Cupcake Decorating at a Sleepover

When I think back to sleepovers I had as a kid I always remember chatting away all night and being the last one to fall asleep. I also remember my Dad coming in and telling us to be quiet! Haha!

My friend from church invited me to come teach some cupcake decorating at a sleepover she was having for her daughter and the other young teenagers at our church. The party seemed pretty cool to me, they had activities galore! Card making, making dessert/dinner, going eeling (doesn't sound very girly to me!) playing in dress ups, getting facials done aaaaaaand cupcake decorating!

Me (looking a little nerdy) teaching cupcake decorating

I have a whole bunch of sprinkles which are pink and purple so decided to go with a nice girly pink and purple theme. I made 24 chocolate cupcakes using my Chocolate Cake recipe and made a massive amount of buttercream icing which I coloured pink and purple.

The girls eager to get decorating!

When I got their the girls were so excited, asking if I needed help setting up and coming up with ideas of how they would decorate their two cupcakes. I showed them how to make a rose with the 1M tip and filled up three piping bags with icing and they went to town on the cupcakes. We took photos of them then everyone started eating them nomnomnom! I had such a fun time with the girls that I actually forgot to decorate and eat one myself!

Demonstrating how to use a piping bag

Busy busy decorating

Decorating cupcakes

The girls holding up their masterpieces

Cupcake slam!

Check out their creative cupcake decorating skills below and let me know what you think, I think they're amazing!

Cupcake Review: Miss Melicious

I'm so excited to have finally visited the amazing Miss Melicious cupcake shop! Missy (the owner) has known my hubby for quite some time, they used to go to concerts and gigs together. About a year or two ago I somehow got in contact and I've been watching as she goes from strength to strength. It was amazing news to find out she has her own shop but now even greater news, she's getting her own book!

Me and Missy doing her "signature pose"

We stopped in at her store in Te Atatu to try some yummy treats and say hi. We had a great time and ended up in an intense game of Connect 4 (I won!) The shop is beautifully decorated and is so "Missy" I love it!

Miss Melicious Cupcake Shop

Cute and Retro

Pink Chandelier!

Flowers on the table

If you want to get your hands on some delicious cupcakes head along to her shop (80 Gunner Drive, Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland), it opens at midday and there are different flavours every day. (Check out her massive list of flavours here.) Missy will write on her Facebook page what flavours will be on display and sometimes even asks her fans what she should bake that day -how sweet!

Cherry Ripe Cupcakes

Perky Nana Cupcakes

Choc Mint Cupcakes

Pineapple Lumps Cupcakes

Chocolate Rose Cupcakes

Now I know you're all wondering the same thing...what do they taste like?! Well I can safely say they taste as good as they look! We got the Cherry Ripe and Pineapple Lumps cupcakes and we weren't disappointed. Cherry Ripe is one of my favourite chocolate bars and this cupcake lived up to my standards, I loved the icing and even though Hubby and I were going halves I found myself having eaten three quarters of it and wanting more! The Pineapple Lumps cupcake was so light and fluffy and paired perfectly with sweet icing. Yumyumyumyum!

Cherry Ripe Cupcake (my fave!)

Pineapple Lumps Cupcake

Congratulations Missy, your store in amazing and I can't wait to pre-order my Miss Melicious book!

Cake makes things better right?

Sorry about the lack of posting recently. We had a family emergency and things got pretty busy and complicated. I actually managed to make a cake in TWO days last week while the chaos was going on and I can't wait to show you pictures of it...but that is for another day. To make up for the lack of pretty cakes on my blog in the last few days here are some cakes that got my attention lately:

I really love silhouette cakes for some reason (I don't need a reason!) but what I really love about this cake is the blue used, I think if it were black (the usual) it would have looked too harsh, this is just perfect to me!

Photo from Pinterest

This next cake just makes me fall in love with it and I'm not sure why. It looks yummy even though it's fondant (I don't like eating fondant!) it is so simple yet elegant.

Photo from Pinterest

Talking of simplicity, you can't go wrong with black and white (or black and pink for that matter.) I love the simple design, the layout of this photo and the beautiful flowers.

