Skye Craig is a girl after my own heart. “A dessert everyday I say.” This is the first of many things she says where I want to pump my fists in the air and scream yes, finally someone who understands. Except I don’t because after all, I am in the company of a celebrity. MasterChef made her but Wild Sugar, Skye’s dessert company, looks set to see the reality chef’s culinary status stay high.

Since wowing viewers with chocolate avocado mousse and spun sugar, Skye has become a household name. Well, she is in the houses I frequent. People in my circles like dessert. We flick to the back of a recipe book first, read dessert menus diligently and live by the mantra ‘ice cream is a palate cleanser’. Ok the last one’s just me but I know dessert lovers love Skye.

Since coming out of the MasterChef house a few months ago, Skye has been working non stop on her dessert range Wild Sugar, sweets to make you smile. I was impressed to learn you can find her almost every Sunday at Brisbane’s Northey St organic markets happily chatting to fans, friends and customers. She spends Fridays and Saturdays in the kitchen blending buckets of avocados with chocolate, piping out 300 dairy-free cups of goodness.

Last weekend I popped up to Brisbane for a family party (see Christmas in July) and decided I had to check out Skye’s market stand at the same time. Skye graciously invited me into her kitchen on Friday to watch the preparations for Sunday’s market. She didn’t know it but there’d be a way I’d get my hands dirty.

It’s all hands on deck when I arrive. Skye’s mum is at the sink helping out, dad’s cracking coconuts (and deserves an award for father of the year). There’s clearly a lot of blood, sweat and tears going into each morsel.

Don’t worry, the avocado mousse isn’t as complicated. Skye’s recipe is one she’s honed since tasting a similar dish in a restaurant a while back. She started playing around with the flavours by herself, adding coconut milk, cocoa powder, agave and young coconut. ‘I wanted to eat dessert everyday and I wanted to know all the ingredients going into it were good for me,” says the health conscious, yoga-practicing chef. ‘I use organic, natural ingredients and sure they’re a little fatty, but it’s the good fats you’re getting.’ There’s almost a whole avocado in each dessert- the batch we put in the blender has eight avocados.

\

                                                                                                1. Peel and slice the avocados

                                                                                                2.Scoop in cacao and coconut

3.Pour in agave and coconut milk

4.Pulse until smooth

5. 5.      It’s pretty much as easy as one, two, three but more effort goes into the assemblage.
   

Using a kid’s drink bottle and some straws that looks like Easyway bubble tea slurpers, Skye pumps mousse into cups. First, in goes some chopped macadamias and a cashew-based cream. Then the mousse and finally a flavour. The fruit flavours are all based on seasonal produce. Today there’s a rich raspberry cream (a bright and beautiful pink) and orange blossom (a jaffa mouthful). I manage to grab a bottle of raspberry mousse and squeeze out a few cups- I told you I’d be getting into the thick of things!

The cups go into the fridge ready for the weekend. I’m ready to sit down and tuck in but Skye’s got a couple more hundred to churn out. At this point I’m imagining she’s glad savouries aren’t her thing. The kitchen is filled with the smell of melting sugar and crushed macadamias. I’d have no problem breaking up big blocks of chocolate all day but imagine peeling onions all week!

Skye says dairy desserts are on the way, but at the moment she’s on a winning streak with the mousse at the moment. For those who don’t love an avo, last weekend ‘don’t make me blush’ raspberry cream cups were being trialled. There’s also a lime tart with coconut cream and my favourite fruit caviar- finger limes.

                                                             

Just a few items on Skye’s reading list at the moment... and the mess I made filling up a bottle of cream.

Thanks for letting me into the kitchen Skye!

See wildsugar.com.au for the full chocolate avocado mousse recipe.