You know what I love just as much as dessert? Seafood. Correction, deep-fried seafood. No wait, DEEP-FRIED ANYTHING!

Especially bananas. And chocolate. Yes you heard me, deep-fried chocolate; it’s sinful and explodes in your mouth. Fun times!

Seriously though, you can take any ho-hum ingredient, dunk it in hot oil and suddenly it’s magnificent. Not that I’m saying prawns are ho-hum but you know, I’d take crispy and deep-fried over fresh any day. Svelte hips and tight butt cheeks be damned.

And school prawns are my favourite little creatures to baptise in the greasy lake of fire (sorry little dudes). You should be able to find them from any bog standard seafood monger and they’re super easy to prepare. They’re fried whole, heads and all, and they turn into these super crispy nuggets of heaven. Yeah I know, I know, eating heads; macabre but oh so delicious in this case. I love serving bowls of these during lazy summer lunches and bbqs and they make for killer beer food.

And to take the awesome level up a notch, dip these babies into paprika salt and the David Chang specialty; kimchi mayonnaise. Buuuuttt make sure you use Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise (available in any good Asian grocer) because normal mayo just pales in comparison. I don’t what it is, but Kewpie mayo is just so much more smoother, creamier, milder in acidity and slightly sweeter with a far better flavour. And while you’re at the Asian grocers, pick up a container of kimchi too. Mayonnaise + spicy, pickle-ly kimchi is out-of-this-world and it goes so well with these prawns.

Summer may be long gone here but I’d still happily chow these down in front of the tv with beer in my super trendy trackpants and daggy sweaters. Unless you’re from the other side of the world (hello Northerner friends!), in which case, get these on your next bbq table pronto. Don’t forget the beer.

PS – so like, you may have noticed that things are a little different in this humble blog of mine. I had another one of those annual finicky moods where suddenly my blogs looks like retro crud and I need to do an emergency makeover. Sure I lose my mind for a day or two as I struggle to remember how to do anything technical but voila! What do you think? (Let me have it. You know you want to).

And one more thing; it’s super belated but I’m thrilled and grateful to be chosen as one of 25 food and well-being bloggers in the Top 100 finalists for Kidspot’s Voices of 2013. I’m amongst some stellar company (boots are officially trembling) but the best thing of all is I’m also nominated alongside two very amazing friends. Yayyy!

Hi! So just to update you on my life…

“I’m totally not dead. Beers for all!”

But cheers for the concern. I wish I had a glamorous story to explain my five-week hiatus (a new record oops) but alas it was nothing more than the usual blah blah busy with work blah blah no blog mojo blah blah I rather watch TV blah. It’s all incredibly lame and boring so I’m just going to hit the skip button and get straight into the next chapter.

Which is this.

A Uruguayan dessert called (and I’m so glad I don’t have to pronounce this out loud for anyone), Postre Chaja; a delicious jumble of meringue, cake, cream, dulce de leche, nuts and fruit. To paint a more sordid picture, basically a trifle and an eton mess hooked up on one sunny day for a bit of nudge-nudge wink-wink. Those cheeky kids.

I love this dessert. Yes even with the meringue, the one sweet treat that I’ve always lumped into my ‘hate-eat’ basket.

Traditionally it’s made with a basic sponge cake and tinned peaches but I strayed a little and changed it up to a flourless hazelnut cake, fresh peaches and brown sugar meringue (which takes a normally boring meringue into a whole new level). And I saw this version on Gourmet Traveller and thought hell yeah mangoes! Yes tropical fruits are so last season and comes with a heftier price tag but heck, I wasn’t ready to let go of summer yet (although I recently took my first hot shower in yonks, chucked on a fluffy hoodie and it was just ah-mazing).

I actually made this aaaages ago so this post is long overdue but it seems a fitting (and belated) farewell to summer. I just stocked up on autumn fruits recently (hello quinces!) and I can’t wait to get stuck into more hearty and warming desserts. Promise I’ll come back before the season ends :)

“Is there anything more comforting and pleasurable than chocolate cake?”

It is the universal cure of ills, heartbreak, sugar cravings and (for me at least), boredom. Throughout high school and my twenties, chocolate cake was like my culinary crack. I use to spend my meagre high school savings buying myself a whole mud cake after school just so I could eat as much as I wanted. When I was broke and desperate, I turned to boxed cake mixes. Not as good as the bakeries naturally but it still did nicely to satisfy my moods.

[Would you like one dollop or two?]

Speaking of which, I just realised that I haven’t used one in at least a decade. Not that I’m judging boxed cake mixes too harshly of course; after all, it did inspire me to go out and actually learn how to bake from scratch (I guess you could say, it was the genesis of Citrus and Candy yes?). It’s just that with recipes like these that are super easy, there really isn’t any excuse to use the ‘instant’ boxed stuff anymore. And with the ones that I’ve tried, I still had to drag out my electric mixer out. This recipe is pretty much faster and it doesn’t need anything more than a whisk and a stir.

[Swirling like a boss. I demand swirls!]

This is a Chocolate Baileys Mud Cake topped with an ultra smooth and silky ganache and it will happily satisfy all sorts of hardcore chocolate cravings. Though I definitely didn’t plan to pander to the St. Patrick’s Day masses with the inclusion of Baileys Irish Cream (which lends a subtle but sweet taste and fragrance). It just so happened that Mother Superior came back from a holiday cruise with two huge bottles simply because, “they were sooo cheap!”. But as luck would have it, she failed to check the expiration date first. So obviously I had to help her out in using it all up right? She drank. I baked. Then we both ate.

[Momma always said not to play with my food but I think chocolate cake is the exception]

Maybe it’s the inconsistent and grossly unseasonal summer weather of late (seriously Sydney, you’re going to force me to pull out my winter woollies in January?!). Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s less than four weeks until autumn, but I’m in a teeny tiny state of panic. I’m not ready to bid farewell to summer fruits yet! So when I saw cheap bags of passionfruit at my local grocers, I may have gone into a frenzy hoarding mood and er, arm-swiped a whole shelf-full into my basket. I just can’t help it, I love the stuff. It’s quintessential summer squished up in one tiny fruit and tastes like sunshine and rainbows. I also adore passionfruit with chocolate; it just brightens up any rich chocolatey dessert with a fresh summery tang and it makes me oh so happy. And let me tell you, this chocolate and passionfruit pastry cream is just so damn amazing especially in these chocolate profiteroles. One of my favourite fruits with my favourite baking ingredient in one of my favourite desserts in the whole world? I’m getting all hot and bothered thinking about it now.

Recently, I’ve only had one thing on my mind. Comfort. It has been a crappy couple of months on a personal front. So in between some much-needed catch-ups with friends and some (quite expensive) retail therapy, I’ve been happily dunking my face into bowls of this chocolate rice pudding. Amongst many other sugary and salty treats *smile*.

I mean just look at this beauty;

Chocolate. Check.

Caramelised bananas. Check check.

All indulgently rolled into a humble rice pudding? (No doubt, one of the most comforting desserts out there). Checkmate.

Serve it chilled or serve it warm; just don’t forget the bananas. It really adds a certain something something to this dessert ya know? (Then again I might be a little biased because it’s a well known fact that I love my bananas in all my desserts *smile*). Either way this dessert is rich, indulgent and perfect for enjoying in a dark private corner, away from the troubles of the world.