White and pink present cake

Just finished making this cake. I had every intention of making the 'ribbon' in pink and yellow, but it started to look like a baby shower cake! Also wanted to do something a bit different with the pom pom bow so put a black rose in the middle :) This is one of my favourite cakes that I have made so far! Absolutely love it!

My first attempt at chocolate panels

Can't say I'm the master at it yet. But looking forward to trying it again!

Red Angry Birds Cake

It must be birthday season! I feel all that I have done over the past few months is bake cake after cake after cake! After I uploaded the photo of the angry birds cake last weekend, I got a big request for a work friends son's birthday this weekend. Still need to add the finishing touches. But I think it's looking great so far!

Angry Birds Cake

Hi all :)

Check out this Angry birds cake that I made for my cousin's 5th birthday! I had lots of good feedback on the birds and piggies from my friends. Thanks Bake Happy for the tutorial on how to make angry birds. The link can be found here!

Baby rump cake

This is the baby rump cake I made for my friend Tessa's baby shower on Sunday
To get the baby bottom, legs and feet I used my 3D ball pans. With one of the ball halves, I cut out two banana shapes and two peanut shapes for the legs and feet.

Wild animal 21st cake

This is the cake I made for my sisters 21st party :) The top cake is white chocolate mudcake and the bottom is dark chocolate. I had quite a lot of fun making it, and surprisingly wasn't that hard!

Half girl / Half boy cake

Hi again :)
Today I made a mudcake for a girl who's turning 14 and a boy turning 13... Now I haven't had much experience when it comes to shared birthdays... YET! (Eva's 1st birthday next year is on the same day as her Aunty Mikayla's) And I did think sharing a cake isn't much fun. But having two cakes and not enough people to eat it isn't fun either! So I did half n half. I had lots of fun playing with my rose cutters last night. I have to say, they look so much better than the ones I used to make. And on the other side I did a full fondant rockstar theme!
If you want to know how to make the guitar I got the tutorial from: http://thepinkrubycakes.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/how-to-make-a-fondant-guitar/
Looks delicious! Can't decide which side I would want to eat... A slice of each perhaps? :P

Birthday cakes

Haven't posted in a wee while as I haven't made any cupcakes! However have had a lot of requests for birthday cakes so I may as well share what I have been up to :)

Pinata cake made for Mr 5's birthday party... Super fun to make and even more fun watching the kids freaking out wondering why he was about to throw a hammer at it!...

 Sitting safely in the fridge...

Pinata cake

The Aftermath of a pinata cake

I have also made two attempts at ombre cakes tonight. I was meant to make one, but I love getting a phone call from my lovely DP saying 'What's for dinner? Also that cake was YUM'. So I had to make another. Grr

Purple Ombre Mudcake

Here's my second attempt...

Purple Rose Ombre Mudcake

Cupcake rant

One thing I find difficult is not eating what I bake, so I have taken a couple of weeks off to focus on healthy eating and exercise. It is SOOOO hard. All I think about it sugary food. I have baking chocolate in the cupboard, and all sorts of lollies that I'm not allowed to touch! I've also discovered this week that TV adverts DO work! Cadbury chocolate ad came on last night, and I NEEDED it instantly. Ohmygosh I just can't get over it. I AM ADDICTED.
On a cupcake note however, Eva, my mum and I went to Christchurch a couple of weeks ago and I found 'The Cupcake Collection' at Westfield Riccarton. Their kiosk was TINY. But the girls said they make everything on site, and they had dozens of different flavours. Made me realise that I could do this! Yet I still have no idea where I should start... Do I want a massive shop or a cute little kiosk?

I couldn't help myself and had to buy two of their cupcakes... Hokey pokey and chocolate. YUM YUM!

A few fun themes are coming up really quick too. My sisters birthday party on the 20th. Thinking of doing a wild animal theme. 31st is HALLOWEEN! And in a couple of months Christmas! I have pre-ordered some really cool Christmas themed cupcake soaps from ilovesoap.co.nz...
CAN'T WAIT TO GET MY HANDS ON THEM :)
Will try post some baking soon, when I have some motivation. Is there such thing as cupcake block? [like writers block?] haha

Girly girl chocolate cupcakes

Today I have made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and dark chocolate flavoured fondant blossoms :) Yep, still obsessed with my new blossom plungers hehe!

 

Spring theme cupcakes

The weather was so nice! (To look at from my window, it's still pretty cold outside!) So I was inspired to make some spring themed cupcakes for my mum, who is going on a trip down to Napier for a few days... Always should have snack food available on your travels right?!

Suicide Prevention Day Cupcakes

Hello everyone!

My friend Amanda requested cupcakes for Suicide Prevention Day 3 different flavours, 95 in total... Wishing I had bigger boxes!