Photo Source

I've seen this cake circulating Pinterest lately and I absolutely LOVE it! It sort of makes me think of new years eve, popping champagne, throwing confetti! Also love the photography in this photo.

Photo Source

Ombre Wedding Cake

A couple of weeks ago I drove down (by myself!) to Tauranga (about three hours south of where I live, Auckland) for my cousins wedding. Hubby wasn't able to get any time off work so I was going to the wedding alone! The car ride down was a bit of a challenge trying to operate the ipod, the GPS, open the bag of pretzels, open the container of blueberries (which is fairly hard to do when you're not driving anyway!)
I made it there in one piece though! As soon as I arrived I saw two of my cousins who also live in Auckland and asked if they wanted to accompany me on the way back. Luckily they said yes and the trip back was a lot easier and a whole lot more fun!

Me and my Cousins!

Back to the wedding...we had a great time at the wedding, it was a beautiful service and beautiful weather to match! I got to catch up with my cousins who I hadn't seen in YEARS! We actually all got along really well and had a great time being stupid and singing songs (Glee style!)

James and Taylah (Photo from Taylah's friend)

My cousin and his (now) wife saw my orange ombre cake on my blog a while back and thought that would be a cool cake to have as a wedding cake instead of a traditional one. They have good taste! Their wedding colours were peach with a bit of greenery so I went with a light peachy colour and gradually made it darker toward the bottom of the cake.

Ombre Wedding Cake

Ombre Wedding Cake

The next day my family got together at a nice little cafe and celebrated my aunties 50th and my cousins 21st. It was so nice to relax with family and have a good time. We ate yummy food, took some photos then made our way back to our homes. The trip home seemed SO much faster than on the way up then it was home sweet home!

Chocolate Cloud Cake

Clouds make me think of candy floss (Cotton Candy for you Americans!) and Katy Perry (in the California Girls video) but when you think of this Chocolate Cloud Cake I want you to think nice fluffy cream!

Katy Perry on Candy Floss Clouds

I made this cake for my mum and aunty's combined birthdays. It's another gem from the amazing Nigella who I got the recipe for Nutella Cake from. It's also Gluten Free! Yaaaaaay! I don't like to Google for Gluten free recipes anymore, they're all like 'half a cup of rice flour, half a cup or something-else-I-don't-have-in-the-pantry-flour, one teaspoon of tycloseblahblah' as if I bake Gluten free all the time and have those things in the local supermarket! Instead I look for 'flourless' cakes! Genius, I know!

The texture of this cake almost reminds me of a chocolate mousse, but with a bit more cakeyness holding it together. You may think that is a lot of cream to throw on top (I don't even like cream!) but it goes perfectly with the cake and leaves you wanting more!

Chocolate Cloud Cake
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

Ingredients
250g Dark Chocolate (70% Cocoa)
125g Unsalted Butter (softened)
6 Eggs (2 whole, 4 separated)
175g Caster Sugar
Zest from an Orange

Topping:
500ml Cream
1t Vanilla Extract
1/2 t Cocoa (to sprinkle on top!)

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line a 23cm springform cake tin.
• Melt the chocolate in the microwave in short 10 second bursts then add the butter and let it melt together.
• Beat the two whole eggs and the four egg yolks with 75g of the sugar,
• Add the chocolate mixture and orange zest to the eggy mixture.
• In a separate bowl, beat the eggs whites until foamy then start adding the rest of the sugar a tablespoon at a time then beat until the egg whites hold their shape (not too stiff though). Remember your bowl and whisk/beaters need to be oil free-so wash them in boiling water first!
• Mix a spoonful of egg white mixture in with the chocolate mixture to lighten it up a little then fold in the rest.
• Pour into the cake tin and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until the cake has risen and the top is cracked and the centre is no longer wobbly.
• Cool cake in its tin on a wire rack (do not take the cake out of the tin). The middle will collapse a bit and look like a crater, don't worry it's supposed to look like that!
• When the cake is cool and you can't wait any longer to try this cake (it's worth the wait, I promise!) pop it out on to a cake stand or plate and carefully remove the sides from the cake tin.
• Whip the cream until soft then add the vanilla. Keeping whipping up a storm until the cream is firm but not stiff.
• This is the fun part! Plop the cream on top of the cake and smooth out to the edges carefully then sprinkle  the cocoa on top using a sieve.
• Enjoy a little slice of this heavenly cake with a nice cup of coffee or milk.

