Happy birthday Mr X! Cookie monster cookies

As I mentioned in my last post, Mr X loves cookies. So I really wanted to incorporate cookies into his birthday cake. I came across some adorable cookie monster cupcakes using a google search. There are multiple sites featuring cookie monster cookies - by no means did I come up with something that cute and clever myself!


Ingredients:
Banana cupcakes, popular with Mr X (Recipe makes 16).
Cookies (Qty 8)
Cream cheese icing tinted with blue food dye.
White chocolate buttons (Qty of at least 32)
Dark chocolate, melted (Approx 6-8 squares)


Equipment:
Microwave safe bowl to melt the chocolate
Toothpicks


Method:

White chocolate button eyes 
Dip a toothpick in melted dark chocolate and add a small circles of dark chocolate to each white chocolate button. Try and make them all a similar size but don't be concerned if they all look a little different, I think it adds to the cookie monsters character. Leave to dry.

Icing
Slowly add blue food dye to the cream cheese icing until you achieve desired blue consistency. I made the icing the day before I needed it and left it in the fridge over night so it was nice and firm.


Bake cupcakes and cookies according to their instructions, and leave to cool to room temperature.

To assemble the cupcakes
Cover a cupcake with cream cheese frosting. You want it to be relatively smooth but not too smooth - you are creating a monster, after all. Add the eyes and the cookie - you may need to use a little more icing to hold the cookie in place. The icing will act as "glue". I popped them into the fridge to firm up. 

I know, there are a few steps involved if you make the cookies and cupcakes from scratch. I personally think it is worth baking them yourself, but that is entirely up to you. But once you get to the assembly stage, it all comes together quickly.

Baked sweet potato and capsicum patties

We had a BBQ recently at our place - probably the last one here before we move to our new house. My brother doesn't really eat meat so I made some baked vegetarian patties for him. I made them in cupcake pans which meant they were really easy to pop in the oven while I was out socialising with our guests. The recipe makes 12 - I put 10 out for the BBQ not expecting anyone but my brother to eat them - but all were eaten! 
Next time I will definitely double the chilli as I was told they were not very spicy. Other than that, I was pretty happy with the results.


Ingredients:
1 med-large sweet potato, cubed and cooked (e.g. roasted, pan fried or even microwaved)
2 small potatoes, cubed and cooked (e.g. roasted, pan fried or even microwaved)
2 small red capsicum, roasted, skin removed
1/2 a red onin, roasted and finely chopped
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
3-4 tsp sundried tomato pesto

4 button mushrooms, finely chopped

1 small chilli, finely diced (use the seeds for more of a kick - for milder spice, remove), or more or less to taste

3 tbs flour
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/2 egg (next time I'll try a flax egg)
80g feta

1 1/2 tbs finely chopped coriander, optional (I only added coriander to half the patties to see to test them - I think next time I'll omit it)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C. Grease and line a 12 capacity cupcake pan. 
Make sure all your vegetables are cooled before you begin to make these patties.
Roughly mash the sweet potato in a large bowl, either with a potato masher or just a fork. Finely chop the capsicum and mushroom, and add it to the sweet potato along with the onion, rice, sun dried tomato pesto and grated cheese. Stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add egg and mix, then add the flour and mix. Carefully add in the feta cheese, being careful not to over mix.


Divide amount the cupcake pans and pop in the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Once cooked, patties can be eaten immediately or saved and reheated later.

Serve with a side salad for a vegetarian meal, or as a side for a meat dish, e.g. steak or chicken.