a choc Guinness cake for St Patrick's Day
and a list of reasons why it's great to be Irish abroad
What I’m reading: this is cheating as it’s not reading, it’s watching, but I’m allowing it since I did read the book when it came out a few years ago. One Day on Netflix made me cry and I wasn’t even mad about it.
What I’m listening to: The Abercrombie Guys on the BBC World of Secrets podcast. A really interesting investigation into alleged abuse of employees and models by ex-Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries and his partner. The case is still open, as far as I’m aware and I’m interested to see if (and how) they are charged.
What I’m eating: a really excellent prawn burger at Swings, a Korean street food restaurant in Auckland (below). Keen to go back and try the other sambos - and also visit Ockhee, Swings’ sister restaurant in Ponsonby.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day this weekend! I will be celebrating by getting a full 8 hours sleep, and maybe popping in to our local Irish bar. This time last year, I was working at Ballymaloe House, and the festive cheer was compounded by the Irish rugby team winning the Grand Slam. It’s too soon to talk about last weekend’s match against England, but we can at least try and bring some patriotic joy with the pint-sized chocolate Guinness cakes below. Last year’s version was full-sized, and made with Murphy’s instead of Guinness (because Cork, duh). This year’s version uses the “reverse creaming” mixing method which I am quite fond of, especially for chocolate cakes. It’s a funny method that I first came across in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s 1984 baking The Cake Bible, gifted to me by my bestie Mary. I’ve adapted it here to incorporate Guinness and We made these little cakes at Mor this weekend, and I wished anybody that would listen a happy St. Patrick’s Day, and played Christy Moore on full volume in the kitchen.
I have very much become the epitome of the clichéd “Irishman/woman abroad”, which always brings to mind this meme:
I do genuinely think I have become infinitely more patriotic since moving abroad - so here’s to a weekend of revelling in Irishness (despite being 18,000km away from home).
Things I love about being Irish abroad:
Explaining to people that “craic” is almost a direct synonym for “fun”, and that we are not, in fact, referring to the quality of the Class A drugs when we say that something is “good craic”
Telling someone that there’s a very small chance that I know their friend’s cousin, because Ireland isn’t actually that small, and we’re not all related - but what’s their name, just in case?
Speaking as Gaeilge to your friends when you want to say something a little bit rude about someone, but not risk them overhearing (doesn’t work if they speak Irish, which has caused some problems in the past)
Shouting “800 years!” at an English person at the slightest sign of disrespect
The weather is almost always better than at home because we have pretty low standards to begin with (but the Guinness is shite)
You actually get pretty good at impersonating Conor McGregor’s walk after acquiescing to countless requests
You can make people feel pretty bad when they make jokes about the Famine and you (very seriously) tell them some statistics about it
There’s a pretty spectacular group of actors that have recently put Ireland on the map in a big way (it seems that everyone has a crush on EITHER Cillian Murphy, Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott or Barry Keoghan atm), and we as a nation get to be pretty smug about that - especially post Oscars this week
You can reaaaaaally amp up the Irish accent/charm to get out of a variety of inconveniences - I’m not saying it got me out of a speeding ticket last week, but I’m also not not saying that
St Patrick’s battalion was a unit of the Mexican army that fought against the US in the Mexican-American war of the 19th century - and there are still people in Mexico who are quite genuinely very grateful to us because of it
On the cake: the reverse creaming method is one that shouldn’t work. You start by rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients, in this case in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. When the mixture looks kind of sandy/like breadcrumbs, you add eggs, oil and buttermilk, and beat this until it is smooth. Finally, you add hot liquid (in this case, Guinness), and whip for another minute or so. It feels counter-intuitive because the first step is something you’d normally associate with scones or biscuits, or maybe pastry - and it also feels weird to pour hot liquid into a cake mixture that already has dairy and eggs. I can confirm, though, that it produces the most gorgeous texture: tender and moist, without being too heavy or dense.
recipe: little chocolate Guinness cakes with mascarpone icing
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