Fluffy the Fluffy's Romantic Valentine's Dinner

Hi friends!

Wow, it HAS been a while, but like my friend Jeremy likes to point out, I am a very lazy bear.

ANYWAY......ignoring the great big time lapse, let's get right into it and talk about Valentine's Day - aka International Chocolate Day. You may not all know this, but I have a very special BF. Her name is Fluffy the Fluffy and she lives in twitterland. She's my BF (Bunny Friend) and I'm her BF (Bear Friend). It's a long distance relationship, but hey, that works just fine. Isn't she purty?!

So for Valentine's this year, I made Fluffy a very romantic dinner. And wouldn't you know it - STOOPID TWITTA ate most of it and poor Fluffy didn't even get to see her dessert. So here it is again, in detail, with even a recipe thrown in.....so Fluffy can enjoy it...and to show the rest of you guys how it's done. 'Cause you all know I'm such a modest bear, right?

It was a very busy day in the kitchen. There was the mixing of ice-cream...... 

.....melting of chocolate......

....beating of eggs......

....pureeing of raspberries.....

...and most importantly, the building of mold towers!!

I had to be careful with the potato chips (being flammable and everything!), lucky for long-handled implements!

Dinner was Veal Parmigiana served with home-made potato chips and rocket salad (yeah, I know - green stuff - yuck! But Fluffy's a RABBIT!!).........and set in a very romantic place - the grounds of Hogwart's!

For dessert, we had Chocolate Fondant (aka Lava Cayk) with Cappuccino Ice-Cream, Whipped Cream and Raspberry Coulis. Doesn't it look just nommy!!?

Here's what the fondant looks like inside.....

Perfect!! I was very proud of myself as I'd never made one before :)

And here is the recipe for the Chocolate Fondant - or, as we bears call it when we're not trying to be la-dee-da - Chocolate Lava Cayk!

Thanks to the TASTE website!

Ingredients:

• 85g caster sugar
• 150g butter, chopped
• 150g 70% cocoa dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• Double cream and strawberries to serve

Method:

1. 1
   Grease and line four small pudding moulds with baking paper.
2. 2
   Whisk together egg yolks and eggs and set aside.
3. 3
   Place sugar, butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place over simmering water stirring until all ingredients are melted.
4. 4
   Remove from heat and whisk for a moment to ensure no lumps or grains.
5. 5
   Add a small amount of the egg mixture and whisk vigorously until combined, repeat adding small amounts of the egg mixture and whisking until all combined and the mixture has a glossy smooth texture.
6. 6
   Fold in flour.
7. 7
   Pour into moulds and set aside in fridge for a couple of hours or until chocolate mix is set.
8. 8
   Preheat oven to 180c.
9. 9
   Arrange moulds on baking tray and bake in oven for 16 minutes.
10. 10
    Ensure that fondants appear cooked on top, but do not allow overcooking.
11. 11
    Take out of oven and let stand two minutes before turning onto serving plate. Ensure that you are gentle when removing baking paper as with the soft centre the fondants are quite fragile.

Now there's just one thing left to do.......nom nom nom!

Bill xx

Mini Christmas Pudding Balls

Hi friends!

One of my favourite things about Christmas is the nommy Christmas food. Mumma Bear and I have been very busy in the kitchen - she has to supervise me whenever I use the stove or the oven......something about me being highly flammable!

Here is one of my favourite Christmas treats. It's very yummy and super easy to make, so very bear friendly! Mini Christmas Pudding Balls!
.....as always - a recipe in pictures :)

You'll need 400g of fruit cake (that's about half of a store bought fruit cake if you live in Aussie Land). Crumble it all up in a big bowl so you have fruit cake crumbs....

Then melt 100g of dark chocolate with 60g butter. None of that bowl over the pan of simmering water nonsense.....if you have the heat really low you can just melt this straight on the stovetop - the butter gives it a high enough fat content that you won't burn the chocolate. Just keep stirring over a teeny heat and take it off the heat when about 80% melted. Keep stirring and the residual heat will finish the melting for you....

