Family Fun Baking!

Well I finally did my first big order..and definitely learnt alot! like it took double the amount of time in total to make them all then I originally thought and quoted for, and I didn't really make any profit! If you want snazzy cupcakes then you've got to be prepared to pay alot! and I don't really think people would be wanting to pay the kind of prices I'd have to charge to make a profit so I guess that was the beginning..and end of my fantastic cupcake venture! Thank goodness too for my family who all joined in and helped..we had a good little assembly line going so that made it easier and alot more fun and I didn't really get as stressed out as I usually do when baking!!!




It was for a triple celebration for a lady who works with my Mom. The bottom layer was for her mother's 81st birthday, the middle layer was for her husband's 5oth birthday and the top layers were for their 25th wedding anniversary (hence the hearts) so she was having a big party to celebrate all three occasions and wanted the cupcakes to be the talking point! Here they all are:
Purple buttercream decorated with silver balls:

Lilac buttercream with white fondant hearts and writing icing gel spelling 50:

Purple buttercream with a white fondant heart covered in silver shimmer dust and 3 exploding fondant hearts:

The very top layer of the cake stand was a combo of all 3:

M 'n' M cupcakes with chocolate frosting

So my mini cupcakes I made for munch and mingle produced a HUGE batter! and we had a fireside tonight so I decided to add some m&ms to the plain vanilla batter and make some different cupcakes!
I used the vanilla frosting recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook and I threw in a bit of melted chocolate to turn the frosting into a light brown colour. I then decided it was time to use my assorted chocolate sprinkles I got at Waitrose ages ago and have never used yet. They turned out quite fun..and they tasted delish!

The m&m's peeking through the batter:

Assorted sprinkles:

All packed up and ready to go! I LOVE my cupcake courier:

My not so Ghana cupcakes!

What they should have looked like:

How they turned out:

A missionary in our ward came home this week. He had been serving in Ghana and By had signed me up to bake some cakes for his munch n mingle! I had a think and decided some Ghana themed cupcakes would be best! I would try and recreate the colours of the Ghana Flag.
I was pondering it all week and was exciting to actually make them last night. I used the white cupcake recipe from Martha's cupcake book and her fluffy vanilla frosting.

You had to fold alot of whipped egg whites into the mixture and I think that must have been why the cakes were so fluffy and light, I was pretty impressed. The frosting was okay but not really sweet enough for my liking so I added a bit more icing sugar to it. It was all going well, I divided my frosting into 3 and made the green and yellow icing successfully. I had bought milky way stars to add on the top.

Then I tried to make the red frosting..but of course when you add red food colouring to white buttercream what do you get...pink! Yes if anyone can enlighten me on how to make red frosting I would be most grateful! I tried in vain adding more and more red colouring until the point where I had quick taste and realised it was now inedible due to me using half a bottle of food colouring!! Unfortunately it was too late at night to think of a plan b so my Ghana cupcakes just became green and yellow cupcakes with stars on!
Oh well..they still tasted good!

Lets bake some cupcakes!

Soo it had been a while since I'd baked some cupcakes and I decided it was time! I found this amazing looking oreo recipe here at The Red Deer and co-incidentally found out about a friends birthday at church happening around the same time and as she is American I thought Oreo's were more than appropriate!!

I also had just bought a mini cupcake tin from hobbycraft so decided it needed it's first airing..so I made a mixture of giant and mini cupcakes.

First: You line each paper case with half of an oreo (the half with the cream filling on)


Check out all that melted chocolate-y goodness!! yum and the fine chopping of the oreos



Adding the frosting and oreos:


I was impressed to find at Tesco 3 kinds of oreos..regular, ones with chocolate stuff and ones covered in white chocolate - so I decorated with all 3! I'm just waiting for England to catch on to mint oreos and then I'd be happy!

Latest additions!!

My latest cupcake purchases have been some lovely oven gloves from debenhams which were double-y exciting because while they have cupcakes on one side they have polka dots on the other - my 2 great loves in one item!!
Then I got a cupcake courier which I have been coveting for a while now! (I can't wait to try it out!) and a five tier cupcake stand off ebay. All of which will come in useful for my upcoming first order!

M&M cupcakes!

I'm still having fun using my m&m baking bits..and I have a fun idea for them next Sunday for a munch and mingle at Church for a Missionary's homecoming (I will post pics).
They've lasted well! Byron was promised a homemade pie from someone at work who lives on a farm in return for some homemade cupcakes - a pretty fair swap I felt! So I whipped some chocolate m&m cupcakes up. In the background you can see my new storage containers from Ikea which I love!

Chocolate fun in Bruges

Some of the many yummy choco shops!

I searched the whole of Belgium and there wasn't a cupcake in sight!! Pretty unbelievable I know, especially considering it's the land of chocolate and all things yummy! So I was disappointed not to be able to add a new country to my cupcake hunt..but we still enjoyed all the chocolate-y goodness Belgium had to offer anyway!

Mmmm waffles


They weren't wrong! This was the best hot chocolate, we had to submerge our little chocolate cups in giant mugs of milk to make our own hot chocolate..and check out the plate of chocolate treats that accompanied it...delish!

Cupcake experimenting...

So I received my very first cupcake commission for the end of November which is very exciting. It's for a triple celebration of a husband's birthday, 25th anniversary and a Mother's birthday. The theme is purple and silver so I had a little experimental session of what I could do. The exploding star cupcake will be replaced with hearts and used for the anniversary layer. The heart cupcake will be for the birthday layer with the number 50 written on the heart, and the purple swirl icing with silver balls with be for the 3rd layer. You'll be able to see the results of the real thing in a few weeks time!