Silent Hill – Butter Cake

I’m pretty excited about this week’s Gourmet Gaming because I happen to be a huge Silent Hill fan. When I was about 10 I was given a ‘cracked’ import version of the game from Thailand as a holiday present from one of my mom’s friends.

The entire game was in black in white.

That’s what you get for buying duff versions of games, kids. Silent Hill was, needless to say, shelved after a few nightmares. I then returned several years later and managed to complete Silent Hill 2, which led to my great obsession with the series. Butter Cake appears to be one of only a few foods available in Silent Hill. Is it perhaps the source of all evil? There’s only one way to find out…

What you will need: An 8-inch spring-form cake tin, a sieve, a large mixing bowl and greaseproof paper/baking parchment.

This recipe serves 10-12.

Ingredients:

200g / 1 Cup Butter (Room Temperature)

300g / 1½ Cups Light Brown Caster/Superfine Sugar

4 Large Eggs (Room Temperature)

380g / 3 Cups Plain Flour

2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

½ Teaspoon Salt

240ml / 1 Cup Milk

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

To Garnish:

1 Tablespoon Butter

2 Tablespoons Sugar

Making the Butter Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 165C/325F. Lightly grease and line the cake tin. Dust the greased tin with a sprinkling of flour then set aside for later.
2. In a large mixing bowl add the butter and sugar. Beat for about 5 minutes, until it’s pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well combined. In a separate bowl, sieve in the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Alternate adding the milk and the flour a little at a time into the cake mixture. First add some flour, mix, then add some milk, mix again and continue until all the milk and flour has been added, ending with adding flour. This technique is important to make sure the cake has the right texture.
4. Finally, add the vanilla extract and stir well once again. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and place in the middle of the preheated oven for 60-70 minutes.
5. Once firm and golden, remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool.

Preparing the Garnish:

1. Add the butter and sugar to a small saucepan and allow to melt. Don’t let it boil!
2. Once warmed through, and with the cake fresh from the oven, brush the butter over the top of the cake and leave to cool completely before removing from the tin and serving.

Definitely the source of all evil. Including heart attacks and childhood diabetes. If this is what Pyramid Head has been eating all this time, I’m not sure how he’s so buff. Maybe Silent Hill is just an illusion caused by a build up of Butter Cake on the brain. That seems more reasonable than most of the theories floating around some forums. The Butter Cake is an unusual dense sweetness that I’d serve with a dusting of icing sugar, cream, ice-cream or fruits. Just don’t eat too much or you’ll never be able to escape!

Like this? You might also enjoy the Minecraft - Cake.

Request: Deadly Premonition (Red Seeds Profile) - Thomas’ Biscuit

I had to hold off on doing this recipe so there would be enough of a gap between the infamous Sinner’s Sandwich and this second offering from the amazing Deadly Premonition, so it’s really exciting that I’m finally getting to make it! Thomas’ Biscuit is cited by Francis York Morgan as having the perfect balance of milk and butter and apparently you can tell the extra love and care that Thomas puts into them. They’re incredibly scarce in the game, you only ever have a couple  in your possession not counting the one that appears in a cut-scene, but they do restore all of your fatigue and health - they’re just that awesome. The fact they’re called “biscuits” confuses my European brain as I know that as something flat and crumbly not tall and cake-like as it appears on the illusive in-game trading card. But this is middle America… a logging town… (sounding familiar?) so of course it’s an American style biscuit which is remarkably similar to a British scone. I’ve decided to make a slightly sweeter and lighter version that will hopefully live up to Thomas’ recipe.

This recipe serves 6-8.

What you will need:

Greaseproof/baking paper, baking tray, large bowl, sieve, rolling pin, a medium and small round cookie cutter, small bowl.

