Go Ahead Bake My Cupcake...

chocolate chips....

2010-01-11T08:35:00.000+13:00

well after much delay i finally made my first cupcakes of the year and as promised they were chocolate chip ones from martha's book! they turned out a little dense for my liking, the recipe called for egg whites beaten into 'stiff peaks' but not over beaten.... well being the novice i am i really dont know when to turn the electric beater off.... i mean stiff peaks are stiff peaks right.. you cant get any stiffer? well i think i must have as im sure the egg whites are in the recipe to keep the mixture light....?!?!

anyway they werent a complete disaster, they were edible and most who ate them didnt complain! i made some chocolate buttercream with the edition of 175g of 70% cocoa chocolate... yum! it was probably the best tasting icing i have made so far :) i was too lazy to decorate them in any sort of impressive fashion so i just crumbled up some choc chip cookies and piled them on top of the icing...

oh and most importantly... i got a new camera! its not an SLR but next best thing i think! 10MP and 12 optical zoom for a pretty good price, im pretty pleased and hopefully it will make my blog a little prettier to look at .... this is how my cupcakes (and photos) turned out

well besides the semi failed baking we didnt get up to much in the weekend, just relaxed, cleaned the house (speaking of which, the landlord is selling! so we are going to have to find a new place to live.... im dreaming of a big kitchen!), caught up with my mum etc etc

on saturday we went to western springs in the early evening for a impromtu picnic and it was beautiful! havent been there since the end of winter when it was pretty bare and uninspiring! i managed to put my new camera to use and grab a few practice shots

ants in my pants....

2010-01-06T15:44:00.000+13:00

i am dreaming of all the things i want to do this year and thinking i may write a things to do in 2010 list, the draft includes a lot of travel! i want to go to japan, singapore, amsterdam, paris and the gold coast... amongst others! me and my lovely are also starting up a joint bank account to save or at least to attempt to save for a house..... might be a few years off yet haha but at least its a start! we are starting off the year with a trip to the old faithful which is sydney! we are leaving in feb and i cant wait (even though i just started back at work!)

id also like to travel more of nz, after spending new years in rotorua id like to go down there again with some spare money and see lots of the attractions, especially as i have not visited them since i was young! the south island is also in my mind, i have never really liked the idea of it but it would be a shame not to explore it when its right in the backyard! im going down to christchurch with my mum in june so thats a start! would love to hire a campervan and travel around :D

MOST importantly i am going to try and get out of debt, which i know seems a funny thing to say with all this dreaming of travel.... but it has to be done

so thats just a FEW ideas i have, lets see if any of them come to fruitian!

i feel as though i havent really been in the baking mode recently but now i am back at work i am dying to get on with some cupcakes! i mentioned in an earlier post that i was considering trying out every martha stewart cupcake recipe from her cupcake book... i have no idea if this is possible but i am starting with the chocolate chip cupcakes on page 22 (the first recipe in the book) and we will see where it takes me! im going to bake them tomorrow morning so i can take them into work (as the recipe makes 30?!?!)

the other day i did manage to knock out some macaroons from nigellas book, they were ok but i had to buy HOME BRAND shredded coconut and it was revolting! it was huge big strands that were too big for macaroons so they turned out slightly dry! i have to note that i never use home brand unless i absolutely have to! i think their products are of poor quality so i try to steer clear! anyway it was the only shredded coconut on the shelves :( i am going to retry them with some higher quality coconut and dip them in melted chocolate....

they ended up looking ok though....

food photo essay....

2009-12-30T09:47:00.038+13:00

well as promised here are just a few of the food delights i managed to experience over the last festive week (give or take a few days on either end) ... no explanations needed i dont think?

you can fit alot into a week....

2009-12-28T22:19:00.007+13:00

well... no blog post in quite some time, i have been busy soaking up the napier sun, eating christmas food, opening presents, hosting my dad and driving the country :D

we had 6 days in napier including christmas day...

highlights included; getting all my hair cut off into a cute katie holmes esque bob and and managing to sample my favourite crumbed snapper fillets from westshore fish shop more than once! i had put in a special request to my lovely for martha stewarts baking handbook but we couldnt find it anywhere in stock, i then requested the next best thing... nigella lawson's how to be a domestic goddess! i had wanted it for quite some time and its such a well put together book with one easy/great baking recipe after another.

so the book turned up under the christmas tree with other goodies! of course i had to try one of the recipes out straight away! well... on boxing day

it was the blackberry galette on pg 115 although it said you can use any berries so i chose raspberries! it has yummy creme fraiche in it and is super easy! the only alterations i made to it were adding maybe half a tablespoon more of the creme fraiche and some sliced almonds on top, swapping the vegetable shortening (hard to find in nz) for margarine... oh and the berries of course

here is the recipe

Ingredients.....

for the pastry:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons polenta or fine cornmeal
1 scant tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
scant ¼ cup cold butter
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1–3 tablespoons ice water or enough to bind

for the filling:

150g blackberries
approximately 3 tablespoons sugar
3 heaping tablespoons crème fraîche, plus more to serve

Instructions....

