Sesame Street Cupcakes

Elmo Cupcakes

125 grams butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
3 tablespoons strawberry pudding powder (instant pudding, angel delight, etc.) plus extra red food colouring
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup milk

Decoration:
125 grams butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons strawberry pudding powder/milkshake mix
Dessicated coconut
Red food colouring
White chocolate buttons
Dark chocolate drops
Orange gobstoppers (or other spherical, orange candy)
Oreo cookies

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper liners and set it aside.

Soften the butter a little in the microwave, then add the sugar and beat until it is creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter should be smooth and quite liquid at this point.

Add the flavouring and colouring and beat the mixture well again. 

Sift in the flour and baking powder and beat again, then beat in the milk. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tins.

Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the tin for about 5 minutes, then remove them and let them finish cooling on a wire rack.

Decorating
Soften the butter, then beat the icing sugar and pudding mix into it (or leave it out if you don't have any and maybe add a little vanilla essence). Take a little of the frosting out and put it on a plate - you will need some plain coloured frosting to stick all the facial features on. Then add colour to the bulk of the frosting to make it as red as possible.

Pour some coconut into a bowl and add red food colouring. Stir it all about, add more colour if you need to, until the coconut is bright red. You will find that the coconut picks up the colour much better than frosting and cake batter does.

Prepare the faces. Stick the chocolate drops onto the chocolate buttons using plain frosting. Carefully separate each oreo cookie and then gently slice each in half, to make two half-circles. Have these and the gobstoppers (or alternative nose candies) ready for the next stage.

Spread a nice thick layer of frosting onto each cupcake (do them all at the same time so you can be sure you have enough frosting for all of them). Then roll the top of the cupcake in the coconut into all of the frosting is covered. Now Elmo has fur. Press an oreo half into one side of the cupcake. Then press a gobstopper above that. Finally, add two eyes. You might need to attach them with a small blob of non-coloured frosting. A couple of my Elmo's looked a bit insane - I googled a picture of the real Elmo and discovered that, first of all, his nose is not touching his mouth, and secondly, his eyes are very close together. So that is how you make Elmo:

Cookie Monster Cupcakes
You just need a couple of small changes to make cookie monster cupcakes instead.

1. Make them blue. Make them vanilla flavoured, or any flavour really (you can use custard powder instead of pudding/milkshake powder). Make the frosting and coconut blue.

2. You will need white chocolate buttons and chocolate drops, but Cookie Monster has no nose so you don't need to worry about that. He does have a mouth, so you could use oreo halves again. Or you could use small chocolate chip cookies, cut in half and stuck on with frosting so that it looked like he was munching cookies. I think it would be good to have a mixture of both.

New & Improved Chicken & Corn Soup

Spicy Chicken & Corn Soup

1 raw chicken carcass, with plenty of meat left on
A couple of cups of corn kernels
Two carrots, diced up small
1 small onion, diced up small
Enough water to cover everything
A couple of chicken stock cubes
2 tablespoons soy sauce (that's an approximation, I just poured some in)
1/4 teaspoon crushed ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed chilli
1/2 teaspoon crushed basil (or a small handful fresh basil leaves, torn up)
Small, wide noodles, or 3 lasagna sheets snapped into pieces
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste

Begin with a large pot. Place the chicken carcass and vegetables in it. Cover everything with water. Then crush the chicken stock cubes and add them. Add the soy sauce, ginger and chilli. Bring the soup to the boil and keep it simmering for about half an hour.

When the vegetables are soft and all of the chicken on the carcass is cooked through, it is time to move onto the next step. First, remove the chicken and place it on a chopping board to cool. Then add the basil and the noodles. While the noodles cook, remove the meat from the chicken (discard any skin), break the meat into small pieces and place it back in the pot.

Crack the egg into a small bowl and scramble it really well with a fork. Spoon the egg into the soup gradually, stirring the soup quite briskly all the while, so that the egg breaks up as it cooks. You should be left with small flecks and stringy-bits of cooked egg, and the soup will be a little thicker than plain broth.

Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Wasted Chocolate Cake

Wasted Chocolate Cake

3 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
250 grams (1 cup) melted butter
4 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Kahlua or some sort of liquer (to drizzle)

Frosting:
4 cups icing sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Extra:
250 grams chocolate
3 tablespoons cream
Chocolate bars - like mars, milky way, pinky (in NZ), bounty, whatever you like
Grated chocolate or chocolate drops (for sides of cake)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease two or three 9 inch pans (this is a large mixture so if they are shallow pans, use three).

Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl and give them a stir to combine them. Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove, then add the milk. Whisk the honey and vanilla essence into the liquid mixture.

Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients gradually, mixing as you go (this is just to help ensure that you don't overflow the bowl and make a huge mess). Beat well, until your mixture is smooth.

Fold the chocolate chips into the mixture and then poor it into the prepared tins. Place them in the oven and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, rotating them if needed to ensure they all cook evenly.

Let the cakes cool for a few minutes, then carefully tip them out onto wire racks to finish cooling.

When the cake is cook make the frosting. Beat the butter, sifting in the sugar and cocoa gradually, until it is creamy. Before all of the sugar is in you will find that the mixture is getting thick and dry, so begin to add the milk and vanilla.

Place the bottom layer of your cake on a plate or cake board. Drizzle it liberally with liquor. Spread the cake with a thick layer of frosting and place the next cake layer on top. Repeat this. If there is a third layer, repeat again. Then smooth the frosting over the top and sides of the cake.

Decorate the cake with chocolate. Use chocolate drops or grated chocolate to cover the sides of the cake.

Slice up the chocolate bars (I used a milky way, a mars bar and a caramel aero bar) and press them into the top of the cake.

Melt the chocolate and cream together in the microwave (in 30 second bursts, stirring after each). Place the melted chocolate in a piping bag (or a ziplock plastic bag and snip a small corner off) and squeeze the chocolate out so that you have a really nice scribbled sort of effect on your cake.

Drunken Noodles

Drunken Noodles

250 gram packet of fettuccine or some other wide noodle
3 chicken breasts, cubed
1 large onion
3 bell peppers
3 carrots
1 courgette/zucchini
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 fresh chili, de-seeded and chopped up finely (the original recipe listed anaheim chilli, but any would do I'm sure, and I actually used crushed chilli from a jar)
5 cloves crushed garlic
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce (original recipe called for garlic chilli sauce but I don't have that, and it already has both garlic and chilli, so I figured I'd use this in place of sugar)
1/4 cup basil leaves
Lime wedges (to serve with)

Slice up all the vegetables really thinly lengthwise, so that they themselves are of about the same width as your noodles.

Put on the fettuccine or noodles to cook according to the packet directions.

While the pasta cooks, heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the chicken and cook until all of the chicken is cooked through (or thereabouts). Add the vegetables, chilli and garlic and continue to cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes.

Finally, add the various sauces, give it all a good stir to combine, and leave it to simmer for 5 minutes. Taste it and if it is not burn-your-mouth spicy, consider adding more chilli.

When the pasta is ready, drain it and add it to the frying pan. Tear or chop the basil leaves and add them to the pan as well. Stir it about until it is well combined and serve it up immediately!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

125 grams butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup sultanas
1/2 cup chocolate chips (as always)

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and prepare a baking tray by laying a piece of greaseproof baking paper on it.

Soften the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds if it is hard, then place it in a large bowl with the sugar and cinnamon. Beat it well (with an electric egg beater or cake mixer) until it is creamy in texture, then add the egg and cinnamon and beat it again.

Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture and mix it well. Add the oats, sultanas and chocolate chips. Mix it (use your hands if necessary) until everything is well combined.

Roll spoonfuls (or handfuls) of mixture and flatten them onto the baking tray . Bake for 10 minutes (possibly longer if they are large cookies). When they start to turn golden, they are ready. If you want crispy, crunchy cookies, let them cook until they are golden-brown all over. Let them cool for a few minutes before moving them from the tray.

Spicy Vindaloo

Easy Vindaloo

500 grams chicken, lamb or pork
1 onion
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated (or crushed)
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon crushed chilli
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder (I used madras)
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup stock (preferable the same as whatever meat you have used)
Fresh coriander/cilantro to garnish

First, mix together the ginger, garlic, chilli, curry powder, paprika, pepper and vinegar in a small bowl. Dice the meat, place it in another small bowl and coat it in half of the spice mixture.

