What's cooking?

This is fast becoming my baking blog!

No more breast milk baking (although I did make some pikelets with some boob juice I had left over), this time it's all about leftovers.

I made a chocolate cake yesterday, a low-fat recipe that is cooked in the microwave (a trend that should never have gone away, I might have to search for a few more microwave cakes). It uses two egg whites, which leaves the question, what do you do with the yolks? Custard, of course!

I couldn't find a recipe for custard from scratch, but I knew roughly what to do, having made it a long, long time ago for a very unappreciative Riordan. I whisked up the yolks with some sugar and vanilla, added milk and heated it all up. So far, so good. I thought it needed a bit more substance, even though it was thickening up nicely. In went some couscous for a lovely, creamy, vanilla-y pudding! Austin thought it was quite delectable, and there is some scrummy left overs for tonight.

The big people had some honey mustard chicken with rice for dinner, and I purposely cooked too much rice so I could make something, anything, for Austin with it. It needed to be firm enough for him to pick up and feed himself (we're still doing baby-led solids for the most part), so I thought some rice balls, loosely based on arancini . Once again, my recipe books failed me, so I had to wing it. In went some grated carrot, an egg, some ricotta, a little plain flour, a tiny bit of onion and some kidney beans (Austi's newest craze). I rolled them in bread crumbs, sprayed with a little olive oil and baked them until they were firm. I then made him a simple tomato sauce with just a tin of tomatoes, some onion, more kidney beans and a touch of sugar to take away the acidity, and then blitzed it all up and cooked it until it was nice and thick. Austin thought it was divine, and hoovered up three balls the size of his fist. Not the tidiest meal, there was tomato everywhere, but he loved it and it is expanding his palate.

Next on the cooking list is going to be some polenta.

Baby Masterchef, now that's an idea for a TV show!