Markets - In the Garden

Market fun! 

Animals

 My playful puppy, reminds me of Elvis a little.

 Highland Terrier.

Kitty cat!

This is supposed to be a rabbit. Don't think I have this one right just yet.

My failed Albanian flag cake!

Wedding Cake!!!

My Sweetopia!

 Berry Meringue from My Sweetopia on Grey Street in Southbank. Very cute little store, white back ground with greed polka dots with a green wall inside and light brown with dark brown polka dots. A good amount of cakes on display beautifully decorated. They said the cakes were either mud chocolate or white mud chocolate cake or a specialty type. The berry meringue was white mud which was a lovely cake but was a little off putting as it was more dense than a vanilla cake which is what I was expecting. The icing was gross as it had way too much butter in it. It was like eating a tablespoon of margarine. I loved the meringue on top and I am thinking of a pavlova cupcake. It made such a great texture with the soft cake and crunchy meringue.

This was a black forest cake. It was delicious but I wouldn't call it a black forest, not enough cherry and no alcohol. The fresh strawbery was a nice touch and the fresh cream was great. Looked very pretty with the butterfly cut.


We will definitely check out this store when you are in town. They have a jam doughnut one that I would like to try and compare it to mine.

Experiments with Sugarpaste

This is the birthday cake I made for Mackenzie. It was  fairly simple design but I think it worked pretty well. The cake was red velvet (which caused me some hassles cause I used the cupcake recipe). I then covered it with buttercream icing and then put the sugarpaste over it. I thought the rolling out of the icing and placing it over the cake would be hard but it wasn't too hard. I had to put rolled paper towel in the bow loops to let them set properly.


I did find that the sugarpaste left in a plastic container went soft and sweated. It was best to leave in a container and just covered with a tea towel or something. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to try some more things. I want to do an Albanian flag for Behar's birthday which I am hoping won't be too hard. I'll let you know how it goes!

Choc Oreo Cupcakes

This is Mandy's creation.  She went a little nuts with my snowflake cutter - rather hilarious!  The ones I made had piped whipped cream on top and then just a mini Oreo - a bit like how they look on the website.  Very cute!

http://buddingbaketress.blogspot.com/2011/03/oreo-cupcakes.html

Sorry just easier to send the link to you.  The only thing I changed in the recipe was that I didn't put the vanilla extract in the cream frosting.  I didn't really like the Oreo on the bottom of the cupcake but then Mandy did. 



Hey does our blog let us invite other people to view it or is it locked to private??

Ideas for Names

I thought I would start a post where we can start listing ideas for names.  I haven't actually done much thinking on this because it seems so hard.  But maybe now that I've started it will get easier.  I was trying to include ideas that incorporate something about us but anyway...

Sugar & Spice
Sweet Sisters

and I'll keep thinking!

Apple Crumble

This was a normal cake recipe for Apple, Rum and Date Cake but I left out the rum and date and added some milk to compensate.

APPLE CUPCAKE

140g butter

1 1/2 cup castor sugar

3 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 cup milk

3 peeled, cored and chopped apples - make sure pieces aren't too big (recipe called for 2 cups but I think it needs more)

Preheat oven to 170c

Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until well combined.

Sift all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Fold the dry ingredients and milk alternatively into the butter mixture. Then add the apple and fold into the mixture.

Pour into prepared tins and bake for 18 minutes until cook.

Ice with vanilla frosting and apple crumble.

CRUMBLE

35g oats

35g flour

20g caster sugar

35g butter

Mix the flour and oats together in a small bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips. Add the sugar and mix. Pour onto a baking tray in a single layer and bake for 5 minutes. Wait until cool before putting onto the iced cupcake.

Who doesn't like Jam Doughnuts?

Jam Doughnut Cupcakes - makes 24 cupcakes
285g flour
115g sugar
1 egg
4 tsp baking powder
300ml milk
75ml vegetable oil
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon


Raspberry or strawberry jam
Vanilla Frosting
Cinnamon and sugar for dusting


Preheat oven to 170c.

Place the baking powder, flour, nutmeg and cinnamon in a bowl and mix together.

Place the egg in a large bowl and whisk. Add in the sugar, milk and oil and beat together. 

