Healthy Peanut Crunch Chocolates... sugar free, paleo AND vegan!

Lovers of peanut butter will delight in the crunchy peanut butter centre of these coconutty chocolates. To make these delicious and creamy chocolate treats, you only need a a few ingredients and a silicone ice cube tray or chocolate mould (these are flexible and make it easier to pop out the set chocolates).

If you prefer, you can substitute the peanut butter with a preferred nut butter with the same result. Yummy additions to these chocolates could include goji berries, shredded coconut, chia seeds, cinnamon or orange zest.
Healthy Peanut Crunch Chocolates

Makes 1 tray of chocolates (6 - 8 serves)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
• 2 scoops of chocolate or vanilla flavored protein powder (any type with no added sugar - however to be vegan this must be rice or pea protein)
• 1 scoop (use protein scooper) of coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon of organic crunchy peanut butter with no added sugar or salt + 1 tablespoon for filling
• 2 tablespoons of 100% cacao powder 
• 1 teaspoons of maca powder* optional
• 1 - 2 tablespoons of powdered stevia, depending on sweetness preferences 

Method:

1. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix until combined and smooth. The mix should be thick and creamy, but at a pourable consistency, much like pancake batter. If the mixture seems to thick, add a teaspoon of coconut oil at a time until the desired consistency is reached. If it is too runny, add a little more protein powder or coconut flour.
2. Spray your silicone tray with coconut oil or macadamia nut oil. Using a tablespoon, fill each mould half way. 
3. Using a teaspoon, put a small amount of peanut butter into each mould. Using the remaining chocolate mix, top each mould until full, covering the peanut butter centre. 
4. Freeze for a few hours, until set. Pop out on the moulds and transfer into a container to keep in the freezer. These chocolates will melt quickly at room temperature. Take them out shortly before eating! 

* Maca powder is made from a root that grows in the Andes mountains of Peru. It is associated with improved vitality, energy, libido and anti-ageing benefits. 

Pistachio and Strawberry Rose Meringue Cake

This stunning cake is the ideal centerpiece for a girly afternoon tea in the sunshine. Serve with beautiful rose champagne, and make sure you have lots of hungry guests with a sweet tooth. The lightness of this cake is perfect for warmer weather or a wedding celebration. The pictured cake was made by my talented friend Georgie, who has a cupcake and sweet business in Brisbane called Narnies Cupcakes. She can make an array of gorgeous treats, including macarons of all colours and flavours, beautiful wedding cakes and cupcakes, and can cater to your personal preferences and occasion.
Pistachio and Strawberry Rose Meringue Cake

*Please note, I have modified this recipe slightly from the cake pictured here. Original recipe was featured in the 2013 Gourmet Traveller Magazine, 'The Baking Cookbook'. 

Ingredients:

Cake by Narnies Cupcakes

• 1 punnet of strawberries, cut into small wedges
• 3 tablespoons of caster sugar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 200 grams of creme fraiche
• 3 tablespoons of sifted icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon of rose water

Cake:

• 5 eggs, separated
• 150 grams of caster sugar
• 170 grams of plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 140 grams of pistachios, finely chopped
• 80 grams of butter, melted and cooled

Icing:

• 3 eggwhites
• 190 grams of caster sugar
• pinch of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of rose water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Whisk yolks and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy (5 - 7 minutes). Transfer to a large bowl and set aside. 
2. Whisk egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form (3 - 4 minutes), fold in yolk mixture, then sieve over flour and baking powder and fold in along with pistachios and butter. 
3. Spoon into a 20-cm diameter cake tin (buttered and lined) and bake for 30 - 35 minutes. Cool slightly in tin and turn out to completely cool on a wire rack.
4. Trim the top of the cake so it is flat and cut in half horizontally.
5. Combine strawberries, caster sugar, lemon juice and rose water and lightly crush with a fork, leaving ingredients to sit together to macerate for 30 minutes.
6. Strain the liquid from the strawberries to use to cover the sides of the cake. Keep the strawberries aside.
7. Whisk together the creme fraiche, icing sugar and rose water and set aside for later.
8. To make the icing, stir caster sugar and 50ml of water in a saucepan over low heat to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for 5 minutes. Whisk the eggwhites and cream of tartar with a electric mixer until soft peaks form (2 - 3 minutes). Whisking continuously, add in sugar syrup in a thin steady stream until mixed. Increase speed of the mixer to high until the mixer is cooled - this takes up to 12 minutes, then whisk in the rose water.
9. Place one piece of the halved cake on a serving stand. Cover the top of this cake with the creme fraiche mixture and scatter over the reserved strawberries.
10. Top this first half of cake with the second half and cover with meringue icing. Smooth over the outside of the cake using a palette knife. You can serve with scattered rose petals or candied rose petals**.

*This cake is best eaten the day it is made.
**To make candied rose petal, brush unsprayed rose petals with eggwhite and rush in caster sugar. Set aside to dry on a wire rack and store in an airtight container until required.

3 easy steps to make candied rose petals

Taken from http://photos.weddingbycolor.com 

Vogue Living has a beautiful blog and spending a quiet Friday evening traipsing their site, I found this gorgeous post on how to make candied rose petals. 

As a tribute to one of America's best-known restaurants Chez Panisse on its 40th birthday, David Prior showed how to make candied rose petals, which adorns many of the restaurants beautiful desserts.

How to make candied rose petals:

1. To produce candied rose petals gently pluck the individual petals from unsprayed roses. 

2. With a soft-bristle paintbrush, carefully paint with egg whites.

3. Cover in fine organic sugar. Leave candied petals to dry on a rack.


Serve them the Panisse way, atop a Rose Geranium Pavlova.

