Mend Pet

Delicious Chocolate Cake

I was really hoping someone would choose this recipe!  And Guin sure did   I was quite interested once I saw it… mayonnaise and coffee? In my cake?  Huh!  It’s worth a try   Unfortunately, since I don’t drink coffee, I had no way of brewing a cup of coffee… so I took a short walk to the closest Tim Horton’s to pick one up.

I decided to make cupcakes from this recipe, and used some chocolate frosting I had handy instead of making hers, which was probably a mistake, as the frosting I used wasn’t very good.  The cupcakes themselves, however, were great.  And you could taste the coffee a bit, which gave it a neat difference to regular cupcakes!

This recipe caused our guild to develop a new innuendo – because I had to AFK saying: “brb guys, I have to go frost my cupcakes”.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Simple Flour
  
• 1/2 cup Ghirardeli cocoa
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 1/4 teaspoon Mild Spices (salt)
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 3/4 cup Helman’s Mayonnaise
  
• 1 Flask (cup) brewed black coffee
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• “Mageroyal” (optional) to taste

Frosting:

• 1 stick unsalted sweet butter
  
• 2 drops of vanilla
  
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar, (adjust for humidity by adding a little milk or extra sugar)

Preparation:

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, “Mageroyal” (optional), and Mild Spices (salt). Cream together the sugar, mayonnaise, brewed black coffee and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture; stir until well blended. Pour batter into greased and floured layer cake pans (or a 9- x 13-inch pan). Bake at 350°F. for about 35-40 minutes if cooking in a 9 X 13 inch pan. 25-30 minutes for layers, or 20-25 minutes for cupcakes.

The Secret Agent Cat posted her submission up on her blog a few weeks ago, so instead of copying it all out here, I’ll just write up my little review and send you over to her for the details!

Dwarven Mild by Tigerfeet

Tigerfeet was quite excited about this contest, and I must say I found her recipe the most interesting!  I’ve never thought of making my own cheese… and this recipe was quite simple.  I tried it out, and it turned out to be a little more work than I was expecting!  But it was still fun.  The consistency was… interesting.  I don’t want to say what I thought it reminded me of, because that’d just gross people out.  I forgot to add the salt at first, but once I added it, it was quite tasty!  Reminded me of something, but I can’t really put my finger on it.  It was a lot like cream cheese though.  Went nicely with crackers!

I wish there were tips on how to hang the cloth over the bowl.  I used oodles of tape (and 2 bowls) so that the cloth wouldn’t fall in!

Also, while Tigerfeet’s suggestion of adding honey to make it sweet sounds great, do NOT try it with maple syrup.  It wasn’t pleasant.

Go check out her recipe!

It’s pretty simple and customizable.  Both the beer and the BBQ sauce are Canadian, so you’ll have to substitute your own favourites if you’re not from the Great North!

Beer Basted Boar Ribs

Makes about 2 servings, feel free to scale it up to satisfy your Orcish hunger.

Ingredients:

• ~900g (~2 lbs) of Crag Boar Ribs
• 6-pack of Rhapsody Malt*
• 1.5 cups of Goblin Rocket Fuel**
• Pinch of Mild Spices***
• Pinch of Refined Deeprock Salt

Directions:

1. Cut ribs into individual sections of 1 or 2 ribs. At the same time bring a large pot of water to boil.
2. Add salt and spices to the boiling water, and then boil the ribs for about 20 minutes in the seasoned water. Drain.
3. Pre-heat the broiler while the ribs cool for a few minutes.
4. Put the ribs on a baking sheet (I’d recommend covering it with tin foil) and brush the ribs lightly on both sides with some of the Goblin Rocket Fuel. (be careful with the Rocket Fuel if you’ve got a gas stove! Masks are recommended.)
5. Broil the ribs for about 8 mins on each side.
6. Put the ribs in a slow cooker. Add the remaining Rocket Fuel and one bottle of beer. Cook on high for 3-3.5 hrs.
7. Have a good time drinking the remaining 5 bottles of beer while you enjoy your ribs!

BBQ Sauce + Beer = BFF!

You can use a BBQ instead of the broiler and/or the oven at 375 instead of the slow cooker. But I work with what I’ve got And I love my slow cooker!

*Rhapsody Malt: I’d also recommend your favourite Porter or Stout, I used John Sleeman’s Fine Porter.

**Goblin Rocket Fuel: Bull’s-Eye Guiness BBQ Sauce is great  (official BBQ sauce of the Calgary Stampede!)  Feel free to use your favourite BBQ sauce… preferably one with an alcoholic touch (Bourbon, maybe?)

***Mild Spices: some crushed red pepper and black pepper would do well, but feel feel free to ramp it up to Hot Spices if you need an extra kick.

Unemployed has always had a thing for food.  We talk about it, we watch Top Chef, we post our favourite recipes, we discuss the raw milk debate and I am frequently asked to explain the concept of milk in bags.

A few weeks ago, I announced to Unemployed that we’d be holding a cooking contest.  The idea was this: Create a meal/food/drink based on in-game items and recipes.  An example I gave was the recipes featured by WoW Insider’s World of Warcrafts such as Kibler’s Bits.

I decided to make the prizes extra appealing… instead of just some non-combat pets and nice little things like that, I figured since this required extra effort, I’d include extra special prizes.

1st Place: A 60-day game time card

2nd Place: 1000 gold

Runners up: A week’s supply of raid consumables (of their choosing):

• 9x Flasks
• 20x Buff Food
• 5x Health or Mana Potions
• 1 stack of reagents (arrows, candles, dust, ankhs, etc)
• 150g for repairs

Everyone was given 3 weeks to design and submit their recipe.  After the submission period was over, the entire guild was given 1 week to vote on their favourite recipe.  The results were:

1. Layniana’s Warsong Victory Northern Stew
2. Brajana’s Beer Basted Boar Ribs
3. Tigerfeet’s Dwarven Mild
   Guinesa’s Delicious Chocolate Cake
   Pilsner’s Fish Feast

With permission of the recipe creators, I am going to post each recipe here on Mend Pet, and I’ll update this page with links to each recipe.  Please feel free to test them out and let me know what you think!