Sunday, July 15, 2012

My FIRST ever 4 layered PINK cake with fondant roses

So... I'm so happy with my first ever attempt at making a 4 Layered Pink cake, with buttercream frosting, covered in fondant, with fondant roses made by ME!

It's just a simple vanilla cake, coloured the different colours, and the buttercream, I was a little lazy and used "Satin ice" buttercream... next time I would make my own buttercream icing, cause I think I make a nice one.

I even did the "bread crumbing" and everything! This is definitely a passion I'm going to continue!


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Orange and Poppy Seed with Cream Cheese Icing Mini Muffins

So I'm loving baking now. I am not sure where this crazy obsession has come from but it's something I'm definitely going to pursue.

I've not worked out the calories for these mini muffins yet, but they were a massive hit.

I got the recipe from the Taste website.

I will be testing out layered cakes and playing with fondant in the near future. I'm loving YouTube and all the "free" lessons you get on there. Can't wait to see how my decorating skills match up :)






For decoration I made some "Orange Zest Candy"
- finely julienne some orange zest
- 1 cup of water and 1 cup of caster sugar in a pot
- bring to the boil and make sure sugar is dissolved
- put zest in and let simmer for 20 mins
- put on a baking tray lined with baking paper and put in the oven for about 20 mins 


Orange and Poppy Seed Batter

Ingredients

  • Melted butter, to grease
  • 1 tbs poppy seeds
  • 185ml (3/4 cup) milk
  • 375g (2 1/2 cups) self-raising flour
  • 155g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
  • 125g butter, melted
  • 2 eggs, lightly whisked
  • 2 tsp finely shredded orange rind
  • 60ml (1/4 cup) fresh orange juice
  • Icing sugar, to dust


Method:
  1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Brush twelve 80ml (1/3-cup) capacity non-stick muffin pans with melted butter to lightly grease. Combine the poppy seeds and 60ml (1/4 cup) of the milk in a small bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes.
  2. Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl. Add the poppy-seed mixture along with remaining milk, butter, egg, orange rind and juice, and stir with a metal spoon until just combined (do not overmix).
  3. Spoon the batter among prepared muffin pans. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Remove from oven and turn onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature dusted with icing sugar.


Cream Cheese Icing:

Ingredients

  • 60g cream cheese, softened
  • 30g butter, softened
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 3/4 cup icing sugar mixture
  • Juice of one lemon (I added this in myself)
  1. Place cheese, butter and vanilla in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until pale. Gradually add icing sugar mixture, beating until combined.

Monday, June 18, 2012

New Year - New Me

So things have changed a little, still cooking and will be updating this a lot more regularly! Healthy, tasty and fantastic food to come!

I'm taking my health seriously and food is such an important part of it.

I had Mothers Day Lunch at my house this year, and cooked a Mexican Fiesta! Here is just a couple of pictures from the day!

Southwestern Egg Rolls - OMG so freaking good

 Raspberry Lemonade with mint












 Chilli Mud Cupcakes














So I'm back soon, with a heap of new recipes. Can't wait to share them with you all!

Bye for now!

Cheers
Kel

Monday, June 20, 2011

Hedgehog - 129 Calories (approx 28grams slice)

So, we all need a chocolate fix, and for me, this hedgehog is so so chocolately and good, and even though one slice weighing only approx 28 grams seems small, to me, it's more than enough to get my choc fix, with a reasonable amount of calories.

The only problem is the sodium is quite high, you can substitute using standard butter, for "salt reduced" butter which dramatically lowers the sodium level.

So here are the ingrediants:


















Method:

1. Blitz up the biscuits into small pieces

2. In a saucepan, add the butter, sugar, cocoa powder on a gentle heat till all combined together and sugar has dissolved,

3. Let chocolate mixture cool for about 5 mins

4. Stir in one egg

5. Add mixture to the biscuits

6. Distribute into a pan, lined with baking paper

7. Put in fridge to set

8. Make icing (1 cup of icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of cocoa and 1-2 tablespoons of hot water)

Mix together add more water if too thick

9. Spread on slice and... woo hoo you're done! 

Kelly's Gumbo - 437 calories (without rice)

So, I went to the USA in 2009 for my 30th b'day, and down in New Orleans, I was lucky enough to attend a cooking class. I got my first taste of Gumbo and loved it! I don't make a seafood gumbo, but all you have to do is substitute the beef/chicken for your choice of seafood and add at the end and only cook the meat for as long as it needs.

