Believe it or not, avocado is one of Layne's favourite foods

It is the perfect crime. Chocolate cupcakes that have two vegetables cleverly concealed within: avocado and the oft-reviled cauliflower.

I have written about my love of the Deceptively Delicious philosophy and recipes previously. Actually, I’m a raving fan and should be getting a commission on those books!

These cupcakes come out a bit heavy, more like a mudcake. There is no sign of the avocado, although the first time I made these I mixed them by hand (Layne’s a bit scared of the noise that beaters make) and there where some Shrek like lumps. If you eat the cupcakes warm, as I love to do, you do get a faint taste of avocado, but it disappears on cooling. I only make half of the quantity of icing after making it a couple of times and having leftovers. The amounts below are the halved quantities. Both times I crushed butternut biscuits on top to make a deconstructed (read lazy) cheesecake. My husband loathes cauliflower and happily ate the frosting in both forms, even after I revealed the ingredients. He even got me to make a batch for a senior high school health class to show them about vege servings.

I freeze these in threes (one for each of us), for trips to the park and impromptu picnics. The book specifies low fat dairy – use if you prefer. They are great as mini-cupcakes too, which is my preferred serving size for sweets.

This recipe is from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.

Avocado and chocolate? Everyone's a winner!

Cupcake batter

• Cooking spray
• 1 cup avocado puree
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 0.5 t balsamic vinegar
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 cups plain flour
• 0.5 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1t baking soda
• 0.5 t salt

• 1 8 oz packet of cream cheese at room temperature
• 0.5 cup white sugar
• 0.25 cup cauliflower purée
• 2 T vanilla extract
• 0.125 t salt

1. Preheat the over to 350oF. Spray a 1 dozen muffin tin/2 doz mini cupcake tray with cooking spray, or use patty pan liners.

2. Beat the avocado purée, sugar, milk, vanilla and vinegar until smooth. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, until just incorporated.

Avocado puree, sugar and milk - very Shrek

Adding the vanilla extract and balsamic vinegar

3. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until smooth. Spoon it into the baking tray. Bake until cupcakes are browned and pass the skewer test. Put them on a rack to cool completely before icing.

Can you spot the avocado? Nope, didn't think so!

Pick the cupcakes Miss3 made

4. For the icing, mix the cream cheese, sugar, cauliflower purée, vanilla and salt. Spread over the cupcakes.

The only reason we like baking

The finished product. Delicious and (faintly) nutritious

(The then) Miss2 checking out potential birthday cakes

I wrote in my bio that my family doesn’t have any food traditions, but my very young blog is already showing me that we do. Nice!

One of these is I think a very common one in Australia. And that is the Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book. I remember looking at this book year-round and agonising over which cake I would have for my next birthday. I’ll have to go through my childhood pics at Mum and Dads and work out what I had. I do recall the piano, the maypole and the blackboard. My soccer mad brother had the soccer field and my sister had the swimming pool several years in a row. My husband’s family had the same book (not surprising, the book has sold half a million copies), and he had the fort multiple times. Apparently we aren’t the only ones: there’s a Facebook group.

Mum loaned her book to someone and can’t find it, but fortunately the classic 1980 version was re-released this year. Cryptically, the foreword says that four little friends from the are missing. I’m assuming because of political correctness or copyright. I think there was a Mickey Mouse and some other Disney characters?

Anyway, with my daughter about to turn three, the tradition now continues. My husband has been trying to steer her to the duck, which looks like one if the harder cakes to make, but it looks like she is steering towards the echidna (porcupine/hedgehog). Its actually an ice cream cake, but I think I’ll make a similarly shaped marble cake and decorate as per the book. I’m no baker, or decorator, so I’m sure I’ll empathise with my Mum in the years to come. Watch this space.

It’s been 11 months (close enough to round up to a year) since last posted. Why? Well, for one thing, I originally started this blog in hope that it might get my PhD writing juices going. It didn’t, but I’m pleased to say that I attended a wonderful workshop that did. So things were going well. I was cooking, doing a bit of blogging and making some genuine progress on my thesis.

Then I got a bit tired. Could I have possibly fallen pregnant so quickly? Why would I be tired from this? I made it through the first pregnancy with ease. I did the test. The lines showed up VERY quickly. And it turns out the reason I was tired was that we were expecting twins!

This story has a happy ending. I submitted by doctorate and gave birth to two healthy boys (not in that order). Things will never be “normal”, but I hope to get back into cooking, blogging and publishing some of the recipes I have cooked in the last year.

I am also writing about my journey as a Mum, having fun and attempting to maintain sanity at FunInTheMum.

