Monkey trouble

So March has been a busy month, requests left, right and center. And me, I really enjoy cupcakes, more then cakes, but a friend of a friends little boy turned 1. I know first birthdays are a big deal. Firstly I said lets do banana cupcakes, with monkey faces on top. And then I saw this super cute monkey cake. I showed it to the friend and she was sold. Oopsie, so there I was, freaking out completely, I have to make a monkey cake!!!

So going bananas and making bananas, which I must say  was so much fun. I made peeled ones, upside down ones, closed ones and a bunch of bananas. The baking started, 4 cakes down I thought ok, now for the decorating. Chocolate and caramel frosting, green leaves, glitter, bananas, smiles, eyes... all checked.

The result, perfect! A monkey for a little monkey!

Bright-eyed & busy-tailed!

Oh how I love colours. The rainbow is close to my heart. I could full my life with colours all day long. So you can imagine how excited I was, when a colourful kitchen tea came along and asked for ice cream cone cupcakes in bright, bold and beautiful colours, The order of the day, green, blue, purple and pink!

Then I thought, OMG, how am I gonna pull this off? These colours are extremely bright, bold and beautiful. So I got the baking book out, made some baking sums, bought some covering paper and beautiful flowing ribbons. All in all separating the colours into pairs of blue & pink and green & purple, worked perfectly. These were such a delight. Stuffed with mini coloured marshmallows in the middle, these were a real hit.

Two Oceans Aquarium Wedding!

A colleague of mine tied the knot on 16 March 2013, and asked me to make her wedding cake and cupcakes. Oh boy, was I excited, and a themed wedding with that to. Finally my skills can be put to the test.

Lene and Gareth decided to do everything a bit different, and the venue WOW! Their reception was held in front of the big shark tank. Lene being the animal, critter and creature lover that she is, I accepted nothing else.

We uhmed and aahed about what to make? We deiced on a whole sea/beach experience. The first set of cupcakes would be water and shark fins, then starfish on half sea, half beach. The last set would be a the beach with flip flips and a cocktail umbrella.  Wow I had my worked cut out for me.

The cake would be in the ever popular ombre style, even the inside matched the outside. It was amazing how this style reflected the water beautifully. She also asked for penguin cake toppers. I was nervous, stressed and thought you’re in over your head. But knew in the end the masterpiece would come together.

She looked beautiful in a fishtail dress, everything so well thought through. Congratulations Lene and Gareth, may you share many more wonderful years together. And thank you for this amazing opportunity...

http://www.aquarium.co.za/

Get up & go...

I have attempted the coffee cupcake before, and failed miserably. Yes I had to throw a whole batch away :-( So one day returning from work, I smell a lovely cupcake, coffee smell coming from the house. Surprise, the love of my life made cupcakes! And damn good ones to, delicious coffee chocolate cupcakes. I helped a bit with the decoration in the end, but all in all, they came out perfect, and oh so good!

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Ice cream cupcake hearts! Feel like a kid again...

Valentines day has come and gone. February the month filled with love, gifts and cupcakes has  always been my favourite. This year I thought to myself, why not try something different. So I trolled the isles and the baking shop, looking for ideas, the world wide web also lent some inspiration, naturally. Now, cupcakes is, and always will be the number one in my life, but there is another love in my life, ice cream. Be it 3 o’clock in the morning, temperatures below freezing, soaring heats and sandy beach filled days, ice cream it is.

The cogs starting turning, the batter got stirred, the hearts made, the sprinkles sprinkled. And tada, these little beauties appeared.t Ice cream cupcakes! Now they are not made outa of ice cream, I still need to figure that one out? But a delightful red velvet cupcake, baked in colourful cones, 100’s and 1000’s sprinkled like a kid and beautiful little hearts, made these cupcakes the cherry on top.

The most daunting thing was to bake this cupcake in a cone. I was very nervous, never attempting this feat  before. Reading endless other blogs on: how to make them stand while baking? how much to fill them? How long to bake them? And the last, most daunting question, transporting them. But all in all, they took about 5-10 min extra on my normal red velvet cupcake recipe, the stood fine in the oven and filling them about ¾ of the cone was perfect! The only problematic thing, transporting. So the problem was solved by just taking an old shoe box, tip it over, cover it with beautiful paper and then cut holes at the bottom, to place you beautiful cupcakes in!

So bakers, be brave, love your kitchen and most of all, keep being creative. 

LIFE IS CUPCAKES!