Life’s pretty sweet for Skye Craig. Not only did she ‘wow’ a captive ‘Master Chef’ TV audience with her raw food creations, she continues to dazzle us with her creative flair, delectable raw food delights and pure dessert naughtiness….she’s found the best of both worlds!

Her passion for food started from the age of seven, when she used to follow her mum around the kitchen….initially it was the bowl full of cake mix which was appealing but then a deeper interest in blending different ingredients and wild foods together was what captured her imagination.

Skye continued to experiment with food in her spare time and pursued graphic design as a career in her early adulthood. But after 13 years of design work and being stuck behind a computer, she was ready for a different way to express her creativity and ‘get her hands dirty’.

“I was following something inside me that was saying it’s time for a change. A friend said to me at the time, why don’t you try and spend an hour a day doing what you love doing so you don’t put any expectations on yourself,” she says. After this daily process, she realised that her passion really kicked in for making her naughty sweets and raw food dessert creations.  She says it’s important during this exploration time to find your passion freely and creatively, rather than trying to fit it into a business model straight away. “I can get very heady and overanalyse things but I realised you have to let go and just do it,” says Skye.

After finding her bliss, she applied to the Master Chef show but had no expectations of the outcome. Shortly after applying, she had an audition and took her raw deserts in to the studio. She was a bit concerned they were going to say, ‘What’s this green, hippie crap?’ but the people who did the audition absolutely loved the desserts and later on she found out that one of the producers at the audition had been eating raw food for a long time.”  As a finalist on Master Chef last year, she was able to bring a number of raw food dishes to the show. She says it was great to see people being open minded about raw/wholefoods in the mainstream media.

She created her dessert business,‘Wild Sugar’ very soon after leaving ‘Master Chef’. Her unique range of desserts with raw ingredients were available at the Northey Street Organic Markets in Brisbane last year. Skye says buying food from local markets is an affordable way to eat well.

“Supporting local producers and your local community is a great way to form a relationship with the people you are buying the food from and it’s food that is produced with a lot of love.”

Skye says she was a raw foodist (consuming a diet of 70% raw food) and a vegan for a while, and she found her energy levels were incredible and she felt much clearer. During this discovery process she fell in love with all the divine raw deserts that could be created. “So I thought right, I can do this….I can do the raw vegan thing and then treat myself to these deserts that are good for my body and also taste great”. She says dextrose, honey and dry fruit are still sugars but many of these ingredients are pure and lower GI and much better for your body. Then everything else that goes into the desserts; the avocadoes, the cashews and wild ingredients, means you are really nourishing, nurturing and feeding your body beautiful foods.

She says she now chooses a life of balance by eating what she feels her body needs and selects from a wider range of foods, comprising mostly vegetarian food and some raw foods. She also does yoga and meditation to keep herself on track.

Skye is currently preparing to launch two yummy dessert ranges into retail outlets such as Thomas Dux in Sydney. She says the first is an ice cream range, launching in early April this year, which will be decadent with standard ingredients and the other whole food dessert range will launch later in the year and will be made with raw ingredients. “Two totally different ranges of desserts but I love them both,” she says.

Her philosophy is simple: “Take really good care of yourself on a daily basis and then occasionally treat yourself to something decadent.  We are all so different and it’s important to continually check in with your own body and see what’s on offer and what’s best for you. Food brings people together and it’s the universal language.”

For more information about Skyes upcoming events go to www.wildsugar.com.au

Chocolate avocado mousse with raspberry cream

Serves 10, prep time: 30 - 40 mins
INGREDIENTS

Macadamia base
2 cups raw macadamia nuts
3-4 tablespoons light agave syrup or honey Chocolate Avocado Mousse
4 avocadoes
220ml light agave syrup or honey
1/2 tbsp coconut oil
100g 70% dark lindt chocolate
1 cup coconut milk
7-10 tbsp cacao powder please use Power Super foods cacao powder if possible (start with 5 and then taste to see if it needs more. Varying brands are quite different in
their strength)

Raspberry cream
1 cup cashews
2 cups frozen raspberries
¼ cup light agave syrup or honey
50ml lemon juice
1/2 cup fragrance free coconut oil
1 cup of coconut milk
½ tsp celtic sea salt

METHOD

Chocolate Avocado Mousse
Base: Pulse the macadamia nuts in a food processor. Once the nuts are about half the size of the original chunks, take half of the mix out and set aside in a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of the light agave syrup and continue to process the remaining mix in the food processor until it forms a smooth paste. Pull the smooth nut mix out of the food processor and combine with the nuts set aside in the bowl.

Mousse: Place Lindt dark choclate into food processor and pulse until chocolate is in small pieces. Set aside in bowl. Combine avocadoes, cacao, agave syrup, coconut oil, in a blender until smooth, creamy. Taste and adjust if need be, as produce is always very different. If you want your mousse to be more sweet, add more agave nectar. Less sweet, more avocado. More chocolatey, add cacao powder, less chocolatey, more avocado. Fold in Lindt chocolate for the yummiest chocoholic’s dessert.

Raspberry Cream
Place all ingredients into vitamix blender and blend until you have a smooth cream. Strain and set aside.

Serving
Using a glass slightly larger than a shot glass, place about 1 tablespoon of the macadamia base at the bottom of the glass. Smooth the mix with the back of a teaspoon.  Spoon the mousse on top, ensuring that the glass is almost full and smooth with the back of a spoon or give it a few taps on the bench.
Pour the raspberry cream over the top of the chocolate mousse.

Cover with plastic-wrap or place all shot glasses into a large plastic container with a lid and place in freezer until the desserts are cold or semi-frozen.

Smiles for Miles! Skye xx