bday cupcakes nom nom nom

Going through lots of life changes atm and dedicating more time to pole these days... even contemplating entering comps for the fun, experience and hell of it!!! Never thought I'd see the day.

My birthday coincided with Vietnamese/Lunar New Year so I had more incentive to bake some bday items. These were a bit rushed but still delish nonetheless.

These are chocolate cupcakes - devils cake recipe from my Hummingbird cafe cookbook. I put a dollop of chocolate ganache in the cupcake.



These are a vanilla buttercake (made with ground almonds), filled with lemon curd.



Oh and that is persian fairy floss on top - so pretty and tastes lovely.

Both are topped with white chocolate italian meringue buttercream, YUM

chocolate gooey stack

This is what the recipe is called in Nigella Lawson's How to be a domestic goddess. I made this for a family dinner I went to. It's essentially 3 layers of chocolate meringue, sandwiched and covered with a chocolate creme patisserie (transalation - 3 layers of YUM sandwiched and covered with more chocolate YUM)

OK yes I can see it's kinda collapsing, sliding into a heap of YUMNESS hehe. You try to make 3 flattish even sized meringues!

I topped this with strawberries as I love chocolate and strawberry... mmm nom nom

quick bday cupcakes

I made these vanilla cupcakes with lemon icing for a friends' birthday. I love how cupcakes are so quick to whip up.



I also like using the smaller size cupcake liners, although it does tend to mean you eat more of them!

brownies - another recipe

I received the hummingbird cafe book as a birthday gift from my lovely friends in the UK and there are some mighty yummy looking recipes in there. Had some girlfriends coming over for a fun fun night of dress ups gangsters and flappers style so thought I'd make some treats to munch on.

I'm not 100% convinced on this recipe - they aren't cakey at all and when I had to remove them from the tray they were very crumbly, flakey and I guess didn't quite hold their shape (eg edges, corners crumbling away). I put them in the fridge and this helped to firm them up... so maybe I was just being impatient trying to get them from oven tray to plate!



Anyway they do taste quite nice and very rich :)

Funnily enough I took some brownies and the cherry+frangipane tart to my parents place and everyone seemed to prefer the tart!

cherry and frangipane tart

I'm still feeling rusty with my baking but it's nice that I'm getting back into the groove and also getting to try all the new recipes from the numerous fantastic baking books I received this year!

I got the call from my mum to make something for fathers day... had some options but she requested something with fruit - so with that in mind and a mental run through of the ingredients I had on hand I decided on this. The recipe actually is for raspberry and frangipane but I'd been reading other recipes that have combined cherry and frangipane.

BTW frangipane is like an sweet almond filling used in tarts - yum not overly sweet too.

green tea cupcakes

I made these a while ago as well, I think I put too much green tea powder - whilst they tasted ok it was slightly more bitter than I would have liked... I do quite like making green tea cupcakes though. Tastes lovely with chocolate icing.

get your bake on!

wow - March!

Life has been crazy and draining these last almost 6 months... work has almost zapped my will to live, plus pole was taking up creativity (after dropping it for 4 months last year I kind of went class crazy earlier this year). Too hard to keep up both actively so pursuing pole more - more impressive doing the splits ;)



So I have baked the odd thing here and there - banana bread, date scones, sticky date pudding, wagon wheels (YUMMM yes home made wagon wheels!) I haven't had a chance to dedicate to serious decorating and no photos :(

I made some cupcakes the other week for week 8 pole and for my family - just plain chocolate and vanilla. The icing was absolutely delish - baileys (lots of it!) or pandan... nom nom

cake cut outs

I was getting a bit over making cupcakes all the time so wanted to play with making miniature cakes by cutting them or making individual portions.

I made Nigella's chocolate loaf cake (which is a divine recipe!) but poured into a shallow tray and then used cookie cutters to cut these shapes out.

A bit more effort than cupcakes but I like the effect.

birthday cupcakes

My birthday called for extra special cupcakes of course! I whipped up 2 batches, mainly because I am indecisive and I like to put more pressure on myself than I need to, haha



These are an almond sponge cake topped with cream cheese icing. Topped with pretty raspberries and white chocolate curls - which were tricky initially but eventually I got the hang of it. White chocolate melts quite easily at room temperature due to high fat content (I think) so it was tricky shaving (chocolate has to be at the "right" temperature to curl right) and then transporting to the cake. I got there for the most part!



The second batch are choc cherry cupcakes, topped with chocolate italian meringue buttercream. This is my new favourite chocolate icing - it's much easier to handle than chocolate ganache and tastes absolutely divine!!! Ganache can be a bit tricky with getting the right temperature to pipe and then I worry I will overbeat due to the cream content. The chocolate IMBC you just melt the chocolate into the cream, let to set. If it gets too hard, beat again!

Unfortunately I didn't get to try these however I was assured they tasted good! I love the maraschino cherries with their stem!

random chocolate cupcakes

I had an order for baby shower cupcakes so whipped these up





My favourite chocolate cake recipe topped with piped chocolate ganache and jumbo confetti, so cute!

whoops, life took over

No posts <> no baking

So many christmas orders and I got a little creatively drained. Also I started up pole again this year (yippee!) and went a bit crazy with my class schedules, so my mindset was elsewhere :)

I have had some baking expeditions, mind not much but I will post about those shortly!

at the last minute

I have issues saying no - I somehow sometimes feel like I am missing out if I'm asked to do something and don't do it! So my sister asked me to make some cupcakes to take to a BBQ she was going to.

I think my creativity tank is at a low, these look ok but I guess they were just practise as such :)

Cupcakes were vanilla topped with italian meringue buttercream. The cakes were delish btw :D

christmas gifts, I can't resist

Just as I finished my last baking order I had in the back of my mind the desire to give my team at work some cute christmas gifts. So up I got on Sunday morning (the only free time I had) - 2 days after I was rejoicing at no more orders - and whipped these up.

I'm not sure how normal/abnormal my mind is but I find myself having random thoughts about how I can make a new dessert or decorate a cake/cupcake/sweet... more frequently lately. I guess it's good to have those ideas floating around... as it takes a bit of the pressure off when I do actually need to make something!

I love love love making beautiful creations (edible ones at that!), but I think some of the stress with my orders comes with the pressure I put myself under. The pressure to make something stunning/amazing/perfect. I feel sorely disappointed if they don't give me a wow factor or if they don't turn out how I envisage them... So it's not exactly baking for baking sake, but baking to make something visually stunning.

Ahhh challenges... but I digress.

So I made these babies for my workmates/immediate team at work. I didn't take pictures of the packaged products but I do love making presents - wrapping in ribbon, little touches and decorations to make them look special. I hope they enjoyed them!

These are chocolate cupcakes covered in white chocolate ganache. Topped with italian meringue buttercream and a choc dipped strawberry - yum!