Creamy Carbonara

This is a quick and easy meal that can be adjusted to your family likes or dislikes.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 - 2 Cloves of Garlic crushed

4 Rashers of Bacon

1/2 Cup Chicken stock

300ml Cream

1 egg

250g Penne Pasta or Fettuccine Pasta

Salt pepper

Optional extras: 

1 Onion

250g Mushrooms

Cook Pasta

Dice Bacon

If using optional extras - dice onion and slice mushrooms.

Add Olive oil to wok/pan and cook garlic and Onion until soft/tender (we didnt use onion)

Add Bacon and cook till starting to brown, then add mushrooms.

Add Chicken stock and cream, bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer until it starts to thicken.

Once thick mix in a beaten egg and add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix in cooked pasta...

Done! 

Chocolate Cake

Easy, moist and yummy chocolate cake recipe... Whenever I serve this to guest i'm always asked for the recipe. 


Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups Self Raising Flour
3 Tablespoons Cocoa
1 Cup Caster Sugar
1 Cup Water
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
1/2 Cup Oil

Step One:
Mix all dry ingredients together

1 1/2 Cups Self Raising Flour

3 Tablespoons Cocoa

1 Cup Caster Sugar

Step Two:

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix with a hand whisk until smooth.

1 Cup Water

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1/2 Cup Oil

Step Three:

Line the base of cake tin with baking paper and grease cake pan before pouring mixture in.
 

Bake in a Pre-heated oven atr 180 for 35 - 40min.

You will know the cake is ready when you poke a skewer into the center of the cake and it comes out clean.

Step Four:

remove cake from tin straight after taking it from the oven and leave it to cool on a wire rack.

Once cooled completely you can ice your chocolate cake.

I use 2 teaspoons Melted butter

1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar

1 Tablespoon Cocoa

1 - 2 Tablespoons Warm Water

If I have the time a butter cream icing goes great with this cake too!

Pancakes - Hotcakes

Puffy, fluffy, sweet hotcakes... ...Makes aprox 10

Ingredients:

2 Cups Self Raising Flour

2 Cups Milk

2 Eggs

2 Tablespoons Caster Sugar

Butter for frying

Step One:

Add all ingredients into a bowl together.

Step Two:

Mix with a whisk until smooth - no lumps.

I like to poor the mixture into a jug of some kind to save spooning the mixture onto the hot plate.

This is faster and less spillage. 

Step Two:

Pre-heat your hot plate to a medium heat.

I like to set everything up ready.

I pre-cut the butter for frying because I don't want the hot fry pan too go long without any pancakes cooking on it. 

I have found when it sits on the hot plate empty, even for a moment, it gets too hot and the temp becomes hard to control which = Burnt hotcakes!

Step Three:

Melt butter on pan.

Step Four:

Poor some mixture into the buttered Pan.

Then pick the pan up and roll it around to get the mixture to flow to the edges.

Step Five:

You will know the hotcake is read to flip when it starts to get lots of bubbles and the spatula glides under the hotcake easily.

Your hot cakes should look something like this when they are ready.

The hotcakes are tall and fluffy.

Serve them with whatever toppings you like!