Cut the onion in half and slice it thinly. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion until it is soft. Add the remaining half of the spice mixture and cook, stirring, until the onion is well coated and the mixture fragrant. Then add the chicken, tomato paste, stock and water to the mix and stir it until it is well combined.

Keep the heat high until everything is boiling, then turn it down until it is just simmering. Cover your pan with a lid if it has one, or some aluminium foil if it doesn't, and simmer for about 20 minutes. During which time you can prepare rice and vegetables. When you remove the cover in 20 minutes time you should find that the sauce has thickened and the meat is tender.

Sour Cream & Chives Potato Bake

Scalloped Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives

4 large potatoes or 6-8 small/medium potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
1 clove crushed garlic
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 cups normal milk
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan
250 gram tub sour cream
1 large handful fresh chives, chopped finely
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Turn the oven on to 180 degrees celsius.

Wash and peel the potatoes and slice them up thinly (about half centimetre slices). Place them in a pot of water and boil them for about 10 minutes, until they are beginning to get soft.

While the potatoes are boiling, make a white sauce.

Place the butter in a medium sized saucepan and heat it until it is sizzling. Add the garlic and onion and cook for a couple of minutes, until they are translucent and soft. Stir in the flour and cook the resulting paste for a minute or two (the heat should be medium-low). Then slowly add the milk, about 1/4 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition so that the sauce is always smooth. When all the milk has been added the sauce should be slightly thick - you don't want it to get too thick yet so take it off the heat instead of letting it simmer. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, then stir in the parmesan cheese.

Take a large, square oven dish and spoon in enough white sauce to just cover the bottom (no more than a third of your sauce). Layer half of the potato over top of the sauce, then spread half of the sour cream over the potatoes. Sprinkle over half of the chives and then pour over half of the remaining white sauce.

Repeat the layering process. The last of the potatoes, then the sour cream and the chives. Pour over the last of the white sauce, then sprinkle the top with grated cheese.

Bake the potatoes for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees celsius, until a knife inserted into the middle goes through all of the layers of potato easily and the cheese on top is golden and bubbly.

Just to finish, this recipe is based on something my mum used to make. She emailed me these instructions:
"Well that was peeled potato sliced thinly, boiled in water till just starting to get soft and then the water was drained. This is the bad part. You add a knob of butter, and about 2 cups of milk mixed with the powdery stuff in the box. Oops. Sour cream and chives was my fav flavour. To make it yourselve you would add some milk and butter with cheese, salt, pepper and seasoning and a wee bit of cheese and sour cream and chives. I reckon that would work just fine. If it needs thickened a wee bit of cornflour mixed into the milk :) Yum."

Quinoa Pilaf

Rice & Quinoa Pilaf

25 grams butter
1 onion
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup long grain rice (I used brown basmati)
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup chopped vegetables
A small handfull of fresh chives, chopped finely
25 grams butter

In a large saucepan, melt the butter and add the onion, rice and quinoa. Cook, stirring all the time, for two minutes. If you are using meat, add that at this point too.

Pour in the stock and add the vegetables. At this point it will look like soup. At this point you could transfer it to a casserole dish and let it bake for about 30 or 40 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.

Alternatively, continue to cook pilaf on the stove. Turn the heat down to medium-low and place the lid on the saucepan. Let it simmer for about 30 minutes (you can stir it every now and then if you want, but you don't have to). After about a half hour almost all of the water will have been absorbed. So now you should give it a taste and season it with salt and pepper if need be. Then stir in the chives and the second measure of butter. Place the lid back on the saucepan, remove it from the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Simple Soy & Honey Stirfry

Soy & Honey Chicken Stirfry

2 large chicken breast fillets, sliced thinly
4 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ginger (dried or crushed)
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 large onion
3 cups thinly sliced vegetables (for instance, 3 carrots, half a head of broccoli and a bell pepper)
1/2 cup water plus 1 heaped tablespoon cornflour
1 cup long-grain rice (I used brown basmati, but any rice will do)

Dice the chicken up thinly and marinate it in the garlic, ginger, soy sauce and honey for about an hour. When you are about ready to begin, chop the onion finely and slice the vegetables. Place the rice in a medium sized sauce pan with 2 cups of water (or however much it says on your packet of rice).