In a food processor, pulse the dry ingredients, then add the butter and shortening diced into small pieces. Pulse briefly until it resembles coarse bread crumbs, then add enough ice water to form a dough, pulsing gently to mix. Form it into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to rest for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll the pastry out into a rough circle, transfer to the baking sheet and scatter blackberries on top, leaving a good 3-inch margin round the edge. Sprinkle with 1–2 tablespoons sugar, to taste, then dollop with crème fraîche. Sprinkle a further tablespoonful of sugar over, dampen the edges with water, then wrap them over themselves to form a knobbly, ramshackle rim and put in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through.

here's what mine turned out like.....

i served it with custard which was a really delicious combo!

we headed back to auckland for a second christmas celebration on the 27th... more food and another galette! i baked another due to its initial success, this time with blueberries ... certainly a lot cheaper! i forgot the almonds but didnt effect it much haha

anyway thats about it although id thought id treat you to some pictures of the culinary delights that we experienced over the past week (in photos ....)

but you will have to wait till tomorrow as im off to watch where the wild things are!

dear santa...

2009-12-17T21:03:00.002+13:00

oh god im addicted to twitter! i set it up to be another arm of my cupcake promotion but it has ended in me being glued to the home page looking for people im following to run competitions i can enter or looking at my @bakemycupcake page seeing if anyone has tweeted me!

give me strength! no one told me there would be daily give aways and all sorts of treats to be had on the bloody thing.....

i have won a turkey, a case of antipodes water and 50 airpoints so far... haha

my mums birthday is on the 23rd but as i will be in napier i will be missing the day of celebrations so i thought we would have a pre birthday celebration this sunday! of course i am going to bake a cake and as i seem to be on a martha streak at the moment i will doing another one of her cakes, this time a devils food cake with chocolate mint ganache! yum....... looks slightly tricky but hopefully easier than the sponge cake!

today was the last day of work which is great news! tomorrow is our end of year christmas lunch which i had to buy a new dress for :/ luckily farmers had a sale on and i got a super cute dress and leggings for $45, its going to be at a bowling club... the theme is celebrities... for some reason i hate dress up parties when they are not needed! why do we need people dressing up when we are having a christmas lunch? maybe im just a stick in the mud but i reckon it would be more fun if people just dressed up in black tie!

i know im 8 not but i still have a pretty big xmas list in my head.... so for no reason except my own titillation i thought id blog it

1.

yup its a martha book! this book is truly amazing, it has fantastic cookies in which i want to start getting the hang of as my cookies usually end up tasting ok but looking terrible

2.

ira where the wild things are toy :> to go with my max toy! these are super cute and i just <3 them so much!! (and yes i know... im not 8)

3.

this amazing collapsible cupcake holder / carrier... so cute and great for carrying the cupcakes around and eliminates the worry of them slipping and sliding around or getting squashed by an over zealous chihuahua in your car :P

another toy! oh no am i turning into one of those creepy women that are obesessed with soft toys and have 20 of them on their frilly duvet covered bed?!?! i hope not :/ but when in farmers today i came across a rudolph the red nosed reindeer toy .. similiar to this but even cuter! i have put in a request with my boyfriend... it wasnt met with much of a warm response but hopefully the request MAY come to fruition?

5.

oh god im not looking very mature am i? but im desperate for this! ever since we got the ps3 i have wanted it and hopefully it will be under the xmas tree for me :>

6.

general baking paraphanalia! metal tarts cases, madeliene baking pan, collapsable cookie cutters, a decent apron etc etc

7.

a podgypanda rwar! tshirt... i have been eyeing them up since i saw these UBER cute designs at armageddon.... also on twitter

ANYWAY you get the picture, this list could go on for ever and i dont want to seem to greedy haha

oh and i handed out my little noodle boxes of xmas mince pies to their recipients at work today, they seemed to go down a treat, here are the photos from round two... sieved icing sugar and cute cut out lids made them look a little more attractive

what day of christmas is this???

2009-12-16T09:48:00.004+13:00

so its the last week of work thank god and a pleasent surprise came my way when my boss said that for the rest of the week i could start at 9am rather than 7am, it makes a huge difference (trust me)! things at work are so quiet it reminds me of the last week of school before summer holidays..... nothing is happening and everyone is pretty relaxed....

i wish i was relaxed though as apart from the 9am starts i have been pretty stressed out, my car was making horrendous noises and with a trip away scheduled for sunday to napier for the first part of the holidays impending i thought i should get it sorted.... worn break pads and rotors (?!?!?) apparently and $376 apparently! as i have splurged on christmas shopping i am broke till next pay day which happens to be NEXT thursday (christmas eve). too late to get the car fixed and too late to travel to napier! luckily my mum said she could help me out, lend me the money and hopefully we will have it fixed by the weekend.... all things going to plan

amongst all of this i have decided its time to slim down, i have put on around 6kgs over the last few months and have really started to feel it and look it! it has been consuming my thoughts for quite some time, frustrated with myself for even letting it happen! but i realised its all in my control and if i just stop eating when i dont need to (mars bars, packets of chips, biscuits etc etc) and get a little more active then hopefully i can reclaim my body! ................ sounds easy right? i will let you know how it goes......

anyway on the topic of food i successfully made my own christmas mince pies! the first round was a trial and tonight i am going to make them again so i can give them out as presents on my last day of work to my work mates! i got an easy and yummy pastry recipe from the nestle site... it is as follows

