Wednesday 26 September 2012

Time


So its been ages since I last blogged! I cant believe it, I was so excited when I first started blogging, I mean I still am, but its so hard to find the time. So I have recently vowed to dedicate more time to blog at least once a week.

I have baked so much in the last few months and every time I bake I almost always take photos and tell myself I'm going to write about it, but it just never seems to happen.

I have even been convincing a fellow baker friend of mine to also start a blog about her baking journey, and she has two kids and works part time! So I figure if I can convince her to find the time to start blogging then I should definitely be putting more effort in myself.

So here's to a future filled with cupcakes and blogging :D



Sunday 13 May 2012

Oreolicious!

So I have wanted to bake some Oreo cupcakes for a while now and finally got around to it last week, and the Oreo's were even on special at Woolworths, Awesome! it was definitely a sign for me to bake :)
I found a recipe online from a fellow blogger, looked like the best and easiest one out there http://www.bakerella.com/cookies-and-cream-cupcakes/

The recipe was a little different to normal especially with adding hot water, Ive never baked cupcakes that have added water. So the mixture was quite runny, but she said to expect that so I didn't worry too much 


The rest was quite normal. So you can add your Oreo's in a few different ways, either twist and split the Oreo and add half to the bottom of the tray with the cream side up, or crush them up a bit and add them in ...



I was going to grab the traditional Oreo's but ended up getting the strawberry and double choc ones, just to make things a little different. You could also use the mini oreo's, it's up to you what you want to do. 



     So you pour the mixture in and bake and then come out looking like this ...


Delish! Now to the frosting ...
You can use shortening to make the frosting white to add to the whole 'oreoness' of the cupcake, but I just did normal buttercream frosting and added white icing colour. I found it in a Kitchen shop the other day and its great! As the name states its white colour, its done by Wilton so you can prob check it out at http://www.wilton.com/ and find out what shops near you have it. They say don't add too much otherwise it changes the flavour of the frosting, but I didn't seem to notice any difference, but you do need to use a lot of it to get it quite white. So just normal frosting, then add crushed up bits of oreo biscuits (the other half of the ones you added to the bottom of the cupcake) Tip: make sure the oreo crumbs are just that, crumbs! with no little chunky bits in there. As if you don't crush them properly they will get stuck in your frosting tip and your frosting wont come out! I learnt that the hard way unfortunately haha
Then you can decorate however you like, I kept it simple and simply added mini oreo's on top ... 




Mmmm delish! Cant wait to bake these again!

Monday 7 May 2012

Bitesize ...


So I was out shopping the other night and I found this great little book, in a ladies clothes shop, of all places!

I had a quick flick through it and found something I wanted to make on every page ...


Raspberry cupcakes with white chocolate ganache


Vanilla whoopie pies with white choc chips


Mini coconut cakes


Black velvet whoopie pies


Hibiscus vodka pops

I have never even made macaroons or 'whoopie pies' pies before but they look delish! Has anyone made macaroons before? What tips woud you give me?

Wednesday 25 April 2012

I scream! U scream! Ice cream!

Yes, that's right, my second post on my blog and it's not even about cupcakes! Shame on me! Lol

So the other day at work our 'caretaker' guy person said he was cleaning out our staff fridge/freezers, so we all cleared out our leftovers and lunches etc. The next day I walk into work and put my lunch in the now sparkling clean fridge only to find this on the top shelf ...

Firstly what is an icecream cake doing in the FRIDGE?! Silly man! Secondly I had completely forgotten about it! I made it for one of my managers a few months ago, (yes thats right I did say a few months ago, it was in the freezer so it was still ok to eat) as it was her bday and I had promised her all summer that I would make her this fab icecream cake that she used to always have as a kid. Anyway she gave me this recipe from I think a Aust Women's Weekly book, honestly I can't really remember I just took it and said 'yeah, yeah, I'll make it for you one day' hahaha

Turns out its actually super easy to make and tastes delicious, perfect on a hot summers day!

All you do is buy a big tub of vanilla icecream, one of those 4L ones then thaw it out a little, just so it's soft, but not completely melted and runny. Then you add anything you want! So I added custard, raspberries (frozen or fresh, either is fine) pistachio nuts (gave it a nice crunch), Turkish delight, preferably the authentic stuff (the ones coated in icing sugar, yum!) but if not the chocolate ones are fine too. Then you just mix it all together then pour it into one of those spring lock cake tins (the ones that are good to use for cheesecakes) then chuck it back in the freezer and freeze overnight and that's it. You can add more stuff on top when u serve it up, just to make it look pretty, but that's it, I did tell u it was super easy right. And this should be the end result ...

So, has anyone else made an icecream cake before? What did u put in ures?

Tuesday 17 April 2012

So ... where to start!


I have been thinking about doing a blog for all my cupcake baking adventures but have just been lazy and not got around it until the other day when a fellow baker friend that I havent spoken to in awhile encouraged me to get into it (thanks Simone!)


The story so far ...


I have been baking for a year or so now, it just sort of all 'happened' as things do. Much to my mothers disappointment I dont have a natural knack for cooking, despite being a girl, her only daughter and having three brothers who are all able to cook perfectly well! (I would never admit that to them so hopefully they dont read this!) However I always loved to bake muffins when I was younger and I managed to not screw it up. So every now and then I would whip up a batch. A close friend then gave me a Cupcake book (Cupcakes by Susannah Blake) for my 22nd birthday and I guess this was just the beginning of my cupcake baking adventure. From then on I started to bake more often and to try different flavours, styles, icings etc 





 Then for Christmas, my boyfriend at the time gave me an awesome gift! A cupcake baking class with Babycakes www.babycakes.net.au. This class really opened my eyes up to the world of cupcakes and some of the amazing things you are able to do. 





From then on I started to get some equipment and more creative ingredients to bake with e.g glitter, food colourings etc and since then I havent looked back!