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!

more christmas cheer

My last order for the year (that I know of) - it's been a very busy last few weeks! All that sampling along the way doesn't count right? ;)

More christmas themed cupcakes - a mix of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. These candy canes were easier to unwrap.

Why do miniature things always look cute? Baby animals, cupcakes, these baby candy canes...?

I like how the icing colours interspersed, especially with the hints of colour on the piped edges, I will try to play with this idea more.

it's the silly season

Yes, it's that time of year! I still seem stuck on perfecting the xmas cupcake and trying to make it look as festive as possible! This is my first attempt this year and at first I wasn't quite sure about it at first, but I think I quite like it - the glitter and white sprinkles make all the difference!

The cupcakes are chocolate (my favourite recipe from a Family Circle book) - the cake is so soft and moist... mmmm. I covered them with a bit of chocolate ganache and then piped on the attempted festive colours!

The candy canes... ahhh the candy canes. Work has been very busy and rather taxing mentally atm so I had not had enough chance to pre-plan candy cane purchase or thinking the logistics of it. I was at coles when I remembered I needed xmas decorations! I bought these candy canes... when it came to decorating I discovered the candy canes had been shrinkwrapped - ie very fiddly unwrapping every candy cane!

My next batch I have already purchase candy canes that are simply in a plastic bag and not requiring as much effort to unwrap.

I have another cupcake order and that is all for this year (that I know of!). It's been very draining these last few weeks with so many orders but at the same time I've loved the challenged - I've learnt lots of little efficiency tips (make the IMBC in advance!) and I feel my decorating is improving heaps... bring on 2009 and all the baking and decorating challenges in store.

playtime

spare cupcakes + leftover icing + energy = playtime!

I had some leftover cupcakes and thought I'd try some different piping ideas. I must say I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!

giant cupcake take 2

The reason I purchased the wilton giant cupcake mold was to make a 1st birthday cake for Audrey - my sister's good friends' daughter (now that was a mouthful!)

I am glad I had played around with using it a few times beforehand as there were some tricks to using the mold to ensure both the top and bottom cooked evenly.

I bought the cupcake liners and thought it would be cute to have the giant cupcake to kind of look like the normal sized cupcakes. I wasn't too pleased with the final result (mind it was 3am by that stage!) and thought it looked a bit too amateurish, but when my sister saw it she said it looked great. I hope Jenny+Audrey loved the cake too.

The giant cupcake is another choc vanilla marble cake - I used the Nigella Victoria sponge recipe which I think produced a tastier cake. The cupcakes are a mix of vanilla with lemon curd filling (mmmm) and the banana, walnut, pineapple ones (double mmmm)

biscuits

I had an order for 20 boxes of biscuits to give away as gifts. I decided on making gingerbread, passionfruit shortbread and granny boyd. However for some reason I didn't get the same result on the granny boyds as I have made in the past!

The gingerbread and shortbread turned out very yummy :) I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the biscuits (I am making more shortly so I will take pics then) but I took a pic of the boxes as I think they look very nice :)

more cupcakes

I got an order from my sister to make some cupcakes to take to her work for a morning tea. I have difficulties saying no to such requests (even though my week was scheduled to be extremely busy already!)

Cupcakes don't actually take that long to bake and decorate (provided you are prepared!) I had fun making and decorating these.

I made two batches - banana, pineapple+walnut (called St Lucia Banana cake in my cake book) and Nigella's Nutella cake. The banana cake called for a cream cheese icing which was fantastic to work with piping wise, I love how it was the right consistency to leave a nice pointy tip when finishing off a swirl.

The Nutella ones are covered with a chocolate ganache. The green icing is italian meringue buttercream. I bought myself a candy thermometor (awesome!!! fun times ahead :D) and decided to try IMBC and had much success, I think I will make this instead of swiss meringue buttercream from now.