate lace or bead work in royal icing onto a cake or biscuit. Both require a steady hand, patience, a calm focus and a willingness to take one small step at a time. It can only be achieved by keeping your mind in the present and not allowing the size of the task to overwhelm you. In a more general sense, baking requires a similar presence of mind, for as soon as you allow other thoughts in, you can find yourself making mistakes (which also happens if I'm baking whilst very tired, a lesson I never seem to learn!). 

Chocolate Biscuit Cake,
set and ready for action

As I had started out Easter week full of rage (for reasons I won't bore you with here), energy sources sadly depleted and a mountain of baking ahead of me, I had neither the time nor the requisite oomph for a session of yoga or a nice long walk. Given the levels of rage and frustration, all of the baking I had to do was probably very well timed indeed (I don't think even the Dammit Doll could have withstood a session with me). There were orders to fill for Easter, a promised birthday treat to make for my niece and a wedding cake and biscuits to create the following week. 

I love Jammie Dodgers

By the time Good Friday dawned, I had rolled and cut biscuit dough, iced little Easter bunnies, lambs, chicks and eggs, stirred fudge into submission and made enough chocolate fudge cakes that the whole apartment was scented with vanilla, chocolate and the aroma of freshly baked cakes. Although exhausted, I arrived safely at the Easter weekend feeling markedly more calm and content (and quite possibly with a dusting of cocoa powder and icing sugar still coating my hair). Refreshed by some Coffee & Walnut Cake (thank you kindly No.1 Sister) and a glass of Prosecco, I was ready and able to face the challenge of a three-tier wedding cake without complete melt-down.

...and all is well with the world again.

Maybe this could be the start of something big - the newest in a very long line of self-help books (well, why not?). If you can't afford a therapist or anger management course and a good bout of physical activity hasn't done the trick, might I recommend some baking? You can even adjust the type of baking therapy to your particular issue. Serious rage would require lengthy, vigorous kneading and pounding of bread dough. Mild frustration could be handled with a spot of biscuit dough rolling and the methodical cutting-out of shapes (roll and repeat until all of the dough is used up, the delicious biscuits are baked and your frustration is gone). A busy, frantic mind can be calmed by icing beautiful (or otherwise) decorations on biscuits or cakes. Need to acquire a focused mind quickly? Get out your digital thermometer and make some honeycomb - it happens fast and furious, so you have to concentrate, but is oh so very satisfying once you add the bicarb and watch it bubble! 

And if all that fails and you just want something sweet to feed the demon inside, no baking required, then melt and stir-up a deluxe chocolate biscuit cake (recipe below) - satisfaction guaranteed. If it worked for me, it can work for anyone - from Incredible Hulk (all green, furious and rage-y) to mild-mannered baker / archaeologist once more. And it was all thanks to baking. 

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Molten chocolate biscuit cake,
ready for the fridge

This luscious and luxurious version of the simple chocolate biscuit cake is particularly delicious (if you're trying to be good, you have been warned). It's based on the recipe from Konditor & Cook, as printed in Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes, and single-handedly converted me from someone who always thought chocolate biscuit cake was over-rated (I blame early exposure to a bland and rather dry version in the Coffee Dock in Trinity during my college years) to someone who just can't get enough of the stuff. I replace the walnuts, sultanas and cherries with the same amount in biscuits, but feel free to leave them in if you prefer. Alternatively, mix it up by adding in whatever takes your fancy - be it a different type of biscuit, some marshmallows, honeycomb or other type of nuts. Likewise, if you really can't take the intensity of dark chocolate in this (though I would urge you to try it), use one third dark and two thirds milk chocolate or half of each. I also add a quarter teaspoon each of instant espresso powder and cocoa powder - small amounts but they work to ramp up the chocolate flavour.

It's a cinch to prepare, taking only 15 minutes or so. Patience is only required for the 3-4 hours it needs to chill and set in the fridge (they say patience is a virtue and it is duly rewarded here).

Ingredients

125g butter

75g golden syrup

200g dark chocolate (minimum 60% chocolate)

1 egg

50g each of digestive biscuits, walnuts, sultanas and glace cherries (or simply 200g of digestive biscuits or combined other mix of your choosing) 

1/4 teaspoon each of instant espresso powder and cocoa powder

Method

Line a 20cm x 8cm loaf tin with baking parchment. Place the butter, syrup, chocolate, instant espresso powder and cocoa powder into a saucepan and melt over a very low heat - make sure you stir regularly. This works every time for me, but if you're scared of melting chocolate over direct heat, then simply melt that separately in a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water before adding to the butter / syrup mix. Remove from the heat and pasteurise the egg by beating it slowly and continuously into the hot chocolate mixture. Break up the biscuits into large chunks (they'll be broken further when mixed and you don't want it to become Chocolate Crumb Cake) and stir these along with any other dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Pour and press into the prepared tin and leave to set in the fridge. Once set, you can remove it from the tin, peel off the paper, cut into slices or chunks. On the slim chance that it's not all savaged in the one sitting, keep any extra in the fridge.