This recipe appeared as part of ‘Organic Uprising’, a story by David Prior on pages 63 to 69 of Vogue Living Sept/Oct 2011.

Valentine's Day turkish delight and fairy floss cupcakes

These cupcakes are the epitome of romance flavoured with rose petal and sugary fairy floss. I made mine gluten-free and with soy milk; they turned out perfectly. I've been told it's one of my best efforts - and a great flavour for a girly party. In saying that, the boys love them too!





Valentine's Day Turkish Delight and Fairy Floss Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 quantity vanilla cupcake or cake mix
Fairy floss - I used Pariya food Pashmak persian rose flavoured fairy floss
Red food colouring
Turkish delight, 8 pieces chopped
120 grams of butter
3/4 cup of icing sugar

Method:
1. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2.Make the vanilla cupcake mix as per instructions and add 1/2 teaspoon of red food colouring.
3. Mix in the turkish delight and 1/2 cup of fairy floss.
4. Fill each muffin hole 3/4 of the way up with the cake mix.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until set and cooked through.
6. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
7. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, icing sugar and 1/2 cup of fairy floss until light and fluffy.
8. Ice each cupcake and top with heart-shaped freckles.

Low-fat creamy pasta for a romantic Valentine's dinner

Creamy pastas are often the way to a man's heart and this dish definitely fits the bill for a romantic dinner for two. This recipe has had a comfort food makeover to become diet friendly, without sacrificing any of the flavour.

Low-fat Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients: (serves 2, of course)

* 200g fettuccine pasta
* 1 1/2 teaspoons cornflour
* 1/2 cup Carnation Light & Creamy Evaporated Milk
* 1/4 cup salt-reduced chicken stock
* 75g of 97% fat-free bacon or lean ham works well too, chopped
* 1 garlic clove, crushed
* 1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
* olive oil cooking spray
* 80g button mushrooms, sliced
* 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method:

1. Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water, following packet directions, until just tender.
2. Blend cornflour and 1 tablespoon of milk to a smooth paste. Add remaining milk, stock, and salt and pepper.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add bacon, garlic and onion. Spray with oil. Cook, stirring, for 6 minutes or until golden. Add mushrooms. Cover. Cook, stirring every minute, for 4 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.
4. Drain pasta. Set aside. Return saucepan to stovetop over medium heat. Add milk mixture. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sauce just comes to the boil. Add pasta, bacon mixture and parsley. Reduce heat to low. Toss until heated through.
5. Season with pepper. Serve with a little more parsley sprinkled on top.

Valentine's Day raspberry cupcakes

I love the way these cupcakes look with their red bottoms and pastel pink tops. They are inspired by Shirley Temple pink lemonades, with a raspberry vanilla flavour. I made my cakes sugar, dairy and gluten free but did ice them with old-fashioned buttercream icing - I just made sure to spread a fairly thin layer so as to make them a little less decadent.

I used a special cake mix to make these (which had all the dietary requirements I needed already sorted) but you could use any cake mix you like or make a simple vanilla cupcake recipe.

Valentine's Day Raspberry Cupcakes

Ingredients:

* 1 vanilla cake mix - make according to requirements, mine required 2 eggs, 700 ml of soy milk and 80 grams of butter.
* 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon of flour (or gluten-free flour)
* red food colouring
* 1 tablespoon of red cordial
* 1/2 stick of butter (room temperature)
* powdered sugar
* raspberry lollies

Method:

1. Grease a 12-capacity muffin tin and preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Make the cake mix according to packet instructions and add the vanilla extract.
3. Take out 1/4 cup of the cake batter and put into a smaller bowl.
4. To the smaller bowl of cake batter, add a dash of red food colouring and a tablespoon of red cordial. Add the tablespoon of flour and mix until combined.
5. Fill each muffin hole with a tablespoon of the red cake mix until evenly divided amongst the tin.
6. Top up the muffin holes with the other cake batter until evenly divided although don't fill them more than 3/4 of the way up otherwise they will overflow when cooking.
7. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes until risen and golden brown.
8. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
9. To make the icing, beat the butter and gradually sift in icing sugar tablespoons at a time until you reach a nice smooth consistency. Add in a dash of red food colouring and beat through. You may need to add a little more icing sugar if the food colouring made the icing a little runny but I didn't need to for mine.
10. Ice each cake with a smooth even layer of pink icing.
11. Top with raspberry lolly to finish.

Store in an airtight container, which will keey them fresh for a couple of days.

Contains 152 calories per cupcake.

Pink Valentine's Day Heart Cookies

The perfect sweet gift for Valentines Day, these heart cookies are covered in decadent Lindt white chocolate and hundreds and thousands. Read this article for the quick and easy, delicious recipe.



Valentine's Heart Cookies

Ingredients:

* 1 cup of plain flour
* 2 tablespoons of rice flour
* 2 tablespoons of corn flour
* 80 grams of butter
* 1 sachet of sugar-free strawberry jelly
* 2 tablespoons of icing sugar
* 3 tablespoons of water (or how ever much you need)
* 1 packet of Lindt white chocolate
* hundreds and thousands

Method:

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together.
2. Rub in the butter and add the jelly crystals.
3. Add the water until all the ingredients cling together and form a dough.
4. Refridgerate for 30 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough and cut out heart shapes.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in a moderate oven until the cookies hold their shape but aren't browned.
7. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
8. Melt white chocolate on low heat in the microwave and cover biscuits with chocolate, either half or fully coated.
9. Sprinkle with hundreds and thousands to finish and let set for 1 hour.

Under 100 calories per cookie.