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onions. After a couple of minutes, add the chicken mixture and stir this about until the chicken is cooked. It's sort of hard to tell with marinated chicken because of the dark colour, but you are going to let it simmer for long enough that you should have to really worry too much. When you think the chicken is cooked, add the vegetables and stir everything about for another few minutes, until the vegetables begin to get soft.

Add the cornflour and water to the bowl that you marinated the chicken in (so that it includes the remnants of the marinade). Mix it into a paste and then pour this over the stirfry. Turn the heat down, give it a good stir, and let it simmer until the rice is cooked. If you need to, drain any last water out of the rice, then add the rice to the pan and mix it all together. Let it simmer for another little while, just to make sure that the sauce is good and thick and the rice is fully cooked.

Savoury Muffins

Cheese & Herb Muffins

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder (or make your own with 1 teaspoon of baking soda with 3 teaspoons cream of tartar)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons grated parmesan
2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs (or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs)
1/2 cup fresh chives (chopped up fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and prepare a muffin tin (12 ordinary muffins or 24 mini-muffins).

Now, like with all muffins, take a large bowl and add all of the dry ingredients. Give them a good mix and set this bowl aside.

In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, milk and sweet chilli sauce. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold the two together until it is just mixed (all of the flour should be wet).

Spoon the mixture into muffin tins and place them in the hot oven. Bake mini-muffins for 10 minutes and normal sized muffins for about 15 to 20 minutes. Give them a couple of minutes to cool before you remove them from the pan.

Spinach Cannelloni

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

Tomato Sauce with Wine:
Olive oil or butter (about 2 tablespoons)
1 onion
2 carrots
1 red peppers
4 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cans tomatoes
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups white wine
Salt and pepper

Cannelloni:
Instant cannelloni
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic
About 1 tablespoon dried oregano (or fresh if you have it)
1 large bunch spinach (about 400 grams)
400 grams ricotta cheese
30 grams parmesan cheese
1-2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

White Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper
30 grams parmesan cheese

First, make the tomato sauce because it needs to simmer for a good long time. Dice all of the vegetables up fine and crush the garlic. Heat the oil in a large pot and throw everything in. Let it simmer for a half hour or so, until it's thick. Then you can either leave it chunky or blend it until it's smooth. Take a large lasagna dish or square casserole dish and place a thick layer of sauce in the bottom.

Prepare the cannelloni. Begin by heating the butter in a large pan. Crush the garlic and stir it about in the butter quickly along with the oregano, then begin to add the spinach. If you have large spinach leaves you might want to rip them up as you add them, but if you have baby spinach it's not necessary. Fill the pan with spinach and stir it about until it is wilted and reduced in size, then add more and more spinach until it is all in there. Remove it from the pan and place it in a bowl with the ricotta cheese. Grate the parmesan over top, sprinkle on the salt and pepper and mix it up well. Then use a teaspoon (or your hands) to stuff the cannelloni tubes full of the spinach mixture. Place the stuffed cannelloni tubes on top of the tomato sauce.

Make the white sauce. In a medium sized pot, melt the butter and then stir the flour into it until it is a thick paste. Keep stirring this over medium heat for a couple of minutes, then begin to add the milk a little bit at a time. Every time after you add the milk you need to stir it into the paste so that there are no lumps. Taste it and then season it with salt and pepper. Then grate the cheese into the sauce and stir it in.

Pour the cheese sauce over the cannelloni, sprinkle more parmesan over the top and bake until the cannelloni is cooked. If you put a skewer or fork into the middle of the dish it should easily slide through the cannolloni.

Afghans

Afghans

200 grams butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups cornflakes
1/2 cup chocolate chips (this is my own addition, because I can't help myself)
Chocolate icing
Halved walnuts (or if you don't like walnuts, some slivered almonds or desiccated coconut)

First, heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and prepare a couple of cookie trays.

