Lollies, peanuts and good times!

We leave for a trip back to Asia next week. I'm off for a month and Dave for 3 weeks. It should be fantastic, given that i've been whining about the cold the past month or so... can't wait to hit the streets in Hong Kong, dive in East Malaysia and catch up with family and friends in hot and humid Asia... woo hooo!!!! It'll be great to also check out cupcake supplies in the few countries that we're covering... can't wait.

A week of dinner(s) with friends before we leave.. and for dessert, I decided to make lolly cupcakes with a mix of peanut butter, chocolate and buttercream icing. Cake base is red velvet and chocolate.The cupcake with the "Flake" chocolate has a ball of peanut butter icing inside .. hmmm it was really good...the rest of the cuppies - I just piled on the lollies!

Tried the silicon heart shaped moulds too.. pretty cool... check out the pix...

Kiwiana themed cupcakes..

New Zealand is known for quite a few things. The first thing that one would see when you're abt to land on NZ soil is perhaps dots of white which look like white jelly beans from the sky - SHEEP! Yes. There are more sheep than humans in our country...

Also known for Rugby - the ALL BLACKS - hot guys running around in tight shorts and black shirts, chasing a small ball - woo hoo! There's the Kiwi bird, also the Kiwi fruit (green and golden), beaches, the greenery/ ferns , Koru, jandals, Jaffas (chocolate with a coat of red/ orange crunch), pineapple lumps (pineapple flavoured lolly with chocolate coat).... the list is endless...

I had a LOT of fun creating these Kiwiana theme cupcakes ... there were at least 8 ideas that I wanted to try but managed to do 6.

There's the flock of sheep (including a black sheep in the herd), The All Blacks, Kiwis (2 types), Jaffas (2 flavours - Orange base cupcakes with chocolate icing and Red velvet cake with butter icing both peppered with Jaffas, and the Koru.

Delivered these earlier and loved Rachael's reaction... feels great to get feedback like that... can't wait to get feedback from the whanau Rach...hope you enjoyed the little samples ; )

Happy Birthday Dave!

Dave turned a year older on Sunday... and wanted a red velvet cake since it was such a hit the previous week.. (it was a toss up between the red velvet or a white chocolate mud cake)...

A 4 layered cake (my first ever!) and had huge problems with the icing... it kept splitting!! Had to do it 4 times before getting it right!!! The birthday boy got a red velvet cake with his favourite cars (a Porsche and a Shelby Cobra) on top and since he LOVES music, i thought musical notes was a great way to illustrate it...

There were 9 of us at dinner - not sure how we managed to do this but had only 1/4 left at the end of the evening... another huge hit.. ; )

Red Velvet cupcakes - YUM!

Tried a new recipe today and I must say that i was a bit skeptical - vinegar, 4 tbsp of red colouring! - whoa !! The result ? To my surprise, an amazingly yummy velvelty red cake..
Took a couple of pix - nothing flash in terms of decorating but it tastes really good.......the colour is very cool..Dave couldn't stop making excuses to have another cuppie to try in the name of 'research'..

Made wee ones and also tried giant cupcake size..
We'll see what the verdict is after sharing these with friends...

So... the verdict is .. YUMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

" It's the BEST cupcake I've ever tasted!"

"It was soooooooo delicious. Loved the mock cream which complimented the velvety texture of the cake perfectly. Divine !!!"

"OMG! It's amazing!!! Really good!"

" Can I have more?"

Needless to say, this recipe is a keeper! Dave's birthday is coming up and he's requested for a Red Velvet cake. Rachael has changed her next order of a mix of orange and red velvet to just red velvet cuppies...

Ladybirds, sunflowers and butterflies!

A dozen of garden themed cupcakes... Sunflowers, ladybirds, butterflies and bees on their hives.. I spent an afternoon creating these- the sunflowers were Dave's favourite - mine were the ladybirds and bees...

It's Rach's second order of cupcakes - feedback's been great! The most rewarding thing abt making these is watching people's reaction when they first see the cupcakes - love it! Thanks Rach! I've so enjoyed making these...

Baby shower cupcakes

Rachael ordered these 2 weeks ago for a baby shower - a baby boy of course!! Had heaps of fun making creating them - chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing and chocolate frosting.

23 cupcakes displayed on a cupcake stand - it looked really cute especially with a sleeping baby on a cloud... Rach was pleased and I was thrilled with the results! I was told that they were the hot topic of the shower - besides the baby of course..