Easter Chicken Cupcakes

While shopping the other day I spotted a pack of little yellow chickens made out of pipe cleaners at the supermarket – pretty tacky, but I bought them anyway.  They inspired me to make these ‘Easter Chicken’ cupcakes, which were really simple to whip up.  I love how the long sprinkles look like messy feathers.  If you are a bit of a fondant fan, you could whip up some little wings and feet for these guys too!
My friend Jarrah gave me the recipe for the chocolate cupcake that I used (I just added in some mini Easter eggs as a special treat); it’s a great recipe which doesn’t involve fussing around with melting butter or whisking eggs.  Thanks for sharing Jarrah!

Makes 12.

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 – 5 teaspoons cocoa
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup oil (sunflower or canola)
1 cup water
3 tablespoons vinegar (white or malt)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
12 mini caramel-filled Easter eggs

Buttercream and Decoration:
125g butter softened
2 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Yellow food colouring
Yellow sprinkles (I used nearly two 70g packs)
24 chocolate drops
4-6 orange jube lollies

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190°C.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with baking cups. 
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a fork.  Add the oil to the dry ingredients, but don’t stir.
In a small bowl, mix together the water, vinegar and vanilla essence.  Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together thoroughly with a fork.
Fill the baking cups ¾ of the way full with the mixture.  Place a mini Easter egg into each muffin cup so that it is just covered by the cupcake mixture.   Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with. Add a few drops of the yellow food colouring and mix through.
Spread about a tablespoon of the butter cream on the tops of each cupcake.  Pour your sprinkles into a bowl and dip each cupcake in to cover the buttercream.
Dot the backs of the chocolate drops with buttercream and place two on each cupcake to be your chicken’s eyes.  Cut the orange jube lollies into triangles (you need 12 triangles), smear some butter cream on the back of each triangle, then place on the cupcakes to be the Chicken’s nose.

Sour Cream and Chives Chicken Pot Pies

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year!
Simon and I received a few boxes of chocolates for Christmas so the thought of baking something sweet makes me feel a little ill at the moment; I’m already eating too much sugar.  So, here is something a little different for you if you’re feeling like me and need a little break from the sweet treats.  These Chicken pies are delish – they are super tasty and look pretty special in their individual ramekins.  They are quick and easy to whip up so I’ve made them a few times for dinner already :)

Serves 2

200g cooked chicken, chopped
¼ cup sour cream
75g grated cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped chives
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 sheet store bought puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Combine the chicken, sour cream, cheese, chives, salt and pepper.
Cut two circle shapes out of the pastry to cover the top of two 1 cup capacity ramekins.  Divide the mixture between the ramekins and top with the pastry circles.  Brush the pastry with the egg and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden brown.

Chicken Meatballs wrapped in prosciutto

 

There wasn’t any of these left over after our high tea, they were yum!  I used turkey mince when we made them because our supermarket didn’t have any chicken mince (but yeah, they randomly had turkey!) which I think worked quite well because I kinda like the flavour of turkey.  I’ve re-made these at a later date with chicken and they were just as good and went just as fast!  The picture above is are the chicken ones and the photo at the bottom of the post are the turkey meatballs.

Makes about 24.

500g minced chicken or turkey meat
100g grated haloumi cheese
finely grated zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley or sage
1 egg yolk
50g dried breadcrumbs
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
10-12 slices prosciutto

Preheat the oven to 180˚C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Place the chicken, haloumi, lemon zest, parsley, egg yolk and breadcrumbs in a bowl.  Season with the salt and pepper and combine well.  Shape the mixture into small meatballs, no bigger than a golf ball.
Cut the prosciutto into thick strips, wide enough to wrap around the meatballs.  Wrap each meatball with a strip of prosciutto and place on the baking tray.  Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until cooked through.

Chicken and Corn Soup

  
OMG!  A recipe without sugar! And… it isn’t baking!
However, my last post wasn’t about baking either; essentially it was me whinging that it is winter.  So, to put a little positive spin on things I thought I would post one of my favourite quick and easy winter recipes.

 
Serves 6.

3 teaspoons chicken stock powder
3 ½ cups boiling water
1 cup shredded cooked chicken
1 x 410g can cream-style sweet corn
2 teaspoons corn flour
¾ cup chickpeas (optional)

¾ lentils (optional)
a little cold water
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
sprinkle of salt and pepper

Put stock powder and boiling water in a big microwave safe bowl.
Add the chicken and the cream-style corn.  Stir well.
Cover with a paper towel and cook on high in the microwave for 6 to 6½ minutes until boiling, stirring once.
Mix corn flour and cold water in a cup until smooth.  Stir in to the soup.  Add in the chickpeas and lentils.
Re-cover with the paper towel and microwave on high for 1½ to 2 minutes.
Stir in parsley.  Add salt and pepper to taste.