dinosaur doughnuts

Quick post today. Made these dinosaur doughnuts a couple days ago with Clara on a whim and decided that they were too easy and tasty to not do a post on. This recipe is ridiculously quick to prepare and also requires little washing up because essentially all you need is a blender and a pan.

The first thing you should know about these is that they are baked, not deep fried so whilst they might not be as delicious, they are a lot healthier for you. I would love to make doughnuts the proper way but the truth is, deep frying and scalding oil terrifies me so maybe at a later date. These doughnuts also have no sugar, butter or flour! Well the doughnut part that is, I used cinnamon sugar to coat them... The recipe instead uses almond meal and honey. I found the recipe on this blog and the recipes there are all grain and sugar free and makes me feel incredibly guilty for using so much refined flour and sugar. Anyway, it's definitely worth a look.

This recipe also uses a batter instead of a dough and yeast. The original recipe used a doughnut tin to cook the batter in but I didn't have one. So I just pulled out whatever I could find in my cupboard and decided on using this adorable dinosaur pan (thank you Yen). You all should know about my love of dinosaurs so this seemed appropriate. I'm not sure if it was because of the thickness of the pan but this took a little longer to cook than the recommended 10 minutes, more around the 12-14 minute mark. If you are going to make this though, I suggest you bake it for 10 minutes first and then decide if it needs any longer because you do not want to overcook them.

I also didn't have any dates to make the icing and the attempt to use sultanas as a substitute didn't work out well. So I just decided covering them in cinnamon sugar instead which is always safe, trusty and delicious.

Also apologies about the photos, I started baking too late and the sun was already going down and no light = bad photos.

dinosaur doughnuts
adapted from roostblog

1 1/4 cup almond meal/flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1/4 cup oil or ghee
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


cinnamon sugar
25g melted butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Put all dry ingredients in a blender and mix with a spoon.
3. Add all wet ingredients to the blender.
4. Blend until the batter is smooth.
5. Pour into greased dinosaur pan or doughnut moulds or whatever you can find.
6. Bake for 10 minutes and then check on them. If they are still not cooked, bake for a few minutes longer but be careful not to overbake or they will be dry.
7. Remove doughnut from pan.
9. For the cinnamon sugar, mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
8. Brush doughnuts with a little bit of butter while still warm and coat in sugar.

Simple, isn't it? If you're really lazy you could even use store bought cinnamon sugar like I did the first time I made them but it didn't seem economical. Good to make if you have a doughnut craving or just feel like baking something quick. These are best served warm so microwave them for a few seconds to heat them up if you can. This'll also prevent them from being dry which they might be after a day or so.

Since I have a few spares sitting in my kitchen right now, I've decided to give them away! So, first three comments on this post can get a dinosaur from me tomorrow. But if you all jig or nobody comments I'll just eat them all myself.

With all these upcoming class parties, birthdays, housewarming parties etc, I'll probably turn into a baking machine, which is good for me, good for those around me but bad for my father who is OCD and feels the need to double clean the kitchen every time after I bake.

So get commenting and I'll be back soon!

father's day breakfast

Hello readers. Yes I am back, for now.

Seeing as it was father's day today, I thought I might as well document the obligatory father's day breakfast that I make yearly. Felt like making something both sweet and savoury so this is going to be a double post.

I'm just going to jump straight into it because I have nothing to rant about today.


baked eggs in tomato with basil and prosciutto
recipe from almost bourdain

Pictured above, this was the savoury part of the breakfast and it was incredibly easy to make and highly recommend it to lazy people who feel like a warm breakfast. I've never baked eggs before but after this I think I'll try out some other baked eggs recipes. One thing though, while the recipe said to only bake the eggs for 5 minutes, mine needed much longer than that, more like 10-15 minutes.

Anyway, photos.

And every breakfast needs sugar so...

lemon souffle cakes [serves 4]
(from Bill Granger's 'Sydney Food')

3/4 cup buttermilk
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 teaspoon grated lemon juice
[I used one large lemon for this]
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
25 g unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoon caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 egg whites

200g strawberries. halved
1 tablespoon honey
icing sugar

1. Place buttermilk, egg yolks, lemon juice and zest and vanilla in a bowl and stir. Add butter and mix  well.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and stir in the butter milk mixture. Be careful not to overmix.
3. Whip egg whites into soft peaks and gently fold egg whites into batter using a large metal spoon.
4. Melt a bit of butter into a non-stick frypan on medium heat and drop 2 tablespoons of batter per cake.
5. Cook till golden brown and turn to cook the other side.
6. Keep warm while you cook the rest.
7. Toss the strawberries with the honey.
8. Dust lemon souffle cakes with icing sugar and top with strawberries to serve.

Some tips, for the strawberries, I added a little bit of water to thin out the honey a little and I also used more than 200g since we had so many at home. Often recipes macerate strawberries in sugar but this turns them brown and mushy so use honey as this makes them appear even more red. To keep pancakes warm, I often just put them all on a plate and cover them with a clean tea towel. Alternatively, like I have done, use a mini oven that is just warm and leave the pancakes in there.

These souffle cakes are super light and fluffy and should be fantastic for summer. They are a bit more effort than stock standard pancakes but if you have the time, they are worth it. Plus I just wanted to make the most of the beginning of strawberry season. Seriously, I swear we have like, five punnets of strawberries in the fridge right now. Not that I'm complaining.

Food porn starts here.

Served with croissants and coffee and some freshly whipped cream, breakfast is served.

I'll probably be posting a bit more in the next couple weeks until the end of school (17 DAYS!). With the upcoming birthdays and possible parties, I'll most likely be baking a lot so hooray! I miss this.

Well that's it from me, until next time.