Little Bird are a company who share an office with Found, where my sister works. One of their little birds, Rhianon, is flying the nest this week and so these cupcakes are a farewell to her. When I agreed to make these cupcakes I was unsure of what I was going to do. I pretty much instantly fell in love with the logo and colour combo of the company. It’s just so darn cute. So that was my starting point. But, it wasn’t until I sat down with a pile of fondant icing, some cutters and their website up in front of me that it all came together. The turquoise and brown together is quite striking but to me is softened by the scalloped topper, simple bird and flower. I opted for chocolate cake to keep with the colours and turquoise vanilla frosting. I hope she has a brilliant last day and enjoys her cupcakes!
When I was at university my friend Astrid made similar butterfly cupcakes using the Hello, Cupcake! book. I remember thinking how amazing they looked and knew I wanted to give it a go myself one day. I found the perfect opportunity to make them this week for Heeral, my sister’s work bestie, who is leaving. The hardest part about making the butterflies was working quickly before the chocolate and candy set, it took a few tries to get my timings right. I placed the wings on to vanilla cupcakes topped with raspberry jam frosting. I decided to leave out the body and antenna and go for a more minimal look, they kind of remind me of those butterfly cupcakes you make when you are little where you make the wings with the top of the cupcake. I hope she likes them! x
So for the past few weeks everywhere I look online I’ve seen posts and pictures of creme egg brownies. It’s Easter. They are having a moment. Today I decided I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. I used this recipe which is the main one that has been circulating. Ok yes, that picture looks delicious, yes it’s a great idea and yes I totally want to hear more about that cake tin divider, but the recipe is what I was most interested in. Seeing as the world and their mother (/boyfriend /girlfriend /5 year old /dog) has made them I figured it had to be a good one. I have to say I was somewhat let down. Sure, the batter was smooth and looked great, but it didn’t really bake properly. I’m a big fan of the dense gooey brownie but this was a little too much. I even put it back in the oven a few times. If I was going to do it again, using this recipe I would leave it to initially bake longer than the suggested 15 minutes before putting the creme eggs on. I would also extend the baking time in general for at least another 15 minutes if not 20. Definitely let them cool completely before cutting in to them. Another thing I would recommend doing when making these, is to put the creme eggs in the freezer for a couple of hours before using them as this makes them easier to cut in half. It also helps the eggs to keep their shape when baking. I might try them again before Easter, but maybe use a different brownie recipe. Although slightly disappointing it doesn’t mean I still won’t be eating these with a glass of milk later.
I was really pleased when Ginetta from Graphic Express asked me to make some cupcakes for BNI Elmbridge. BNI is a business networking organisation that meet once a week to exchange business leads, share their business experience and have breakfast. Sounds good right. I made these yummy cupcakes topped with the BNI logo in vanilla and chocolate with Nutella frosting. I hope they liked them and all have a successful day of business today, fuelled by cupcakes.
These cupcakes are for a guy called Keith at my sister’s work who is leaving. He’s such a lovely guy who has been at Found the longest out of anyone and I’m sure is gonna be majorly missed. I used gold foil cases and made both vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, because I never know which people prefer. For the toppers I did this funny little bear drawing by hand, scanned it in to the computer and coloured him. Then I had the image made in to cake toppers. Let me explain the drawing…I’ve always liked doing funny animal drawings, they kind of really amuse me. So as Keith plays the ukulele and they are so tiny I chose a big bear to exaggerate this. He also does KaraUke. Yep that’s right karaoke to ukulele. Yep awesome. We should all go. Don’t worry, I’m aware that this is totally not a normal cake to give someone, but I think its kinda cute and I hope he likes it!
I like to think that the people I love already know how much I love them. But in my opinion you can never go too wrong with giving people cake to show them just how much.This is a really simple easy cake which combines two Valentines classics, strawberry and chocolate. It’s a marble cake with part chocolate and part pink vanilla sponge, topped with fresh strawberry frosting. To decorate I sprinkled some edible rose petals. It has a lighter feel than your normal Valentine sweet treat and I will definitely be sitting down to a cup of tea and slice of this with loved ones on Thursday.
The main reason my sister bought me the Bake it in a Cake book was for this pancake cupcake recipe. I started by making mini pancakes, some with blueberries and some with chocolate chips. I then placed them on top of vanilla cupcake batter and baked them so they were set on top of the cupcake. They were delicious with maple syrup and crispy bacon and I will definitely be eating these as well as large quantity of my Mum’s pancakes. Happy Pancake Day!
This week my sister came home with the Bake it in a Cake book for me. It was such a lovely surprise and after one flick through the book, I knew I wanted to make this recipe for my Dad’s birthday cake. My Dad loves cherry pies (I made him one here) so I knew he would love to find one inside his cake. I scaled the recipe up to birthday size and used a cherry pie enough for two people so it would fit in the cake tin. If I had more time I would have made my own, but this one worked well and stayed intact inside the cake. I kind of expected the pie to sink but when he cut it it was perfectly suspended inside. I really didn’t know what to expect when making this cake and watched the oven the whole time it was in there, half waiting for it to explode. The only problems I had were that it slightly sank at the top and the cake was a tiny bit less baked around the pie. However, it tasted delicious and the frosting was amazing. It was vanilla, but flavoured using the pod instead of essence which gave it a lovely taste, almost like custard, and cute black freckles. Wanting to keep the outside simple and not give away the inside I chose to follow this tutorial and create scalloped sides which was simple to do and gave it a neat finish. Dad loved his birthday cake and I loved seeing his face when he saw the hidden pie. Happy Birthday to the best Dad x
Melbourne was full of great food. But they don’t half make you work for it. You can’t really book anywhere so you have to be prepared to wait a bit (one place we went to said we could be seated at 9:30…it was 6:15!). Also everything seemed to be tucked away (certainly to a non-local), with cool bars on rooftops and under bridges. But the city is crammed full of brilliant places to eat and drink and I loved how centred around food Melbourne was and how serious they seemed to be about it too. We ventured to loads of different places and even managed to fit in an afternoon tea! Read the rest of this entry »
To counter how much cake I consume I go to Cobham Pilates a few times a week. It’s such a great place filled with fun, laughter and agonising hamstring stretches. Right from the start everyone there has been so welcoming and I can’t imagine my life without it now. To say thank you and wish everyone a Merry Christmas I made these vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. On them I had printed a Christmas message and everyone’s favourite Pilates bear wearing a santa hat. Merry Christmas Cobham Pilates! x
