If the Revolutionary War had been Fought by Pastry Chefs...

Fireworks!

I went a little crazy this Fourth of July. I decided to make a whole themed meal. I made everything in pairs: one British version of the dish and one American version of the dish. For example, scotch eggs and deviled eggs would have worked (I didn't make them, but that's not the point.) We all voted who one each skirmish but we couldn't decide who won the war--both sides had such delicious food!

And the battle commenced:

Pigs in a Blanket & Bangers and Mash

Well, it wasn't really mash. I decided that there would be no easy way to eat bangers and mash, so instead I baked up some slices of potato in the oven. It was more like bangers and baked potato, but it was still great! I made the pigs in blankets fresh, with hebrew national hot dogs and puff pastry. Actually, as much as I love pigs in a blanket I liked the bangers more.

Smoked Salmon, two ways

On the top we have the British smoked Scottish salmon with thinly sliced cucumber on buttered brown bread. Below, the American side put up bagels with gravalox and cream cheese. Well actually there wasn't cream cheese because even though I'd bought it on the 3rd it was blue--so the American dish ended up bagels, lox, and butter. I think the British dish won, but by a very small margin. It's not entirely fair to the American dish, because as much as I love bagels, good Scottish smoked salmon will beat lox every time.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Scones

Now we have the first of the desserts: American strawberry shortcakes and British scones. The shortcakes were excellent plain, once you added the macerated strawberries and creme fraiche whipped cream they were just amazing! To make the strawberry scones, I used diced dried strawberries in place of the traditional dried currants. I filled them with strawberry jam and clotted cream--delicious! There was no decisive winner of this battle.

White Cake and Fairy Cakes

I had planned to ice these, royal icing on the British fairy cakes (in the foil wrappers) and vanilla buttercream on the American white cupcakes (in the paper wrappers). Unfortunately I ran out of powdered sugar and time (so I couldn't run to the store to get more sugar). Ah well, we didn't really need more sugar and they actually tasted delicious plain. I'm not sure which of these I liked more. The fairy cakes were slightly denser and dryer than the American white cupcakes (not that were dense or dry, just less light and moist than the others). On the other hand, they were slightly more flavorful. I think this battle too was a draw--though if you forced me to pick a winner I'd say the British fairy cakes.

On the left: British Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Sour Cream Frosting
On the right: American Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream

To round out the night, I had to have something chocolate, so I made guinness chocolate cupcakes (this is the same cake I used for my menu project) with a vanilla sour cream topping for the British side and Brooklyn blackout cupcakes (I found the recipe--for normal chocolate cake, technically, but it certainly seems like Brooklyn blackout cake--in an excellent ice cream cookbook I just bought) with mocha buttercream for the American side. As much as I love the guinness chocolate cake (as I always have), I have to declare this battle for the Americans. The rich, dark chocolate Brooklyn blackout cake was delicious on its own. Topped with a rich and creamy mocha buttercream it was amazing!

One more photo of the Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes;
I think they are so pretty!

Overall, the results tallied up to 2-2 with one tie. While there was no decisive winner of this food war, I think we can all agree that those of us who got to eat the food came out on top for the night!