Ingredients:

75g butter (softened)
1/4 cup of icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp cornflour

for the fruit mince meat i have to admit i cheated! it was too expensive and time consuming to get all the different fruit etc etc so i got some good old earnest adams, added 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and a few tbps of whiskey and let it soak for a day or so....

the rest of the instructions are from the same recipe as the ingredients (i left out a few things they said, like adding chocolate to the mincemeat mix etc) and they are as follows

Instructions:

preheat oven to 180°C and grease mini tartlet tins

cream butter, add icing sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. beat in egg yolk and vanilla essence.

sift flour and cornflour together and gradually stir into creamed mixture to make a smooth dough. place rounded teaspoons of dough into the tins, then press evenly over the bottoms and up the sides, making an indent in the bottom of each.

bake tart shells in preheated oven for 10 minutes. remove from oven.

fill with fruit mince meat, cut little rounds or xmas shapes for tops and pop them over each tart and return for 10-15 mins

remove from oven and allow to cool in tin.

once cooled, dust with icing sugar

now for the pictures....

they arent the prettiest of pies but they have the home made charm i guess! next time i will sieve (which i need to buy) the icing sugar over so it doesnt look so patchy and thick

noodle box lined with serviettes and a texas cupcake paper ready for the pies to be put in

pies in the box, gonna put four in each, thats all the boxes can really fit unless you want to really squash them and then risk the pastry breaking! disaster!

after closing the boxes up i thought they probably needed something christmas-y as they were just plain white boxes, so chucked a ribbon round and attached a little tree decoration with a cute paper clip and i was away laughin! a easy home made and cheap gift thats so cute i doubt anyone could resist....

happy birthday to me...

2009-12-13T00:29:00.000+13:00

well yesterday was my birthday, i turned 28... a pretty unspectacular age but a birthday is always reason to celebrate... or perhaps i can only say that because im still in my 20s hehe

T got me a where the wild things are max toy which i had been lusting after for so long and the cutest antique pot/jar/something holder which i had seen in a trader store in sandringham..... then it magically vanished from the window after i displayed my interest in it to my lovely boyfriend :P oh! and some tiny tiny cupcake cases :D

we went to white at the hilton for lunch, lucky for us we got to sit on the balcony with the most beautiful view of the harbour! i had linguine with pesto, roasted baby tomatoes and feta.. it was delicious and the service was friendly ... id really recommend it!

speaking of restaurants we had spent the previous 2 days in wellington, we went down to see jason alexander and to have a mini mini break! we went to logan brown which is supposed to be fantastic but i found it completely over-rated! the service was shocking.. well the waitress was rude! and the serving sizes were tiny! i thought that the little dot in the middle of the plate days were over but apparently in wellington thats still acceptable! the tiny bits of food that we did have were actually nice but i would never go there again or recommend it...

after seeing jason alexander in wellington T convinced me to wait around the side door so we could meet him.... haha i was completely against it of course but went along with it and this was the result...

anyway! back to yesterday.... as promised i attempted an old fashioned sponge layer cake... it turned out pretty well looking home made and retro, i got the recipe from my new favourite book (i have one every week haha) martha stewart's baking handbook. so i baked 2 9 inch sponge cakes as per her recipe and cut them down the middle, creating 4! i also made strawberry meringue buttercream (from my brand spanking new martha stewarts cupcake book) plus normal cream and layered them on top of one another

then i sliced up strawberries and covered the cream with them..... then did that with the next 3 layers, stacking them 1 on top of the other

topped it off with the same plus more strawberries and some blueberries..... and just to add to the cute factor, got some of those little chocolate lady birds and popped them on :)

so yea... wasnt the most polished looking cake but it had some charm and retro chic! and best of all it tasted delicious :)

the way things should be....

2009-12-08T16:50:00.000+13:00

well after my 5 day break from work in napier last week i am off again .... this time to wellington (tomorrow and thursday) to see jason alexander (better known as george from seinfeld) then on friday it is my birthday and then the weekend ... all of which i have off! im just praying that the sun shines like the it is today! the last thing i baked was the blueberry cake and since then have had so many ideas and little time (due to work and play!) but when i arrive back from wellington i think i will make myself a birthday cake.... haha sounds a bit sad ... but i DO have friends.... i just <3 baking :)

i have had a few ideas from orange chiffon cake to an orange and almond cake BUT while browsing a few baking books over the last few days i have seen the reoccurance of a sponge layer cake and i thought with all the summer berries available at the moment i would try one! i thought id use blueberries and stawberries as they are readily available at reasonable prices at this time of year. so if it all goes to plan im am envisioning it will have 4 sponge layers, berries (and on top) AND most cream & importantly strawberry meringue butter cream between ...

any maybe if i go all out some white chocolate decoration of some sort on the very top

in other news i got an early birthday present from my mum.... martha stewarts cupcakes book! i wrote an earlier post about it... it is truly fantastic! it has so many cupcake recipes and design ideas its almost overwhelming! i want to bake them all SO i thought in the style of julie and julia my project for 2010 would be trying to bake every cupcake in the book... starting from the very beginning! we will see how that turns out... haha knowing me i will probably lose steam but stay posted.....

berries...