Chocolate Cupcakes with dark chocolate ganache frosting

Happy Wednesday!

Had a request for some yummy cupcakes today so I quickly put together a batch of chocolate cupcakes :) I had made the ganache last night, and popped it in the fridge for it too cool down overnight, ready for piping.

Recipe for the cupcakes:

Serves 12

Ingredients

CAKE
100g butter
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup Cadbury® Bournville® Cocoa
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ cup milk

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

340g chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

optional 3 tbsp flavoured liquer

Method

1.      Preheat oven to 180ºC conventional or 160ºC fan forced.

2.      Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy. Gradually add eggs and mix until just combined.

3.      Sift flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda. Add to creamed mixture with milk. Stir until just combined.

4.      Spoon into greased 1/3 cup muffin pans and bake for 15-20 minutes. Spread tops of cakes with chocolate butter cream.

5.      To make the chocolate ganache.. Place chocolate pieces in a large bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium high until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until completely mixed and glossy. For piping or frosting, allow the ganache to completely cool and set up. When you are able to spoon the ganache and it can hold its texture, it is ready for piping.

I also filled the centers with caramel filling :) reminds me of caramello chocolate. 

YUUUUMMY! 

You can buy this stuff online at www.homestylechocolates.co.nz or can be found in the baking aisle at Spotlight.

Baby shower cupcakes

This is my first attempt at making sleeping babies with fondant :) I found these were super easy and quick to make and got to use my quilting embosser which hasn't been used in a while! What do you think?

Hope you have a great weekend. I'm spending my Friday night cleaning up the spilled container of non-pareils :(

SPCA Cupcake Day 2012

SPCA Cupcake Day was a hit! I am so indecisive, and changed my mind. Didn't end up using my chocolate butterflies in the end... But 72 cupcakes, 6 different flavours and 36 fondant animals ALL GONE in an hour. I am so pleased, last year I only made 24...

BIG shout out to my lovely partner Kerry who so kindly looked after Eva for the day while I did my thing, and to my new friend Shannon who helped me make the cutest little animals! I'm thinking I could totally re-use the idea for a kids birthday party!

Sorry for the stink quality photos also. I reeeally would love an SLR camera for Christmas this year (hint hint!) hehe would have loved to get some great pictures of these with some natural lighting, but the three businesses I went to all wanted the cupcakes before morning tea! So was up and out the door by 9am.

Busy busy weekend ahead!

SPCA Cupcake day on Monday 27th August is coming up really quickly! And finding time to bake one batch of cupcakes can be difficult with looking after a four month old baby, let alone ten batches. So I am spending my Friday night having a go at chocolate lattice.

These are some of the first ones I made. Dark chocolate is my favourite, but I found making these were far to easy... so turned up the difficulty level and made some butterflies out of white chocolate... What do you think? I'm pretty proud of my first attempt hehe and extra pleased that the chocolate stayed runny until my sixth attempt... feels like a race against time when working with melted chocolate!

I used a wilton tip #1 for the butterflies, and piped the wings in random designs (you may notice they don't match) Fingers crossed these don't break when I put them together!

Cupcakes for Mikayla

My sister Mikayla came over this morning to learn some icing tricks, so we pulled out the mixing bowls and whipped up a batch of chocolate chip & mini vanilla cupcakes. The chocolate cupcakes were so soft and delicious, I definitely plan to make these again!

Cupcakes for Danny

Last night, I made these for a family friend's work morning tea. The pink and white ones are vanilla and marshmallow, the pink and purple ones are dark chocolate and mixed berry.
They have vanilla buttercream, I had made almond buttercream for the berry cupcakes but WHAT A FAIL. It tasted weird so I couldn't use it (maybe I just don't like almond?), and I had run out of icing sugar. At 11pm all the supermarkets were closed and the petrol stations didn't have any :( So had to get up bright and early to finish icing them. DISASTER!
I picked up the flowers from my favourite flower shop down the road, Amy's Flowers. I absolutely love fresh flowers in my house!

Vanilla cupcakes for Cheryl

Today I decorated these vanilla cupcakes similar to the red velvet ones I made on Friday. My mumma Cheryl wanted these for her good friend Hayley's birthday. I am obsessed with vanilla cupcakes. They might seem plain but they really hit the spot when I need a sugar fix. Yum!
My favourite recipe which I have used so many times is from the website vanillacupcakes.co.nz

Red velvet cupcakes for Emma

I made these red velvet cupcakes for Emma's birthday on Friday. They looked so delicious, I could have eaten them all! I find it really difficult to keep myself from eating the food I make. It definately helps to have peppermint chewing gum to get rid of the urge!