But the food always seems a bit hard. Even some of the  ingredients that aren’t gathered from a hedgerow are a  bit hard to obtain in regional Australia.

So when this recipe for Pear and Almond Cake came up on River Cottage Winter, I had to give it a go. I don’t like cake or sweet things all that much, so I am therefore not much of a cake/sweet things cooker.

The pears were meant to sink to the bottom, but other than that it turned out pretty well. It was super easy to make and I will be making it again. Now I just have to source some of the Pear Perry shown in this episode…

The recipes (and their origin) are quite different.

My Dad’s Chilli Mud Crab

I have this old recipe that my Dad passed on to me. He used to be in the navy and whenever they were in port, he would throw out a trap or a line and deplete the fish stocks in foreign lands. Who knew he’d retire from the navy and become a professional fisherman? Most people.

Dad estimates that he got this recipe in 1978. The first lot of handwriting isn’t his. It was from the guy he took the crabs to for cooking. The second is my Dad’s. No idea about the reason for the tag-team transcribing. Dad did suggest that he may have had a beer. He also said it tasted great in his beard the next morning…

It’s all a bit vague. For a start there is no mention of many crabs are being used. I did the conversion and 4 ounces of dried chillies is A LOT. An ounce is about 30 grams and the dried chilli we buy and use sparingly comes in 30 gram bags. No way I was using 4 bags. Unless, perhaps it was for 100 mud crabs? I went with a few cautious shakes (and then another big one while my husband wasn’t looking). An ounce of fresh ginger? Sure. Not a problem. Check. The nutmeg and tumaric (sic) sound great, but I don’t know what the symbols mean. Shallots are fine.

The methods underneath (courtesy of Dad) are also vague. I did a bit of searching and found some similar(ish) recipes in terms of using stock and eggs and went with their methods. I ignored the reference to paste, assuming it might have been the first lot of ingredients ground up. I fried these off with the crab and oil to bring out the flavours before adding the stock. I also assumed T sauce was tomato. Given the amount of dried Chilli, I didn’t think Tabasco could really bring much to the party.

So in all, a lot of guess-work. How was the crab? Hot! But a slow-and-steady, smouldering burn that encouraged you to eat more for that brief respite only to be hit by it again. Courtesy of the  Turmeric, our fingers looked like we were life time smokers. I think we did justice to the recipe.

My Dad-In-Law’s Chilli Mud Crab

This recipe doesn’t have the provenance or authenticity of the previous version, but it is a crowd pleaser. It’s from a Women’s Weekly cookbook, so the quantities and directions are less adventurous.

Heat oil in a wok. Add 2 cloves of garlic, 2 small red chillies and 1T of ginger. Let this heat up and add crabs. Stir fry for 8 mins.

In a separate bowl mix 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 2T Hoi Sing sauce, 1/2 cup sweet chilli sauce, 1T fish sauce and a dash of sesame oil. Add this to the crab mix and bring to a gentle boil. Additional water may be needed.

These are both quite different takes on what is a ubiquitous dish. Both were great eating. I loved the detective work required for my Dad’s recipe (closest thing we have to a traditional dish in our family).

Usually this recipe and I part ways after Step 4. The first proving is all you need for a great pizza dough.

It is a super easy one (very few ingredients) from one of Jamie Oliver’s books. I think it is from the original Naked Chef, even though the link to the recipe suggests a different one. I have them all and get them a bit confused.

I was going to a lunch at work where a friend was supplying Italian soup courtesy of her slow cooker, so I though some warm fresh bread would be great.

I have gone for the bravado of mixing it all up on the bench sans bowl previously, but I make enough of a mess as it is. I think a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook is a more civilised way to bake.

The second proving was for longer than recommended (I had to take my daughter to swimming lessons). The two loaf tins were already overflowing with dough that shouldn’t have yet risen above the rim. The recipe didn’t suggest a cooking time or temperature. Subsequent recipes for bread variations in the book had 200 degrees, so I went with this.

I was a bit dubious about knocking on the bottom of the tin to listen for a hollow sound that indicates readiness (more from a sense of self-preservation for my knuckles). This tip was seconded on the flour box as well, so who am I to judge? It worked and after 25 minutes, the bread came out beautifully (and much taller than the photo above would indicate).

It was great with the soup, and I used the rest to make French Toast.

I was surprised that it required very little additional effort to go from pizza to bread (just the proving), so I’ll be going all the way again soon.

This week I was watching Jamie [Oliver] at Home, and saw him make this tart. I love asparagus, so I thought I would give it a go.