2009-12-03T21:05:00.020+13:00

disclaimer: my camera ran out of battery so all photos are crappy as they were taken off my phone :(

well im in napier for a mini break with T and besides being famous for its sunny weather (its currently raining and WAS thundering) and fish and chips (well according to me) its called the fruit bowl of new zealand (according to T) so i thought while i was down here i would take advantage of the ample fruit... in particular the berries!

i had a recipe i wanted to try out in my recipe folder at home but being in such a hurry to get to the airport i left it behind... so today with blueberries in mind i google image searched 'blueberry' cake (i like to see what they look like first) and came across a pretty yummy looking one and along with that a fantastic recipe AND blog!!

its called .....
Apple and Spice

and has fantastic recipes and interesting posts... im definetly going to spend a few hours on it when i get home...

anyway back to the cake... so i tracked down a place called the strawberry patch that stocked bluberries, fresh berry ice cream (which of course we had to sample :/ ) and also did pick your own strawberries at $4 a kg! yum ... unfortunately the day before i had already bought two huge punnets for $10 (which is still great value)... i also ate the majority of them and to be honest my stomach has been paying .... ....anyway enough said about that ! :o

ok so the recipe is here (original page and post ) or here....

Ingrediants
200g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp of vanilla
115g butter
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
240ml plain natural yoghurt
400g blueberries
65g natural marzipan

For the topping
1½ tbsp light soft brown sugar
2½ tbsp finely chopped hazelnuts

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 22cm 9inch spring form tin.
Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs on at a time, beating well between each one. Chop the marzipan into small squares and fold into the batter along with the vanilla and yoghurt.
Sift over the flour, bicarb and baking powder and fold in well, turning the bowl as you go until just combined.
Place half of the batter into the cake tin and then cover the surface with half of the blueberries.
Spread the remaining half of batter evenly over the blueberries and top with the leftover berries.
Scatter over the chopped hazelnuts and sprinkle on the brown sugar.
Bake between 1hr – 1hr 15minutes until springy and a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. (It will be wet if you hit a blueberry).
Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before removing from the in and allowing to cool before serving.
Tastes great eaten on its own, with crème fraiche or slightly warm with ice cream.

the recipe calls for marzipan which is different! blocks of marzipan in NZ supermarkets are around $8! so i went to the lolly/chocolate isle and bought a $3 log of chocolate covered marzipan and just scraped the chocolate off and used that....

yes... i AM cheap!

blueberries on top before adding the hazlenuts and sugar..... yum

i usually use a fan bake setting for my cupcakes but did this on a normal bake setting as it called for a long cooking time... the top didnt burn which was what i was most worried about! there is one thing to note of importance... this cake takes FOREVER to cool... im not sure why, maybe the heat in the berries? but it seemed very delicate and a bit crumbly while still warm so had to let it cool completely

out of the oven (terrible photo!) but you can see all the blueberries on the top and sides!

the inside of the cake (another bad photo :/) might put more bluberries in the middle or do another layer next time!

Served it with fresh cream and strawberries... yum

as my baking journey continues i am becoming increasingly aware of the way ingrediants work and taste and think i am going to start experimenting with my own recipes or perhaps modifying or adding to existing ones! so standby for more fun and probably plenty of disasters!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas....

2009-11-30T13:59:00.003+13:00

its almost the first of december and we are truly about to enter the holiday season! i wish the weather would follow suit but its another overcast muggy day here in auckland! the christmas brunch yesterday was a huge success and everyone loved the cupcake wreath! i managed to pull it together and make everyone a take home cupcake too with little christmas trees on top :)

as mentioned in the previous post i made gingerbread cupcakes which tasted delicious! i got the recipe from this book.... (it involves crystalized ginger and spices but is pretty simple!)... i once again got it from my favourite book resource... the library!

i spent most of saturday coating the mint leaves with melted chocolate, putting them in the fridge, letting them set then removing the leaves from the back to reveal beautiful chocolate leaves! this was much easier (however time consuming) than i thought and they looked amazing... if i do say so myself.....

as i use butter in my icing recipes i can never achieve white icing so for these i had to use store bought (gasp!!) icing.. it was 'betty crocker vanilla frosting' and it was surpisingly nice and easy to work with! i will definately buy it again when i need white icing! (great for christmas projects).... i also added a bow and some extra decorations to the wreath to give it more context, i used plastic bells and tiny presents (originally tree decorations)

this is a great idea for a table center piece ... besides the leaves (which are time consuming) it was relatively easy and really effective!

i topped my christmas tree to be cupcakes with the same white icing and used a knife to texture it... i let it set and then swirled a christmas tree on top with a kinda star tip (sorry dont know the number of this one) .. starting with a big circle and gradually making it smaller as i increased the height....

i used edible silver balls and red stars as the decoratins and put a little yellow star on the top of each tree... i used edible white dust/glitter to sprinkle over! AND just to top the whole thing off put a little present under each

super cute!!

my head is now filled with christmas decorating ideas and i think im going to try snowman cupcakes next! stay tuned xx

oh christmas tree oh christmas tree....

