K is for Kisses! xxx

I've just realised that this blog is an A-Z baking challenge blog/baking tribute to my Nana blog/timely blog for Valentine's Day all rolled into one!  As the saying goes, it's two birds with one stone - or technically three birds in this case.  Ha ha, OK enough of the cheesy puns.

I've made two types of kisses today (I'm tempted to make lots of jokes about kisses with this blog but I'll try and refrain!).  On the menu today we have ginger kisses & one of my Nana's favourite recipes, kisses.  Ginger kisses as the name suggests, are gingery little round, flat cakes sandwiched together with a ginger buttercream.  My Nana's kisses are a spongy flat cake made ever more sweet by the inclusion of custard powder in the mixture & they are sandwiched together with raspberry jam.  

Now one thing I will say at the outset with these, good luck trying to get them all the same size.  I salute you if you can achieve that.  There will be slightly bigger kisses, slightly misshapen kisses, mismatched kisses of different sizes & then there will be perfectly round, perfectly sized kisses (of which you will wish you had more of to put on the plate to impress your guests - instead you will have to settle with putting these at the top of the pile & using them to camouflage the other imperfect ones!).  But I defy any recipient of these kisses to comment on their irregular size.  Firstly they should be jolly grateful you have produced some home baking for them to enjoy & secondly, once they bite into one they will be too busy commenting on how lovely they taste to worry about their imperfections.

Take your pick as to which recipe to make but of course I am completely biased (for good reason!) & prefer my Nana's recipe of course!  Don't get me wrong, the ginger kisses are just lovely but my Nana's kisses are the sweetest of all (OK - no more cheesy puns I promise!!).

Here are the recipes...  

Ginger Kisses

I have taken this recipe from one of my favourite recipe books, 'Ladies, a Plate' by Alexa Johnston.  Page 66 to be precise!

For the cakes

115 grams softened butter (remember Mary Berry's tip for softening butter in a hurry by chopping it into cubes & placing it in a bowl of tepid water.  Check that the butter is soft enough for creaming by squishing it between your fingers.  Drain the water off & then you're ready to go!)

85 grams caster sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons golden syrup

1 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking  powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (A.K.A bicarb soda)

1 tablespoon hot water

1. Heat oven to 180C static or 160C if using fan bake.
2. Line four baking trays (if you just have two then you'll need to rotate them as each batch cooks) with non-stick baking paper (spray with a little cooking spray or dab some oil on the tray first before you place the paper on as this will hold the paper in place).
3. Cream the butter & sugar together until light & fluffy.  To save using your electric mixer (more to the point, to save having too many dishes to do afterwards) just use a bowl & wooden spoon to cream the mixture.
4. Beat in the egg & then the golden syrup.  
5. Sift the dry ingredients & fold them into the wet mixture.  
6. Finally, separately mix the baking soda together with the hot water until it dissolves, then stir into your mixture until everything is combined.
7. Place small teaspoonfuls of mixture onto the trays - making sure to leave a little room for spreading.  If you feel like getting fancy, you could spoon all of the mixture into a piping bag & pipe the mixture onto the trays, making sure you pipe around a teaspoonful for each.  If you do this, cut the tip of the icing bag so that the opening is 1cm wide.  
8. Bake for 10 minutes (in which time, the colour will darken nicely), remove from oven & allow to cool enough so that you don't burn your fingers when you remove the kisses to a cooling rack.  Place them on the cooling rack until completely cool before you sandwich them together with the filling.

Ginger buttercream filling

30 grams softened butter

1 cup icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 tablespoons boiling water

1 tablespoon preserved ginger (I had quite a hard time finding this at my local supermarket!  I ended up getting 'minced' ginger as it was the closest thing I could find to preserved ginger.  

1. Beat the butter, icing sugar & vanilla together with a hand held electric mixer.  WARNING: icing sugar & bits of butter will fly everywhere so be prepared for a bit of a clean up afterwards!  I found that the mixture went to a breadcrumb consistency at this stage, so to help it along I mixed it with a wooden spoon to cream it a bit more.
2. Slowly add the boiling water, a little at a time & beating in between each addition.  Be careful not to slosh too much of the water over the sides of the bowl like I did - easy done when you are using a hand held mixer!
3. Once the mixture is light & fluffy, fold in the preserved ginger.
4. Pair up similarly sized kisses & dollop a teaspoonful of the filling onto one of the kisses & then sandwich them together.  Dust the tops with icing sugar (I did this by putting a teaspoonful of icing sugar in a tea strainer & shaking it over the tops) & store in an airtight container (don't sit the kisses one on top of the other though as they will stick together.  Separate each layer of kisses with a piece of baking paper).  

TIP: I found that the filling was quite runny so I ended up adding more icing sugar & beating in between each addition until the filling was thicker & more spreadable.  I probably added about another cup of icing sugar.  The ginger will also be wet so once you've added that, don't be afraid to add more icing sugar & beat it again until it's light & creamy.  The last thing you want is for the filling to be too runny & for it to run over the sides when you are sandwiching the kisses together.  So just see how you go & keep adding more icing sugar until you are happy with the consistency. 

This recipe made 19 kisses (i.e 38 halves).

My Nana's kisses

4 ounces (113 grams according to my scales!) softened butter

4 ounces sugar

4 ounces plain flour

3 ounces cornflour (85 grams)

2 eggs

1 ounce custard powder (28 grams)

1 teaspoon baking powder

Raspberry jam

1. Heat oven to 180C static or 160C if using fan bake.
2. Line four baking trays (or less if you don't have four & then rotate them) with non-stick baking paper (spray with a little cooking spray or dab some oil on the tray first before you place the paper on as this will hold the paper in place).
3. Using a wooden spoon, cream butter & sugar together well. 
4. Beat eggs together in a separate bowl & then add these to the creamed mixture.  
5. Sift dry ingredients & add to the wet mixture.  Mix everything until combined.
6. Place small teaspoonfuls of mixture on the trays - making sure to leave a little room for spreading.  If you feel like getting fancy, you could spoon all of the mixture into a piping bag & pipe each kiss onto the trays, making sure you pipe around a teaspoonful for each.  If you decide to do this, cut the tip of the icing bag so that the opening is 1cm wide.
7. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven & allow to cool enough so that you don't burn your fingers when you remove the kisses to a cooling rack.  Place them on the cooling rack until completely cool before you sandwich them together with jam.
8. Pair up similarly sized kisses & dollop a teaspoonful of raspberry jam onto one of the kisses & then sandwich together.  Dust with icing sugar & store in an airtight container.

This recipe made 16 kisses (i.e. 36 halves)

xxx