The cake will look like a giant fail at this point, but don't worry, that's how it's supposed to look (trust me!)

Once cake is fully cooled, place on a plate and remove the sides of the tin. Now it's the fun part!

Pour the whole lot of cream on top of the previously ugly cake, I know it looks like lots but you'll thank me later, I know it. (by the way that is my mum modelling in the photo, ever wondered where I got my baking genes from?)

Spread the cream over the cake gently, it's very therapeutic, in fact you might want to whip up cream just for the sake of it in the future.

Sprinkle cocoa over this heavenly cake and enjoy! It truly is like biting into a cloud! You can see why I like recipes that don't over complicate like this one right? So easy to make, yet unbelievably delicious! Do you have a favourite gluten free recipe? I'd love to hear!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For people in New Zealand, this post is a little late, Valentines is almost over... but what can ya do? I suppose I COULD have made some pretty heart shaped cupcakes a few days earlier, taken photos and all that THEN written up a lovey dovey blog post for today buuuuuut...I didn't!

Instead, I've been working full time (I'm doing temp work again) but I thought I would share with you my (REAL) Valentines day.

Me and Pecan with my Foil Balloons and Rose

Firstly, you should know that NZ'ers don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. It's not really a holiday here. I think the people who celebrate it are just the ones who really WANT to. It's not something everyone does. As for me and hubby, we like to have fun with it. Sometime we get cheesy presents, sometimes we just get takeaways and go to the movies.

Me and my Valentine's Day Card and Balloon <3
(Looking kind of puffy and gross first thing in the morning)

This year I mentioned to hubby that I've never received a foil balloon before, I said that most people get them in hospital but I've never been in hospital! (that's a good thing though) So I had an inkling that he would get me one. But what he really did was AWESOME!

Heart shaped eggs on toast with heart shaped hot cakes

He made me breakfast (not in bed because I was rushing to get ready for work) and coffee. The breakfast was eggs on toast and the eggs were shaped like hearts! PLUS hotcakes cut out to be hearts TOO! I love love love love love pancakes/hot cakes/pikelets! YUM! Plus the coffee at home is much better than work so I was happy! Then he gave me a single rose (awh!) and a foil balloon on a stick and a card...then he said he couldn't find a helium foil balloon to start with, which is why he bought the foil one, but then saw one at work (he works at the airport) so he bought me one of those too! I loved it and so did Pecan! She kept playing with the ribbon and was so fascinated with it!

Presents I made for hubby

When hubby got home from work I surprised him with a funny card of me holding a lollipop, a scratchie and a little book I made of 50 things I love about him. He thought it was awesome and really appreciated the time and thought that went into it. I might make some cupcakes later on in the week that he can share with his work mates, we'll just wait and see!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I had a blast and I hope you did/do too!

Cupcakes for an Engagement Photo Shoot

Early in January my friend, Danelle (remember she helped with the Toy Story dessert table) asked me to make some cupcakes for a photo shoot she and her partner, Hook, were going to be doing. I didn't have any idea what the photo shoot was about but went about making the cupcakes.

Danelle and Hook have teamed up to be one kickass photography team! They are called A Couple of Night Owls and this was their first engagement shoot. I think it looks absolutely amazing! Me and Danelle are big fans of wedding blogs like Style Me Pretty and Green Wedding Shoes and when I saw her photos I immediately said these are like the ones we see on the wedding blogs! I hope to see more of her work soon!

SooOOoo if you (or anyone you know) is getting married or engaged or just generally likes getting photos of themselves (like me) then let them know about A Couple of Night Owls because I really don't think you'll be disappointed!

P.S. Do you like my cupcakes?