2009-11-28T19:24:00.001+13:00

well we are entering my favourite time of year! i love the food, the decorations, the music, the weather, time off from work, road trips, family and presents :P I put my tree up on wednesday even though it was far too early ... we always believe the date to put it up is the 1st of December but me and T got a tree for our place so i just wanted to decorate it asap! it was a pretty cheap warehouse version but suprisingly it didnt look too sparse which is what always bothers me about cheap trees! i managed to decorate it and the rest of the living room in a not TOO tacky manner ... i might put some pix up ....

the baking project this weekend is a christmas wreath made out of cupcakes for my mums xmas brunch tomorrow (got the design idea from the hello, cupcake!), i am going to bake gingerbread cupcakes and have been making white chocolate leaves (by brushing mint leaves with melted chocolate, letting them dry then peeling the leaves off) at work all day! the idea is to top the cupcakes with the leaves and round red lollies (jaffas in my case) and arange them in a circle, i got a bow and some cute decorations to enhance it too ... i will post the pix tommorrow after i have finished it, my mum ALSO requested a cupcake for everyone to take home if i have time so might make 8 individual chocolate ones with a little iced xmas tree on top....

once again... fingers crossed

what a weekend....

2009-11-23T20:18:00.002+13:00

well my weekend was truly taken over by cupcakes! i was supposed to start baking at around 11am on Saturday but due to oven issues and sleeping in issues i didnt start till around 4.30pm... needless to say it kind of snowballed from there.. leading to a bed time of 3am with an unwelcome alarm at 6am to finish off putting caramel corn manes on the lion cupcakes and get to the market by 7.30am!

had heaps of fun and saw a few people from the facebook group (special prices for them of course :P ) which was great!

we sold quite a lot of cakes to the people that came but to be honest the market was a bit lame! there was only a handful of stalls and consquenstly not much foot traffic! i took the rest to work this morning and they went like hot cakes! so next plan of attack is more planning and a better market! i will have to go to a few first to really get a guage on how many cakes to make in regards to how many stalls and people they have markets! someone suggested a market in grey lynn so may have to check that out....

thought my stall looked quite cute with heaps of different retro plates and little cups .... heres a few pics from the day

my table with all the plates and some of the cupcakes on (rest were stored in boxes under the table)

my first shot at mini cupcakes... they were a huge hit and my fatest seller! brownie flavour, vanilla with choc icing, carrot and vanilla with orange icing... yum!

chocolate cupcakes with melted white chocolate on top and a yummy oreo

orange cupcakes with tasty orange icing and the cutest little flower!

crazy planning....

2009-11-19T19:40:00.000+13:00

3 days till my market debut with my cupcakes! i have planned to make 150 cupcakes but have no idea if it is do-able! but we will see.... i have decided on the following flavours

carrot
lemon
orange
banana (and walnut)
brownie
chocolate
vanilla

phewp! all with different designs on them! i think icing them is obviously going to be the most difficult thing to under go... but i have enlisted my lovely boyfriend who said he will be mr mixer and washer :)

ingrediants cost me $90 so i hope to at least break even, its hard to tell as i have no idea what the foot traffic is like or interest is in cupcakes at this market!

hold tight for heaps of photos from the baking, icing and selling !!

the land before time...

2009-11-15T14:49:00.002+13:00

I made the cake! It took me far longer than I had intially thought, although that is because I used a completely inappropriate recipe for the first attempt! The cake was all crumbly and just fell apart :( Goodbye 8 eggs, loads of milk, flour, sugar... etc etc

So instead of trying to be fancy I just pulled out the most simple cake recipe I could find and made sure it came out of a cake decorating book ..... (guaranteeing it would be rubust!)

I baked two round cakes out of said butter cake mix ( with cocoa added) and cut out the shapes to make the dino shape (1 cake was used as the actual body and the other was cut into two to make the tail and head)

Then I attempted a crumb coat (a rough coat of icing to seal in the crumbs) ... but as im impatient it only lasted in the freezer for about 15 minutes... so out it came... looking PRETTY rough but ready for its final icing coat (well almost ready!)

After perfecting the icing it was time to do what i had been looking forward to... decorate it! I had mint truffle hersheys kisses, brown m&ms (regular and mini) and big chocolate buttons! I just put the spots all over and also used regular sized m&ms for his toes :D

i was quite pleased with the final result and decided to give him a smile instead of scary teeth :P not sure what sort of dino this would actually be considered... but anyhow his name is cliff and he is going to get eat VERY shortly.....

hello cupcake....

2009-11-12T19:08:00.002+13:00

got this book from the library! its so rad :D although in saying that the designs look EXTRA tricky and involve allsorts of decorations (its an american book after all)!

they have a blog and a strangley designed website to compliment the book ...

im going to photocopy some of the designs though for my baking folder, there are some super cute christmas ideas including christmas baubles and snowmen! my mum is having a christmas 'girls' brunch and she asked me to make some christmas themed cupcakes for it so may try them out

anyway... if youre into baking im sure youve already heard of this book but thought id blog it anyway :)

bought most of the decorations etc for the impending dinosaur cake today :) including mint hersheys kisses for the spine :D found a pic of what its 'supposed' to look like....

headache time...

