Tag Archives: love

Valentine’s Day Churros

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23

Hooray for churros! I’ve been craving these babies every day since returning from the Gold Coast last week. Despite the crazy rain up north we managed to pay a visit to Warner Bros Movie World (which was awesome btw), where we were greeted with churros stalls every 20 metres we walked. I was in heaven! Lucky for me the prices at theme parks are always pretty steep – churros were selling for $3 a pop! – otherwise I probably would’ve come home 10 kilos heavier.

If you haven’t tried these spanish donuts before you are seriously missing out! These crunchy deep fried golden sticks of heaven are delicious. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I wanted to incorporate a Valentine’s Day theme into the recipe so I piped the churros out into heart shapes. Nawww cute huh? I rolled them around in cinnamon sugar which is how they were served at Movie World but I’ve also eaten them before dusted with icing sugar and dipped in chocolate sauce, which tastes just as good. It took under half an hour to whip these up from start to finish so if you’re looking for something easy to put together for your man/woman this Valentine’s Day then this is definitely the recipe to try!

Valentine’s Day Churros (serves 4)

Churros Dough
1 cup water
2 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 quarts oil for frying

Cinnamon Sugar
1/2 cup white sugar, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar, salt and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in flour until mixture forms a ball of dough.

Place dough in a piping bag and pipe heart shapes onto a sheet of parchment paper.

Heat oil for frying in deep-fryer or deep saucepan to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). You can test this by placing a wooden chopstick or skewer into the oil and if it bubbles around the chopstick the oil is ready.

Use a deep frying spatula (or similar) to carefully place the hearts into the oil. If you’re not making heart shaped churros you can pipe strips of dough into hot oil using a pastry bag to form a long churro. Fry until golden and drain on paper towels.

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon. Roll drained churros in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Enjoy!

Easiest 5 Minute Chocolate Cake

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5

Okay, this isn’t exactly the best looking cake around but what it lacks in aesthetics is made up for by the fact that this is one of the easiest recipes you will ever find – it takes 5 minutes to put together from start to finish and you cook it using the microwave! If you’re the type to get sudden rushes of cake cravings in the middle of the night but can’t be bothered to get off your butt and into the kitchen to bake then this is the recipe for you. The best thing is in order to satisfy your craving there’s no need to make one giant sized mountain of a cake – this recipe serves one.

The difference between making this an average tasting cake and a great tasting cake lies in the amount of chocolate chips you put in. You’ll need at least 3 tablespoons of chocolate chips to make this awesome. If you don’t have chocolate chips then just crush up any other chocolate bar you have lying around. Just make sure you put in enough otherwise it might be a little on the bland side. Also, the instructions below are what I used for my 1100W microwave. You’ll need to adjust the amount of cooking time depending on how powerful your microwave is.

Easiest 5 Minute Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

4 tablespoons flour (any type of flour is fine)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
2 tablespoons whisked egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (if you don’t have chocolate chips, try a broken up chocolate bar – I can’t stress how much this amps the awesomeness of your cake)
splash vanilla essence or other flavoring – try peppermint or cinnamon

love in a mug: (left) pre-microwave, (right) post-microwave

Method

Add all of the dry ingredients to the mug and mix.
Add the egg and combine well.
Stir in milk and oil.
Add chocolate chips and splash of vanilla. Stir well.
Microwave for 3 minutes on medium in a 1100w oven, or 4 minutes in a 700w oven.
It will start to crown over the top of the mug. Don’t panic! It will collapse once the heat stops.

Enjoy!