Ingredients:

325g Plain Flour

2 ½ Teaspoons Baking Powder

½ Teaspoon Salt

30g Golden Caster Sugar

120g Cold Butter

180ml Milk

1 ½ Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

2 Eggs

Thomas’ Biscuits:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and line a baking tray with greaseproof/baking paper. In a small bowl lightly beat one egg and a tablespoon of milk.
2. In a large bowl sift in the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Cut the butter into chunks and with your fingertips rub it into the flour mixture until it resembles bread crumbs.
4. Add the milk, one egg and vanilla and stir until combined - it should be thick, sticky and lumpy.
5. Place the mixture on a floured surface and knead gently until a dough is formed.
6. Roll the dough out until it is about ½ an inch thick then cut out biscuits with a medium round cookie cutter and remove the centre with a small round cookie cutter.
7. Place the biscuits onto the prepared baking tray and brush the tops with the beaten egg and milk mixture. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Thomas’s Biscuit is rather important to myself and everyone else who was involved with our play through of Deadly Premonition. When defeating the final boss we got bashed and battered around a bit and we almost couldn’t finish it for a lack of health and then we remembered. We had Thomas’ Biscuit and we ate it and it was good and it saved Greenvale. Straight from the oven I enjoyed these with a fresh cup of coffee (obviously) and a little butter and jam. They were so delicious. There’s scope here to add spices or fruits or whatever you’d like and use this recipe as a base, but it’s true what Francis York Morgan said about the balance and taste. Perfectly delicious in everyway and a new personal favourite. Once they’ve cooled I think they’d be pretty good with the traditional American serving of gravy. Maybe these are what the Raincoat Killer was chasing you for all that time? I wouldn’t blame him.

Like this? You might also enjoy the Deadly Premonition - Sinner’s Sandwich.

Don’t forget you can VOTE HERE for the Gourmet Gaming Hallowe’en Special!

Deadly Premonition (Red Seeds Profile) - “Sinner’s Sandwich”

Deadly Premonition is one of the greatest games I have ever played. Ever. And in a way it’s responsible for the creation of Gourmet Gaming. A few months ago I hosted a play-through party and decided to serve up snacks inspired by the game to get everyone in the mood. There were doughnuts, pie (from Twin Peaks; Deadly Premonitions obvious source of inspiration), coffee, ‘the’ pickles and of course “Sinner’s Sandwiches”. 

The “Sinner’s Sandwich” is so iconic, I think, partly down to it’s rather unusual ingredients that Francis York Morgan provides with the air of an urban myth. It’s my belief that perhaps there’s a slight mistranslation though, the ingredients are: turkey, strawberry jam and cereal. I think that maybe the ‘cereal’ is a bit of a mistake, it sounds like it should probably be more of a turkey, conserve and stuffing sandwich but instead ends up as some fantastical mess, and better for it I say!

Mr. Francis York Morgan, You should try this wonderful lunch. It’s more than a delicious, tasty crunch. So says Mr. Stewart.

This recipe serves 8.

What you will need:

Balls.

Ingredients:

A Loaf of White Crustless Bread

2 Turkey Breasts 

A Jar of High Quality Strawberry Jam or Conserve

Cereal - I chose a Nestlé Pick-A-Pack (Cheerios, Nesquik, Honey Shreddies, Cookie Crisp, Honey Cheerios and Shreddies)

Butter or Margarine

Making the Sandwich:

1. I bought my turkey breast fresh and cooked it slowly in the oven with a little butter - but feel free to use pre-cooked chunks, not processed slices.
2. Get two pieces of bread; spread a little butter on one and the strawberry conserve liberally on the other.
3. Cut the turkey breast into medium slices at an angle and lay the pieces onto the buttered piece of bread.
4. Pick a cereal of your choice and sprinkle generously over the conserve.
5. Place the second piece of bread strawberry side down on top and cut the sandwich diagonally to serve.

Last time I made these I used regular turkey slices so this time I tried a thicker and fresher cut of breast and I think it’s worked better. I also used Rice Crispies as the cereal and although it worked well it wasn’t very exciting, it just added a little crunch. I made four types of “Sinner’s Sandwiches” this time with Cookie Crisp, Cheerios, Honey Nut Shredded Wheat and Golden Nuggets - I encourage you to use any cereal you like. My taste testers agreed the “Sinner’s Sandwich” is pretty good as a sandwich, if a little strange. Apparently the Honey Nut Shredded Wheat worked best with the Cheerios a close second and I’ve been told to avoid chocolate based cereals entirely - it just doesn’t work at all. The “Sinner’s Sandwich” probably isn’t something you’d choose for lunch like Mr. Stewart suggests, but for it’s cult status it’s definitely something worth trying at least once.

Like this? You might also enjoy the Deadly Premonition - Thomas’ Biscuit.