2009-11-11T20:11:00.000+13:00

i am trying to plan a birthday cake, well im lying ,,,,its more like trying to copy a birthday cake..

its for my someone special and hopefully isnt too imature haha... well it is ....but its so cute i couldnt pass up the chance to make it!

its a dinosaur..... i know i know.... anyone over the age of 10 probably shouldnt have a dinosaur birthday cake but as i said i honestly cant resist it! i found it on youtube and its part of the howdini series!

my favourite bit are the spikes made out of hersheys kisses *swoooon*

its going to be the first birthday cake i have made and hopefully it will turn out well (fingers crossed again), im also going to compliment it with some cute dinosaur cupcakes! after last weeks success with fondant i thought i would give making some realllllly SIMPLE fondant dinosaurs to top them with :)

i am going to make it saturday night i think so will post the pictures shortly after that :D

fondant fun...

2009-11-08T21:38:00.000+13:00

Well after failing so badly last time at my fondant attempt I decided to wipe the slate clean and try it again, this time armed with the right sort of coloring and an easier design... little roses... I didnt really have any tools but found an amazingly simple way to create them! where? youtube of course :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzp3XfhUpQ4

I was super please at how they turned out even though they were not perfect I was surprised that they ended up even resembling roses on the first attempt :> the only real problem was that they took FOREVER.

I also tried another chocolate cupcake recipe with real chocolate in AND buttermilk and its definitely the best so far :) so anyway I topped 6 of these yummy cakes with baby pink icing and the fondant roses i made (which are sort of baby blue ish?!) and used the wilton star tip #18 to add a bit of fancy stuff around them.

And with the left over 6 cupcakes you ask?? I just decided to try out a two colored icing technique i have kinda been researching... didnt really turn out as well as i had hoped but there's always next time... they still look cute i think?!

I want to try this with another tip to get more of a ruffle effect... i was thinking orange and yellow to top some orange cupcakes i am going to try in preparation to sell at the markets :)

Anyway thats all for now, im exhausted after a pretty busy weekend

oh my gosh...

2009-11-06T13:05:00.002+13:00

I was on google images searching for pictures of an icing technique I want to master and I came across THESE...

They are cupcakes with american soft drink themed flavours... I thought they looked really yummy for supermarket style cupcakes, especially the orange crush ones!

Every once in awhile I thank god I don't live in america as I would probably start eating every treat available and add to their obesity statistics...

boom boom boom...

2009-11-06T11:26:00.001+13:00

had heaps of fun last night letting off fireworks and eating.... note to anyone interested in fire safety, do not stand a long firework with lots of power in a glass jar...... for some reason i thought that this would be sufficient in stabilizing the firework...

apparently not! it fell over and starting shooting and banging all over the garden..... we had to run inside, shut the door and watch in horror!

before we got into the explosives we ate good food! paris was mesmerized by the lemon cupcakes

my mum and paris

with the sweet reward... an empty case

After getting hours (well not literally) of entertainment from photographing the dog's desperation for a cupcake things got turned up a notch and the fireworks got underway! It was a shame that it was so wet
:( while we let them off the cheap neighbours opened their curtain slightly (as though they thought they were being secretive) and watched on.... buy your kids some fireworks misers! I made a point of not buying the fireworks from the warehouse this year and it paid off.. they were pretty impressive AND loud

todd the designated fireworks chief lighting the first ones

the results!

ALSO.... I am officially booked in for the Alexandra markets on Sunday the 22nd of November to sell my cupcakes! So I am just planning the assortment and numbers I am going to make.. its a bit tricky as I have no idea as to what sort of numbers they get through there but was thinking of trying to make 100-150 cupcakes!

What a mission! But it will be fun and I have enlisted Todd as my assistant... im sure he's wrapped :D

fireworks cupcakes didnt go off with a bang...

2009-11-05T08:52:00.002+13:00

Ok as described yesterday I was going to make two types of cupcakes for guy fawkes today, one batch of lemon and one batch of chocolate...

I made the lemon ones and decided to decorate them simply with a little purple heart, thinking I would unleash the fire work designs on the chocolate ones....... I didnt realise I had forgotten to buy another pack of eggs and some chocolate for them :( It was getting dark by the time it dawned on me that I wasn't prepared I didnt have the car last night and I was too scared to walk to the dairy .... (its hard being a girl)

So chocolate cupcakes were a no go.... I was going to put flat chocolate buttercream on then pipe on little red rockets and tnt barrels with little star decorations coming out .... like the sparks or whatever you would call them?!

Its so frustrating not having the right ingrediants!! Oh well the lemon ones turned out great and they taste amazing, I tried my first batch of lemon icing! I made normal buttercream and then added lemon juice from a fresh lemon, I was suprised as to how much it needed to give it flavour and ended up squeezing over half a lemon in there?!?!

The not so fireworks themed cupcakes...

AND in other news I made my own focaccia bread and then baked with olives, feta and balsamic carmalized onions (pretty wanky :P ) Bread is the sort of thing that I stress about before baking as its such a gamble in my mind and not to mention I had lost the last page of the photocopied recipe so didnt know how long to let it stand etc etc Anyway in the end it turned out well, it looks ok and hopefully will taste great?! Note for next time though, more toppings and less baking time... it looks a bit brown....

