Mud Cake for Morons

Ingredients (serves 8)

200g butter, chopped
300g good-quality dark chocolate
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup self-raising flour
pure icing sugar, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 6cm deep, 20cm (base) round cake pan. Line with baking paper.

2. Place butter, 200g chopped chocolate and hot water in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH (100%) for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring every minute with a metal spoon, or until smooth.

3. Add cocoa to warm chocolate mixture. Stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla, caster sugar and egg. Sift flour over chocolate mixture. Stir gently to combine.

4. Pour half the batter into cake pan. Chop remaining chocolate and sprinkle half over batter. Top with remaining batter and chopped chocolate. Bake cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre has moist crumbs clinging.

5. Allow cake to cool completely in pan. Remove and dust with icing sugar. Serve.This cake keeps well for up to 1 week stored in an airtight container lined with baking paper.

I hope you enjoy it as much as i did! i like to heat my slice in the microwave for 40 seconds and then top with cream or ice cream and suddenly nothing else in the world matters!

Love and kisses on both cheeks,

Sunny xxx

Parmesan Chicken Tenders - Aka. better-than-sex-food

Ingredients
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup or about 250g), melted
1 cup dried bread crumbs
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt or chicken salt (which ever you have on hand)
A large pinch of dried Italian herb mix
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
600g (approx) Chicken Tenderloins

Method

1 Preheat oven to about 210/220 Celsius in a fan forced oven.

2 In a bowl, combine the minced garlic with the melted butter. In another bowl mix together the bread crumbs, Parmesan, parsley, salt, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, and pepper. Dip chicken pieces into garlic butter, then into crumb mixture to coat. Double crumb if you want a crunchier finish.

3 Place coated chicken pieces on to a baking dish. Try to leave a little room between each piece. Drizzle with remaining garlic butter and bake uncovered 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear. Note that the chicken will get much more browned on the bottom side than on the top.

Serves 4-6 - or two very hungry people :)
Try it for yourselves and you'll see what I'm talking about! The original recipe (which i have altered a little) came from http://www.elise.com/recipes/.

Love and kisses on both cheeks,
Sunny xxx

Recipe Resolutions

This past week i made three of my recipe resolutions:

1. Parmesan Chicken Nuggets - and oh my lord you have never tasted a better nugget! i made mine as tenders rather than nuggets using tenderloins from my local deli (they were on sale). It was like heaven in my mouth. Even the minions scoffed them down and asked for more - and that's saying something seeing as it had green herbs on it :) this one is going in the must cook again list!

2. Scones - these went down extremely well at work. Everyone loved them and were amazed at how easy they were! I ate them with strawberry jam and whipped cream (the morning tea of kings!!)

3. Chocolate Mud Cake for Mothers Day - my mum (and minions) loved this and i couldn't believe how simple and tasty the recipe i found was. It took me all of 30 minutes to make and looked brilliant. This will definitely be one of my regulars.

What have your resolutions been like these past couple weeks?

Love and kisses on both cheeks,
Sunny xxx

Recipe Resolutions

Here are my recipe resolutions for this week or so:

1. Scones - see recipe below
2. Chocolate Mud Cake - for mothers day
3. Parmesan chicken nuggets
4. Matchsticks - Puff pastry goodness!

Keep tuned to see how these resolutions shape up!

Love and kisses on both cheeks,
Sunny xxx

The Easiest Scones Ever

Nearly everyone loves scones. I know i love to have some scones with jam and cream for a weekend brunch. They are so yummy that one is never enough. So for all you scone scoffers here is my favourite recipe:

Ingredients

4 cups Self Raising flour

300 ml Thickened Cream

350ml Lemonade

Method

1. Sift flour into bowl and make a well in the middle.

2. Pour cream and lemonade into the well of flour.

3. Mix until it makes a firm dough

4. Roll out and cut into rounds with a scone or cookie cutter.

5. Bake at 180C in a fan forced oven (200C if not fan forced) for about 10 - 20 minutes depending on the size of the scones. When they are golden on the top and fully puffed up take them out of the oven and cool on a wire rack.

6. Serve with strawberry jam and whipped cream when they are still warm.

7. Stuff face.

Love and kisses on both cheeks,

Sunny xxx

To Quiche, Or Not To Quiche?

Well, I'm a bit late in writing to you all, but i did reach another of my weekly recipe resolutions!! Wooohooo!

I made Mini Impossible Quiche's... Impossible you say?

Let me inform you- impossible quiche is a quiche where you don't use a pastry. It has self raising flour in the egg mixture which sinks to the bottom and creates a sort of pretend pastry. Great for us lazy girls who don't feel like coming home and making a big batch of pastry shells!!!

Anyway my quiche's were Bacon & Broccoli because i love broccoli and because what is a quiche without bacon???

Here is the recipe I used and it made 12 Large Mini Impossible Quiches (yes i get that that sentence is an oxymoron!)

Mini Impossible Quiches - Makes 12

3 large eggs

1 cup of Milk (I used full cream)

1/2 cup of thickened cream (optional - you can just add half a cup extra milk instead if you like)

6 large broccoli florets chopped roughly

1 hand full of bacon pieces (or about a cup)

1 cup of cheese (I used tasty)

1 cup self raising flour

Oil spray (yes my lovely Woolies home brand again!)

1. preheat oven to 200C

2. Cook bacon for a couple minutes to your liking - i like mine well cooked. I used frozen broccoli so i cooked mine in the microwave until tender. Whisk together milk, flour, eggs and cream.

3. spray a cup cake tin with oil. Evenly portion the cheese, broccoli and bacon between cup cake moulds. Pour over egg/milk mixture.

4. Cook in oven for about ten minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Please please please don't over cook this as like any eggs, its horrible when its not light and fluffy.

Tada!! Mini Impossible Quiche! You can also do this in one dish and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes. I was quite surprised how easily these slipped out of the pan. I also like to sprinkle cheese over the top of the quiches because I'm a cheese-oholic.

Love and kisses on both cheeks,

Sunny xxx

Recipes Resolutions

I am constantly reading recipe after recipe in the hopes of finding something to cook for dinner and also something to please K (apparently my 'Australian' food is bland! huh! bland indeed!).

Lately I've been so busy with work, gym and other commitments that i have found myself eating less than nutritious meals - like instant mac n cheese and two minute noodles. I bet your all squirming at the sodium and carb levels of my recent diet!

No more! From now on i will at least attempt to cook a couple new meals a week. Here are this weeks Recipe Resolutions:

1. Marlboro Man’s Second Favorite Sandwich - from Pioneer Woman Cooks. it sounds great in its chicken-bacon-cheese goodness!! your probably all thinking: "didn't she say she wanted to stop eating junk?" but seriously, this is so tasty it makes the cut!

2. No pastry quiche - with bacon, cheese, broccoli and perhaps tomato's. either way its a bit of an experiment! hahaha.

3. Three Ingredient Scones - the recipe is from the book '4 Ingredients'. I've been going on about scones over the last week and i think i will take the plunge and try these! hmmm scones.... If anyone knows where to get a good scone cutter let me know!

Lets see how far i get with these ones! I'll post pictures (where possible - depends on how fast I eat) and give you a review of what they're like.

PS. My nose stud is starting to feel a bit normal now... less like i have a booger up my nose :)

love and kisses on both cheeks,

Sunny xxx