Cake and chicken!

studentsaver166

Morning old stylers...long time no see! I am in need of some of your worldly wisdom...I made a cake the other day, just a basic vanilla sponge, and added some choc buttons to the mix. Predictably, they all sank to the bottom, despite me coating them in flour first, which I thought was the solution. So how do you stop them from sinking?? Also it came out slightly greasier than normal..I'm wondering if the amount of butter should be reduced if you're adding chocolate to the mix?

Second ponderance of the day (I'm sick at home..can you tell I'm bored?!)..I want to make some homemade chicken stock from a carcass I've got left, but the last time I did it the stock was very weak. Any top tips/stock recipes? It's not a huge chicken, only big enough for 2 of us, so I'm not sure how much stock I should expect to be able to produce from it.

All advice very gratefully received!
SS xx

NoahsPennilessMummy

I am not a cake expert I`m afraid!
As far as the chicken...I found that it it no good trying to make stock from 1 small chicken...I now freeze the carcasses and use them for stock once I have 2 or 3 and it is much richer.

studentsaver166

Thanks Noah. It's a shame cos we pretty much never have a whole chicken and haven't got enough freezer space so I guess i'll just have to pep the stock up with a cube!

mrbadexample

I made stock from a small chicken carcass. One onion, halved. One carrot in big chunks. Was advised to break the chicken bones first for extra goodness. Boiled up in slow cooker for several hours. I got stock. No idea if it was weak or not, coz it's the only time I've ever done it! I'm only really posting to let you know about the breaking bones thing.... :whistle:

parsonswife8

studentsaver166 wrote: »

Thanks Noah. It's a shame cos we pretty much never have a whole chicken and haven't got enough freezer space so I guess i'll just have to pep the stock up with a cube!

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I always pop a chicken stock cube in and some mixed herbs, salt and pepper, onion, carrot and celery or celery salt.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Nix143

I think you can still got stock from one carcass, just not as much. So don't add pints and pints of water and expect good stock. Just enough to cover. And if it is still not very strong then reduce down once you've made the stock, that should concentrate it a bit. A lot depends on how good the chicken is, a free range beauty will always give better, more jelly-y stock than those 2 for a fiver jobbies from Mr T

And adding a stock cube to homemade stock is just wrong, people! You're undoing all your stocky goodness by whacking a load of chemical nonsense into it. In my ever not so humble opinion that is

mrbadexample

Nix143 wrote: »

, more jelly-y stock

Mine certainly wasn't jelly-y.

studentsaver166

Thank you lovely people, excellent tips! I think I'll just give the stock a go and try not to dilute it too much. Will remember to break the bones...didn't do that last time - thanks Mr B! And Nix it is a good ol' sainsbury's happy free range chicken so hopefully it should give me happy free range stock!

Gingernutmeg

Chocolate added to cakes will make the cake a bit greasier, if it's 'cheaper' chocolate ... I'm not insinuating anything here lol, it's to do with the cocoa butter content and white chocolate will have much the same effect, especially if you add it melted (if you're not careful, it'll make the greasiest cakes you've ever tried to eat ...)

If I'm ever putting chocolate in a cake, I use a darker chip (rather than an eating button, IYSWIM) and I've never had the problem of them sinking. Also, don't put too much chocolate in. I personally wouldn't reduce the butter but would rather reduce the chocolate, for a more chocolately cake just replace a tablespoonful or so of the flour with some good cocoa (not drinking chocolate). That way, even of the buttons do sink, you won't notice it so much That and try to use the best chocolate you can, cheaper 'cooking' chocolate is good for melting and topping etc because of the higher cocoa butter content, but isn't much good for putting in cakes. Decent quality eating chocolate is better for mixing in to a cake - on an MSE note, the flavour tends to be better so you'll need less anyway