Here are the pics of before and after :>

As mentioned I have applied to have a table at kraft bomb but in the mean time I decided to take matters into my own hands and research Auckland markets! There is on at Alexandra raceway, sort of a farmers market deal, I gave them a ring and asked if there would be interested in cupcakes and they said yes! So just deciding on the final details (selling date, money :/ etc etc) but will let you know if it ends up happening! ALSO I was thinking I might need some business cards just incase I start a stall or just for general use... I didnt want to spend heaps designing one so just ordered some basic AS ones online but they were super cheap and hopefully will do the job....

Here's a preview... fits in with the whole owl blog theme hehe

Thats all for now <3

rockets are banned but not on my cupcakes....

2009-11-04T11:09:00.002+13:00

Fireworks night tomorrow night and I am off out to have a few snacks and let off some fireworks, I had planned to have a bigger soiree at home but the idea kinda fell through.

Am thinking of two styles of cupcakes I will make for tomorrow, defintely will make another batch of the lemon ones from Sunday as they were so good (and have cream cheese left)! I am going to attempt some lemon flavored icing for them and hopefully decorate them with firework-esque yellow stars and silver balls! The second will be chocolate, with plain chocolate icing... I am going to ice them flat and then try and do some firework designs on the top with an icing bag and decorations etc etc

I also decided to make some of the snacks myself! And being the serial organiser I am I pre made some mini samoas last night and put them in the freezer, they were pretty easy actually, just sauteed onion in some spices like cumin, chilli powder, curry powder etc etc and then added some water and carrots, kumara and potato... simmered it down and then put it in little puff pastry circles and closed them up....

Hopefully they taste good too....

Im gonna try making some focacia bread too tonight when I do my cupcakes, well if I can be bothered

Ill try post some pics of the cakes tonight when they are done :)

im krafty....

2009-11-03T10:51:00.000+13:00

Just made an application to have a table at the next Kraft Bomb in Grey Lynn at the end of the month....

Fingers crossed x

summer is pavlova .....

2009-11-02T21:44:00.002+13:00

My mum came over for dinner on Sunday so baked up a hearty lasagne and of course some cupcakes for dessert.

This weekend we had amazing weather and it was defintely ... or hopefully a sign of the impending summer... so what better way to help it get a move along? PAVLOVAS! These mean kiwi summer to me and I loooooove them.... especially covered in cream and strawberries... and sometimes if im feeling kinky... some kiwifruit!

So I made some lemon and cream cheese cupcakes which I have to say were the nicest cupcakes I have EVER tasted, I got the recipe from a women's weekly cook / bake book and they were sooo yum, I never knew that lemon rind could be so strong, the recipe called for 2 teaspoons (which I thought was nothing!) and they tasted so lemony!

The meringues were a different story, I copied a recipe from the womens weekly again and it had all sorts of witchery involved haha there was white vinegar, cornflour etc etc As I had never made meringues before I just went along with it....... They failed miserably, when I was trying to cool them they sank into flat messes and were a weird color.... so off to youtube i went to for take 2

and found this

how to make meringues video

all she used was sugar and egg whites (suits me!) and made a BIG point about slow baking at a LOW heat..... the women's weekly recipe had them at 100 degrees for 45 minutes?!?!? Anyway so I baked them for about an hour and a half and they came out perfect...... although not as white as I would like... not sure how to achieve this?

One thing I learnt is that they grow quite a bit in the oven and therefore I made them a bit big, next time I will put less on the tray and hopefully they will come out around the size of the top of a cupcake.

Once everything was cool I cut the tops off the cupcakes and removed them from their papers, put a tiny bit of cream on top to hold the pav in place, put the pav on and topped it with cream and strawberries!

Here are the pictures (unfortunately you can not really see the cupcake but its hiding beneath the pav!!)

Super cute website...

2009-10-30T19:25:00.003+13:00

Just discovered bakerella

a v. cute website with lots of rad baking tips and ideas ..... like these....

Thats all for now!

happy halloween... for tomorrow...

2009-10-30T17:07:00.005+13:00

Well I did my baking and icing and the cupcakes sold within 1/2 an hour! I have to admit I did stray from the plan.... but in the end they all turned out well, they were just for fun so didn't try too hard, check them out below

First up is 'It's a Hoot' cupcakes, cute owl cupcakes with oreo eyes, I got the idea off the net, i will search for the link and post it up soon....

I haven't posted a pic as I didnt get a good photo that did them justice! So yea, eyes are oreos, with beak and eye balls with m&ms, I used wilton tip #16 (star) for the feathers and brow :)

Secondly the scary faces....

I cut the eyes out of licorice allsorts with a small wilton round fondant cutter and just iced a dot on for an iris, cute little strips of licorice for the eyes and mouths, added half a white jelly bean to each for tooth :)

Thirdly! I got this idea off the wilton page, they are cute little count dracula cupcakes....

I used wilton tip #16 (star) and wilton tip #3 for the features, these were super easy to make and less fiddly than the others, didnt end up putting any fangs on as didnt have any white icing!

And last but not least, I iced some cupcakes in a pretty purple color with wilton tip #1M and decorated them with the left over allsorts and edible bats and spiders

These were just for fun so wont be adding them to my for sale lists :)

Thanks for reading xx

witches, ghosts, mummys.... i've been thinking of it ALL....

