Kate's Crazy Culinary Creations

Well as promised here are the other cupcakes that I made for today's RSPCA's Cupcake Day. I mainly made these for my sister as she love's banana. She liked them so they are a keeper and include ingredients that I usually have in the house. Firstly preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare a 12 cup muffin tray with cake liners. Set aside while you make the cakes. Sift together the flours, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In a small bowl use a fork to mash up the banana. Now on your stand mixer beat together the butter and brown sugar on a medium speed until light and fluffy. It should take no longer than 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla and lemon zest, and continue to beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and mix on a low speed until just combined. Be careful not to over beat as you still need to add the banana and don't what to make the cupcakes tough. Finally fold in the banana until just combined. Divide the batter evenl...

Tomorrow is Cupcake Day for the RSPCA so I thought I would make some cupcakes to take to work tomorrow. I made 2 types these White Chocolate and Raspberry and Banana. (I will post the Banana cupcakes tomorrow night.) So here goes. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and position the rack in the middle shelf of the oven. Prepare a 12 cup muffin tray with cake liners. In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Now using your stand mixer or electric beaters on high speed beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. This will take around 2-3 minutes. Then add the egg and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches alternating with the milk. Ensure that you scrape down the sides to include all the ingredients evenly. Finally add the chopped chocolate and beat on a low speed until just combined. Divide the mixture into the muffin tray. Place in oven and cook until lightly golden and a skewer comes out clean. Around 15-18 minutes. On...

Well I love Pad Thai but usually cheat and buy a jar of sauce. I assumed that it would be difficult to make so have avoided it. But it was surprisingly easy and at least I know what ingredients are in it. First to start with the sauce. Cut the palm sugar into pieces about the size of  10 cent pieces. In a small saucepan place all the ingredients. Place the pan over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Then taste the sauce, it may need adjusting depending on the strength of the tamarind paste. For a little more heat add some thai chilli powder at this stage. Once the sauce is balanced remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Now to make the rest of the dish. Chop the chicken into 2 centimeter square pieces and prepare the vegetables, slice the spring onions and julienne the carrots. In a large bowl cover the rice noodles with boiling water. Allow to sit for 3-5 minutes or until the noodle are soft. Strain and set aside. Heat a large fry pan with the olive oi...

I finally lashed out and bought a food processor a couple of weeks ago. I am a sucker for a new toy. I have posted my Chicken and Pesto Ravioli previously and I thought it was time to try making my own pesto. It was surprisingly simple(almost seems to short to warrant it's own post), but it is yummy so I will post it any way. Place all the ingredients except the olive oil into the food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Drizzle the olive oil into the chute and pulse until a thick paste is formed. You may need to scrape down the sides of the food processor and blitz again to ensure all the ingredients are incorporated. I also tasted it at this stage and added a little more salt and pepper. As I said earlier I used it to make a pasta sauce, as pictured below. (Post to follow shortly.) But there are a never ending list of options that could use the pesto for. Until next time happy cooking, Kate. ***Ingredients 2 cups packed basil leaves 3 garlic cloves Zest...