Add the flour mixture and mix in well.

Spoon mixture into tin. About 3/4 full but no more.

Bake for 18 minutes. The recipe said 25 mins at 180c but I didn't trust it and thankfully I didn't. They would have burnt.

Once cool, spoon out a tsp of cake and replace with a tsp of jam.

Ice with vanilla frosting. Mix together some sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle of top of cake.

DELICIOUS!!!!

Kids Cupcakes

I'm thinking seriously about my kids range and I want a farm animal range for decoration. I made these pigs and cows. I was thinking Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing for the pigs (pigs in mud) and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing coloured green for the cows.


I tried your peanut butter icing and it was delicious!! Took them to work and Carol loved them. And I found a banana recipe that is great. Not dry and very light.

Ohh, and the snot block, excellent!!!

Good old Women's Weekly vanilla cupcake recipe

90g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup SR flour
2 tbl milk

The original recipe said to chuck everything in a bowl and mix but last time I made these I creamed the butter and sugar first then added eggs and flour and milk etc.  I beat the mixture on low speed until mixed and then on high for a few minutes until it had lightened.  I actually doubled the mixture to make a dozen fairly decent sized cupcakes in muffin cases.  For the lemon curd cupcakes I added the grated rind of one lemon - delish!

Cupcakes for Car Boot Sale

Finally I'm blogging about this - probably because I should be doing report cards lol.  I was v excited about how cupcakes went at the car boot sale and am thinking of doing the next arts and crafts markets which I think works out to be on my holidays. 

So on the menu for the car boot sale were:
Lemon Curd cupcakes - these were very popular and got lots of compliments about these.  Need to make them a bit smaller though.  And I'm thinking that I can do lemon curd well in advance.  I've already collected some jars off people at work so I can make up a bit batch, sterilise the jars and voila!

I also stole your idea and made a Vanilla Cupcake but definitely think they need a little hidden strawberry surprise - maybe a strawberry mousse filling or something.  But people definitely liked the look of them and they were so easy to make.  I just whipped up a vanilla batch of cupcakes and used leftover choc ganache.  I wanted to add some toasted chopped almonds but was worried about having nuts.

I also did up some Choc Mud Cupcakes since I had been experimenting to see if that choc cake recipe would work as a cupcake.  I would like to find a recipe that rises a bit more on top though.  I iced these ones with vanilla frosting but hid a choc ganache filling as a surprise.  I had people come back and tell me that they loved it cos it was so rich.  I think next time though I might try it with a choc mousse filling which would be a bit lighter.  I don't have a photo of these ones.

Cupcake Stores Brisbane

Couture Cupcakes - Bardon
Expensive cupcakes ($4.25-$4.75), average cakes and not enough icing. I hated the toppings, shop bought sugar flowers, pieces of chocolate bars and whole ferrero rochers.
Colours - Pink and White stripes. Nice store but very few cupcakes on display, also serve breakfast. Large outdoor seating area. Only four or five flavours available and no basics. Flavours were all in the icing, cupcakes only vanilla or chocolate.

The Cupcake Parlour - West End
Good price $3.50 each. Regular sized cupcakes rather than muffin sized cupcakes. Strawberry sundae was at least one if not two days old. Sprinkles had bled and the cake was a little stale. Average vanilla cake. Delicious chocolate mudcake, very rich. Had a caramel centre which was yummy but with the rich cake was a little too much.
Colours - Pink and White stripes. Good store but very cluttered with other things they are selling (accessories like stands and aprons etc, way too many on display). Lots of different flavours. A few awards on the walls. A bit more hippy and well suited to West End.

Tabiltha's Place - Hamilton 

Carousels Cupcakes - Chermside

My sweetopia - Southbank

JudyC - Ashcroft (not specifically cupcakes)

Nourish - Ascot  no website but facebook page

I will update this list as I visit each one.

Frostings!!

Vanilla Frosting (makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes)

250g icing sugar, sifted

80g unsalted butter, room temperature

25ml whole milk

a couple of drops of vanilla extract

Beat the icing sugar and butter together on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.

Turn the mixer down to slow speed. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl, then add to the butter mixture a couple of spoonfuls at a time.

Once all the milk has been incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed.

Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.

For Coconut Frosting I exchanged the milk for coconut milk or evaporated coconut milk and then sprinkled with shredded coconut. (oh and didn't add the vanilla)

I also tried passionfruit icing by exchanging the milk for passionfruit juice. Delicious!!!

Flower Power

I had a bit of a flower day today. I bought a flower cutter from Cakes Around Town and had a play around with it. I made the pumpkin cupcakes again and they seemed to work better. I didn't put in all of the puree that the recipe said and I reduced the amount of milk by about 20ml. They still sunk a little bit but it wasn't as bad as last time. I think it might be because I used homemade puree rather than tinned puree. Reading the recipe they don't seem to take into account the extra liquid. I froze the extra puree so I can try it again. I decorated them with little sugar flowers. I wanted them to look like bouquets of flowers.

Then I tried a choclate cupcake. I like it but don't love it. I thought it wasn't as moist as the vanilla or red velvet (not that it was dry or anything). And I made them into sunflowers. Mum bought me a cupcake book and it had these cupcakes that were sunfloers only they used oreos as the centre of the flower. I don't like the idea of using bought decorations (especially biscuits and chocolate). So I used brown sprinkles instead. I am still working on my piping but it is getting better. I bought a leaf pipe head but I forgot to put it into the piping bag before putting in the icing (I know very stupide). So I cut the bag and it worked perfectly. Let me know what you think.

Oh and then I tried some modeling. I made a cow. I have an idea of a farm yard range for when we go to market for the kiddies. I didn't have any black dye so I used blue instead. I did buy some black powder to try (haven't had a chance to use it yet). I think it will work better in the sugarpaste and hopefully produce better colours. The cow was relatively easy as was the pig I made a few weeks ago. I need to find a sheep to make and then I think that would make a good group for the farm yard.

Next I think I want to try banana cupcakes. But next weekend I have to make red velvet cupcakes for Carol.

Can you let me know if you have a good chocolate cupcake recipe for me to try? I want to make some comparisons.
xxxx

Ideas

I know two blogs in one day, crazy but just have ideas running around in my head that I need to get down somewhere.
Cupcakes I want to try:
Lemon Meringue cupcakes - lemon cake with curd filling and meringue piped on top. I tried this a few weeks back and it worked ok. I think I need work on the meringue part and how long it needs to cook for.
Spider cupcakes - Black case, black icing with licorice legs and piped eyes or lolly eyes and maybe fangs (marshmallow??)
Banana cupcakes - with butterscotch or caramel icing
Flower bouquet - lots sugarpaste flowers on top of the cupcake so that it looks like a bunch of flowers
Lemon cupcake with coconut icing - I think this would be a great combo

Sugar Pumpkins and a Rose

Mel's Vanilla Cupcake Experiments

Sooooooo Planet Cake Vanilla cupcake recipe was a complete disaster.  They looked fine when I first pulled them out but then they quickly deflated.  When I split one open they were uncooked on the inside and it didn't matter how long I cooked them for they were still raw and soggy.  Yuck!

These ones in the pics were from a good old Women's Weekly recipe and of course it worked!  I want to add lemon zest though next time cos that was tasty from the Planet Cake recipe.  I will post the buttercream icing recipe because it held up really well and was great to pipe.  The pink stuff was just like pink sugar crystals and they actually came in a pkt of cheapo sprinkles.  I have seen them in Cakes Around Town though and all sorts of colours.  Look cool hey!  Next time I will do big cupcakes though.  Love ya!!!

Carrot Cupcakes - about 24 cupcakes

300g soft light brown sugar
3 eggs
300ml sunflower oil
300g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon, plus extra to decorate
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
300g carrots, grated
100g shelled walnuts, chopped
Make with Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 170c

Put the sugar, eggs and oil in a bowl and beat until all the ingredients are well incorporated (don't worry if the mixture looks slightly split). Slowly add the flour, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla extract and continue to beat until well mixed.

Stir in the grated carrots and walnuts by hand until they are all evenly dispersed.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cupcake tins and smooth over with a pallette knife. Bake in a oven for 15-20 mins or until golden brown and the sponge bounces back when touched.

Leave cakes to cool slightly in the tins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.