2009-10-28T22:14:00.001+13:00

My mind has been going crazy over the last few days trying to finally decide on what to bake for the masses at my work for the promsied Halloween bake sale! I bought a ghost cookie cutter at one stage with big dreams of using that but I honestly think I am just going to stick with the cupcakes, if I make the cookies tomorrow (which is going to be the baking day before selling them on Friday) then I have no idea if they will stay fresh or how they will look so Im eliminating the stress and just sticking the cakes!

This is my final decision....I am putting it in this blog so I have DIRECTION and stick to the final plan

Count Dracula Cupcakes
Scary Face Cupcakes
Spiderweb Cupcakes

and maybe just some crazy colored ones (orange and black?) if I can bothered

I guess I will post some pictures tomorrow or Friday once they have all been done!

Wish me good luck!

Go Bananas...

2009-10-26T23:15:00.002+13:00

Well I havent been as productive as I promised over this loooong weekend, amongst going to armageddon, enjoying copious amounts of lindaeur that was unfortunately on special for $8.99, watching far too many episodes of rock of love 2 ( I now know who won so can sleep easy) and sleeping I only mananged to make one batch of cupcakes...

In saying that though I think they turned out well! I used Martha Stewarts' Banana Pecan Cupcakes recipe but omitted the caramel buttercream and just went with my standard buttercream and put a tiny dash of yellow food coloring in (to stay with the banana theme)... I used my new favourite tip the 1M

For the toppings I made a little banana split-esque topper with candy bananas and mini marshmallows

and then melted some dark chocolate and poured it over like chocolate sauce, finally topping it with some chopped nuts and little chocolate sprinkles!

Think they look pretty cute and they taste super yum! Check them out on flickr or facebook (links to the left) as they have now been added to my order list :)

The weekend has landed...

2009-10-23T15:01:00.003+13:00

Well after a long week of 7am starts the weekend is about to begin.... and after many non work filled hours at my desk I have made a final decision on the cupcakes for the weekend!

As stated earlier I am going to trial some cute Count Dracula cupcakes from the Wilton website for Halloween... and after browsing Martha's book Im going to try Banana Pecan Cupcakes ! Yum!! They look nicer in the book actually.... Im not a fan of the raw banana slices sitting on the top shown on the website! I am going to alter the top a bit, I am going to use a light yellow buttercream and then stack it with cute toppings that resemble a banana split! Banana lollies, mini marshmallows and melted chocolate etc!

Fingers crossed...... Will probably get onto these on Sunday as I am off to Armageddon tomorrow!
Pix will be posted and hopefully if they are yummy enough, they will be available to order

Oh and the consensus re: lemon or apple was lemon! So after I have gotten through this weekend lemon cupcakes will definately be on the cards.... Thanks Suzi for opening my eyes to the simple idea of 'lemon juice' haha

Martha Stewart...

2009-10-22T20:49:00.002+13:00

I found the most amazing cupcake book today at the library! Usually they have a few recipes and some ok ideas for decorating but this is page after page of delicious recipes and decorating! Its Called Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

I was sent over the edge with this book! I have added so many of the recipes to my ever growing list of 'cupcakes to try'....I usually just photocopy a few of the recipes from books I get from the library but I think I am going to have to buy this one!

There is one for banana pecan cupcakes which look ******* amazing! oh god help me!

She has some of the recipes on her website which I might use until I have a spare $50 lying around for the book!!

Click here to have a look and if you make any i'd love to see the pics, you can post them on my facebook group page (link on the left) !

Flickr...

2009-10-22T09:28:00.003+13:00

Well if involving blogspot, facebook and emails wasn't enough to promote my cupcakes, I have now started up a flickr account as well :>

The link is on the side of the page or just click here!

Has all my prices and details.... It's also rad cos I can make 'sets' to display cupcake dozens that include more than one design

At work drinking V and dreaming of the long weekend and the baking it holds

The search for the perfect chocolate cupcake!

2009-10-20T23:19:00.003+13:00

Looking through multiple chocolate cupcake recipes I finally found one that makes them moist and yummy! It seems to come down to the addition of buttermilk... the one I decided on is on one of my favourite treat blogs the frosted cake n cookie!

So usually I do a new set of cupcakes every weekend and this week I used my new found recipe to create some super yummy chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter cream on top, I have a new icing tip with is the 1M, which gives a really nice full swirl! Yum!

They have now been added to my collection for order, they are a great simple cupcake which I think would be good for any occasion, they look great in the metallic cases, which I think I am gonna use more of as they don't go oily in once the cupcakes are baked!

I also tried fondant for the first time and made a fatal mistake, I added liquid food coloring ...... this makes it sticky and practically un usuable! I was about to throw in the towel for good but after research online (which I should have done before I started) I learned that using gel paste coloring is best... So may give it another go

BUT this weekend is for a trial run of some Halloween cupcakes! On the 29th of Oct I have promised that I will sell some treats at my work....

I was thinking Count Dracula cupcakes (this is what I may trial this weekend), Spider web cupcakes and other scary treats! Keep an eye out for the pics as you might want to order some!

I also am keen to try out some more flavoured cupcakes after success with carrot cupcakes, Im thinking lemon or apple.... which would be nicer? thoughts?