....stirring....stirring....stirring......

Pour this chocolate mixture into the cake crumbs and mix it all together.....

Ok now, here's the messy part.....you may want to wear disposable gloves like I do.....

Get tablespoon fulls of the mixture and roll it into balls.....like this......

Place all the balls on a tray lined with baking paper and stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours.....

When they have been in the fridge for a while, the pudding balls will feel firm and be easy to decorate. You can use icing or white chocolate and then sprinkle anything you like over the top. I've used white chocolate and decorated with metallic cashous, Wilton's sugar gems and sprinkles, and crushed candy canes....

You know the rest don't you friends.......only one thing left to do.......nom nom nom

Merry Christmas!

Bill xx

Chocolate Muffins - don't tell anyone there's BEETROOT in them!!

Oh my GOODNESS! It's been a while since I cooked something! But friends - winter is over here in Aussie Land, the warm weather is here, I'm out of hibernation.......Bill's getting his cook on! (and I DON'T mean that in the naughty Breaking Bad sense of the word!!).

Did you know that you can make chocolate muffins out of beetroots? Well, they have chocolate in them too, but the beetroot makes them moist and give them a purpley 'red velvet cake' kinda look.

They're really easy to make too.
First you need to cook 2 large beetroots. Wash and trim them first and cut off the leaves but leave about 3cm of the stem attached. Boil, steam or microwave them until really tender. Once they're cooked, peel them while they're still warm and blend them up in one of your kitchen robots like this one.....

You'll need about 1 and 1/3 cups of beetroot puree.

Sift into a big bowl 1 and 3/4 cups of self-raising flour, 1/3 cup of cocoa powder and 1 cup of sugar.

Stir in the beetroot puree as well as 2 eggs, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil and 1/3 cup of milk.

Spoon the mixture into your muffin tin (don't forget to grease it if you're not using baking cups) and cook them in a 180C oven (that's 355F for my USA buddies) for about 25 minutes. 

This is what they look like when they're cooked.......

Now you can eat them as muffins........

.....OR..... you can jazz them up with some icing or ganache like I did.

Then there's only one thing left to do.......nom nom nom......

Bill xx

OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS - A Hawaiian Surprise from Tour Guide Ted

Hello friends!

I was very excited when my Twitter Friend Tour Guide Ted asked for my address so he could send me a little surprise from Hawaii! Tour Guide Ted is a world travelling bear with the coolest travel website ever and he has just returned from a trip to the Hawaiian Islands (lucky Ted!) Now of course I played it cool - wouldn't want to look TOO excited.....

Then this morning - a parcel arrived!! By ROYAL MAIL! At first I thought maybe the Queen of England was sending me mail......

But no - it was FAR more exciting than that....

Bears LOVE parcels! Especially padded ones that are so cuddly.....

After a little parcel cuddle, I had a peek inside....

Mmmmmmm....smells nice in there! Lets tip it out and see.......

OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!

Tour Guide Ted has sent me a lei

and a Kona Coffee & Macadamia chocolate bar

and MACADAMIA Hersheys Kisses

I'm so impressed that my friend has his own business card - doesn't he look handsome and professional!

He even sent me a postcard of his Holiday Villa in Florida....I know where I'll be booking if I ever get to that part of the world!!

Now, I'm (usually) a nice bear who shares....well, SOMETIMES! Here I am with my friend (and lawyer) Sir Wolfgang von Heiffen Steiffen. We're having a Hawaiian Tea Party!

Ok, just one thing left to do now......no, actually TWO.

Firstly - THANK YOU TOUR GUIDE TED - I have to shout because he lives really really far away and I don't have Twitter on at the moment.

Ok, NOW there's just one thing left to do....nom nom nom

Bill xx