Rhubarb & Raspberry Crumble Souffle

If it's not clear enough already, I love baking desserts.
This little beauty takes abouty 20mins to make and is perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Just like any other dessert!

I don't really have much else to say but if you're a sweet tooth and love warm crunchy treats, this is a must... and because of the large fruit content, it's very healthy. I just won't mention how much sugar it contains...

Recipe can be found here.





oh, and the left over crumble is AMAZING on breakfast the following morning.

Chocolate Ganache & White Chocolate Honeycomb

Here's a quick one to try if you need something in a hurry.

It's also quick to go to your hips!

The ganache is just cream and chocolate.

The honeycomb is just sugar, glucose & baking powder.

plus peanuts and white chocolate to serve.

It's delicious! extremely healthy and a bit of fun.

Catherine.

Chicken Winglets and Oysters, Hummus and Raw Vegetable Salad

Another Masterchef Classic! This is my 'Go To' dish. If you have a hot date or want your existing 'significant other' to have your kids, this is the dish I would cook!

First of all, if you've never made you're own hummus before. Now is the time! It's so easy and it tastes divine.

The other thing I love about this dish is how healthy it is. The raw vegetable salad is the perfect compliment to the cooked chicken poached with thyme, butter and sumac.

I love to cook this because my baby just loves it. You could cook this for a family BBQ or cut out a radish in the shape of a 'love heart' and hide a diamond ring in it. I hope it's good for you too!

Bellissimo!

Dave.

Black Forest Cake

My least favourite type of cake is Black Forest, however when I saw it being made on Masterchef I was ready for a challenge.

I made it at Mum's and being the culinary genius that she is, she was able to answer all my questions...and she good at noticing when the room was filling up with smoke " QUICK CATH THE SAUCE IS BURNING". Praise the Lord for mothers.

It ended up being really easy to make, but extremely difficult to assemble.

We managed to consume 3/4 of it in one day, and I've had requests to make it again.
So no doubt this will become a family favourite.

Forster Food

We recently had a few days away in Forster with Dave's mum and stepdad. Perfect time to cook those things that take hours! ie...The Mighty Beef Wellington!

Dave's mum has a huge kitchen so we could both cook together, whereas our kitchen at home is barely big enough for ants!!

The Beef Wellington was another 4hour project that involved 40,000 ingredients. We managed to pull it off with great success! Tasted amazing - even though the blood was still running out of the beef. Aparently this means it's perfectly cooked?? Dave's mate went back for seconds, so I guess he was a happy customer!

In the meantime I also had a little bit of time up my sleeve to whip up some dessert!

These are homemade Wagon Wheels.

I had a few complaints that they were too sweet. But for me, that means they're perfect!

I made about 12 and I think I ate the majority...hense my wobbly arms.

Brother Yun!

My brother Tim, kindly brought my cake boxes to Sydney one weekend so in return I promised to bake something for him!

Donna Hay has a beautiful Pavlova recipe, so I looked no further!

To cut a long story short, it was a disaster.

The Pavlova wasn't strong enough to support the whipped cream and therefore collapsed and broke in many parts. One the way to Newcastle, what was left of the Pavlova crumbled and the creamed leaked everywhere. It ended up being a white gooey mess.

So all Tim has is these photos below. Proof that I kept my promise!

Sorry Brother Yun x

My Signature Dish!

Everyone has a signature dish. The best thing they can and love to cook.

My mum's is Lasagne. Dad's is definetly a crockpot!

Mine is the humble CUPCAKE!

I love that they're quick and easy, everyone likes them, and there's a thousand different ways to present them.

I always double the chocolate and oil amount in the recipie so they're extra moist! and extra yummy!

I made a batch for Caleb's birthday one weekend and accidently left them in Sydney.

Unfortuently I had to eat them for the rest of the week, hense my wobbly thighs.

Catherine x

Confit Duck with Lentils

When I saw this dish on Masterchef, I knew straight away that I must try it!

Duck is my favourite thing to cook so when it came to Friday and 'What's for dinner darl?'..I had the perfect meal! This is the first time I've ever tried cooking duck and they don't just sell Duck Maryland at the supermarket so you have to go to a gourmet butcher. If you want to confit it yourself, you need duck fat (it's not cheap or easy to find). I got mine from a local providore.

I have to admit, it did take hours to cook. It's not a quick dish for a lazy Tuesday night. The duck was slow cooked in the oven, then cooked on the stove, then back in the oven again. I think I started to prepare around 3pm, and we didn't eat until 7.30pm.

The wait was definitely worth it though. This dish tastes amazing! I'm going to make it again for sure!

If you're like me and love duck then give this a go. Even for Catherine, who doesn't normally order duck when we're at a restaurant, loved it!

Dave.