So here are the ingrediants and calories etc :)

























Method:

1. Chop up the onion, capsicum and celery - traditionally they say cut it up small, but I just do it in chunks because you stew it and it breaks down anyway.
































2. Cut the garlic in fine slivers


















3. In a 9 litre pot, put 1 cup of canola oil in and heat up (till it's almost bubbling)


















4. Add 1 cup of plain flour to hot oil to create a roux and start stirring

DON'T STOP STIRRING until the roux is a nice deep brown colour































The roux I made is a little darker than shown in this photo, the camera doesn't really show how dark it was. It's up to you how dark you want to make.

5. Add the onion, capsicum, celery and garlic to the roux, and mix through for about 10 mins (till they start softening)


















6. Add 1litre of salt reduced chicken stock (can be vegie or beef, I just choose chicken)
    Make sure you use salt reduced, as the spices you will add later have more than enough salt

















7. Brown all meat. I add the beef and chorizo in first (add the chicken in at the last hour)
































8. Add beef and chorizo to pot

9. Add Creole spices... hard to say how much, I put in I would guess 2 tablespoons to start with.
    I use this brand, but you can google and make up your own spice.





















10. Put on a low heat, and let simmer for 2 hours

11. After 2 hours, brown the chicken

















12. BEFORE adding the chicken, skim off all the excess oil (I think this would actually make the calories lower than what I've stated, but I'm not 100% sure)

















13. Again BEFORE adding chicken, taste the broth, if you want more spice, add more Creole seasoning, then add chicken in.

Cook for another hour.

Then you are done! This will serve up to 20 people depending on how much you have, has a great sauce and generally you eat it with rice.

TA DA!!!!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Rissoles - 187 Calories

Ok People, here my first recipe. I will state:

"I am NOT a qualified dietitian and all information etc should be used as a guideline only"

Rissoles

Serves: 14 patties
Calories: 187 per pattie
Carbs: 4grams
Fat: 12grams
Protien: 16grams
Sodium: 118mgs
Fiber: 0

These were so yummy, juicy and each pattie only being around 187 calories makes it a great dinner or lunch option, can add in a bun, with lots of salad and still the calories would be low for a great tasting meal.

Ingrediants:
1kg 3 star beef mince
2 x large eggs
1 x green chilli
0.5 cup diced onion
3 x garlic cloves diced finely
20ml Worcestershire sauce
20ml BBQ Sauce
20ml Tomato sauce
3 tbs bread crumbs

Method:
  1. Place mince into bowl 
  2. Dice finely the onion, chilli and garlic
  3. Add to mince
  4. Add 2 x eggs
  5. Add worcestershire, tomato and bbq sauce
So it should look like this :)


















6. Getting messy now, make sure your hands are clean and mix all ingrediants thoroughly
















7. Divide mixture into 100gram patties (will make around 12-14 patties)
















 
8. Pan fry (spray pan with a little oil) on each side for roughly 2 mins

9. Put in the oven at 180degrees for no longer than 10 mins
10. Serve up with whatever you like (thinking about your calories etc) and you have a great hearty TASTY burger











Introduction...

Hi Everyone,

My first ever post for my new blog!

My reason behind doing this is because I'm getting healthy, and it's so hard to find easy recipes that give you all the information per serve. So you will find all my recipes will have the following:

1. Step by step instructions, with pictures when required
2. How many people the recipe serves
3. All dietary information provided such as:
  • Calories per serve
  • Carbs (grams)
  • Fats (grams)
  • Protein (grams)
  • Sodium (mg)
  • Fibre (grams)
I hope you enjoy this as much as I know I'm going to enjoy putting it together. Cooking is something I've only just become passionate about over the past 3 years, and loving every moment of it, and amaze myself that I can make great food, just as you will can too!

A little side note to my cooking, I am a muso, if you wanna check out my music (country influenced) go to www.reverbnation.com/kellyevans

I hope you try out the recipes and let me know what works and what doesn't for you!!

Enjoy!
Kel