I stumbled across Jonny Murphy and his baking while scrolling on Instagram. He is known as The Hungry Hooker, hooker being a rugby term, a forward who plays in the front row and primarily 'hooks' or rather kicks the ball backwards to win possession. Jonny played the position of hooker until he had to retire early due to an injury. During that time and since he has a passion for baking and cooking which he often shares with his family, friends and former team mates. He openly talks about his struggles on and off the pitch while remaining sincere and optimistic in hopes it helps anyone who may be struggling themselves. His Instagram profile and posts are going strong with not only local support but plenty of support from around the world.
With his cookbook, Bakes and wee treats, he wanted to share his family's favourite Northern Irish recipes and helping him do that is his Granda and Nan. He has also started supplying some of his bakes to local coffee shops. This cookbook is a celebration of love, family and life - whatever life may throw at you and how to cope and keep going. I do agree and with what he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'that there are a multitude of things that are or can become therapy and baking seems like one of them.'
With the death of his uncle, Jonny felt the need to reconnected with not only his roots but his close relationship with his Nanny Mamie. When he was much younger his Nanny and him would bake together. That prompted him to move back home and try to start a bakery there and things seemed to have taken off for him.
This cookbook has plenty of sweet scrumptious classic recipes, I hope he does a savoury cookbook as well. He definitely has a talent and gift inside the kitchen. With helpful baking tips from his Nan and how to knead dough, how to make the perfect cuppa and a glossary of Northern Irish slang all complement this heartfelt cookbook.
With over one hundred recipes, chapters include: Morning Treats, Breads, Biscuits and Small bites, Cakes, Traybakes, Sweet Buns and Breads, Pudding, Celebration Bakes, Homemade Basics along with a conversion table at the back. To find out more about Jonny Murphy, his Nanny, his Granda Alfie and his baking give him a follow on Instagram or Facebook.
I decided to include the recipe for the Sticky Ginger Loaf Cake as it's absolutely luscious. The measurements are as they appear in the book, in grams, therefore you will need a kitchen scale to weigh and measure out ingredients.
Sticky Ginger Loaf Cake
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makes 1 large loaf cake
100g butter
100g golden syrup
140g treacle
100g soft dark brown sugar
200g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
50g crystallised ginger
2 eggs
80ml milk
1 Preheat oven to 160ºC fan/180ºC/gas 4 and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
2 Gently melt the butter, golden syrup, treacle and dark soft brown sugar in a small pan over low - medium heat. Set aside once melted.
3 Sift the flour into a large bowl along with the bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4 Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the slightly cooled melted ingredients. Mix with a spoon or spatula until fully combined and smooth, then add then add the crystallised ginger.
5 In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk, then pour this into the batter. Stir well until fully combined, then pour into your loaf tin.
6 Bake for about 45 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool fully.
7 You can get stuck in straight away, plastering it in real butter.But of you wrap it tightly in some kitchen foil and pop it in an airtight container, the flavours will develop over a few days. It might be a good idea to make two cakes. One to keep you going and the other to look forward to, unless someone lands unannounced for a cuppa tae.