Soften the butter, then beat in the sugar until it is creamy. Add the flour, cocoa powder, cornflakes and chocolate chips and mix the dough really well - you will have to use your hands eventually because this is a very stiff, crumbly dough.

Scoop balls of dough with a teaspoon and roll them into a ball, then press each onto the cookie tray. Bake for  about 15 minutes.

Let the cookies cool completely (don't move them from the tray too soon or they will crumble into pieces!), then ice them with chocolate icing and top with a walnut half (or a sprinkling of almonds or coconut).

Creamy Carbonara

Bacon Carbonara

About 2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 brown onion (or a bunch of spring onions but often don't have any)
200 grams bacon, chopped into small pieces
1 can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 handful of parsley, chopped up fine

First, get a large pot of water boiling for your pasta. Then, while the water boils and your pasta cooks, prepare the sauce.

In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter and then add the onion and bacon. Cook for a couple of minutes or so, until everything is soft and sort of cooked. Then add the evaporated milk and just leave it to simmer. But turn the heat down and keep an eye on it because if it starts to boil it will rise up and overflow.

In a small jug whisk together the egg, cheese and pepper and then sit this aside.

When the pasta is ready, drain it and return it to the saucepan (but not to the heat). Quickly add the egg mixture and stir it about until the pasta is well coated, then add the milk mixture and give it another good stir. Finally, stir the parsley through and serve it with a bit more parmesan sprinkled over the top, and maybe some extra parsley as a garnish.

Coconut Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

Coconut Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

125 grams butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Juice of 1 orange
1 cup dessicated coconut
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
100 grams dark chocolate, broken into pieces

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and prepare a baking tray.

So next, in a large bowl, soften your butter in the microwave and then beat the sugar into it, either with an electric mixer or by hand. Cookies will work out nicely no matter how you mix them.

Add the egg and orange juice and beat the mixture well.

Add the coconut, flour, baking powder and chocolate.

The mixture will be quite wet, so scoop up teaspoonfuls and drop them onto a tray, with enough space for them to spread out a bit.

Bake them at 180 degrees celsius for 15 minutes, then take them out and let them sit on the tray for a couple of minutes before you move them onto a rack to cool.

Fresh tomato and basil pasta

Pasta with Garlic, Basil and Cherry Tomatoes 
(Recipe can be made much larger to feed more people)

One serving of pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons basil puree (or a handful of fresh basil, torn into pieces)
250 grams cherry tomatoes (1 punnet)
Parmesan for sprinkling

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta.

Crush the garlic, tear up the basil if you are using fresh stuff, and chop the cherry tomatoes in half. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and pepper and then just set everything aside until the pasta is cooked.

Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the garlic and basil to the hot oil and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for another couple of minutes. Then throw the pasta in and stir it about to coat it well with the oil, basil and garlic.

Drain the pasta. Then turn off the heat, pile it into a large pasta bowl, grate a little parmesan over it and serve.

ANZAC Biscuit Slice

ANZAC Slice

250 grams plain flour
250 grams rolled oats
250 grams sugar
250 grams desiccated coconut
200 grams butter
1/4 cup golden syrup
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a tin with baking paper - I used my 20 by 30 cm pan and made a very thick slice, but if you have a bigger pan your slice will be much thinner, so that you can chop it into bars instead of squares.

Now, combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then place the butter, golden syrup and water in another small bowl or jug and heat it in the microwave until the butter has melted. Stir it well to combine it and then add the baking soda.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix it together well with a large spoon - you might have to use your hands at the end to get the last bits of flour and oats into the mixture. Then press the mixture into your prepared tin.

Bake your slice for about 25 minutes, or a bit longer if you want it sort of crispy. Mine was very soft but I think that if it had been thinner, it would have been quite crispy on the top after 25 minutes.

Let the slice cool completely and then, if you like, frost it with a simple chocolate icing. I made mine by sifting one cup of icing sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder into a bowl, placing about a tablespoon of butter on top and pouring over about 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Give it a good stir until everything is well combined, and if it is too thick add a smidgen more water. Then spread it on!