I am eagerly preparing for my very first market stall next weekend.  I will be selling cupcakes in various mud cake and other flavours.  I decided to make up a dummy cake to put on display to show what I can do with bigger cakes.

 I have spent the weekend decorating and have come up with three different designs. I like to think of these designs as simple, yet elegant wedding cakes but would also suit birthdays. All three of these cakes could be made from all of my mud cake varieties.  I have chosen the purple gerbera design to be on display for my market stall. If you are in Mudgee this Saturday, please feel free to come and see my market stall at the Mudgee Anglican Church grounds!

I found it really quite difficult to come up with a cake idea for my husband’s birthday. He loves poker but he had a poker cake last year so needed something different.  I decided to go with a cake decorated with Lindt chocolates (my favourite but Dame likes chocolate too!)

His favourite chocolate is white so I went with a round white chocolate mud cake and covered it with white chocolate ganache. After flicking through all my cake books, looking for inspiration, I came across a cake which had a chocolate collar and thought I’d give that a go.  I melted up some dark chocolate and made my chocolate collar and was delighted with the result.  It cracked a little near the join and had a ripple from the contact but other than that it had turned out great! Now for some colour and the fabulous Lindt truffle chocolates, yum, yum!! I topped the cake with the chocolates and wrapped a ribbon around for a little extra colour. A great little cake for the male of the house.

This weekend I thought I might try something a little different, petite cupcakes.  My youngest boy loves the little cakes. I made vanilla cupcakes and topped each one with either chocolate or strawberry buttercream. They turned out lovely and taste fantastic. The perfect petite sweet treat!

I was asked to make a birthday cake for the Mudgee View Club Singer’s 10th Birthday.  After a taste of my white chocolate cupcakes, it was decided that this was the flavour they wanted.  They also wanted some little singers on top and ten candles.

As they had previously performed a “Sister Act” performance, I thought this would be a great theme for the cake.  I modelled four singing nuns from modelling paste to place on top of the cake. 

I baked a square white chocolate mudcake and covered with white chocolate ganache.  To give a nice finish, I piped ganache around the bottom of the cake.  I piped some musical notes around the sides with black icing – keeping in with the music theme and topped with the previously made nuns and ten candles.

The Mudgee View Club Singers were very happy with the end result and gave me a lovely big round of applause for a job well done. 

Thank you Mudgee View Club Singers for giving me the opportunity to provide your birthday cake and I look forward to making your Christmas Cake!

I had lots of family gatherings on the Anzac Day long weekend so thought what a fantastic reason to try a new cake!  I’m really enjoying my Crabapple Bakery Cupcakes book at the moment so tested out another recipe for this book, Banana & Macadamia with Chocolate Fudge frosting.

I had some bananas heading towards the over-ripe stage so thought this recipe to be very suitable.  Great little cakes!  The chocolate fudge frosting I varied a little, using more butter than the recipe stated and less icing sugar, I guess making it more like a buttercream.  It turned out lovely.  Using my favourite piping swirl to top each cake.  They were a hit with all the family!

A work mate of mine was celebrating her birthday so I decided to make a cake for her.  Not having too much time, I opted for cupcakes.  Now…..which ones??? After alot of thinking of healthy/non healthy, of course, I decided non healthy…it is a birthday after all!!   White Chocolate Mud it is then

 I was after some nice bright colours so went with purple and yellow.  I made alternate yellow case with purple buttercream flavoured with a touch of strawberry essence (boysenberry essence would have been perfect here but unfortunately I didn’t have any – it’s definately on the list for my next order!!) and purple case with yellow buttercream with a touch of lemon essence. Yum! I used two different piping nozzles for each colour for effect and topped each one with coloured cachous. She was very happy with  her cupcakes and quite happily shared them around with all at work.  She was ever so thankful!  Hope your day was wonderful Bori!!

After making all of these cakes and Easter, I started to feel a little guilty of possibly over indulging.  So I decided on making a slightly healthier option and found the recipe for Almond, Raspberry & Yoghurt cakes in my Crabapple Cupcake book.

These cakes looked and sounded to be just the recipe I was after.  They are made with natural yoghurt, almond meal and frozen raspberries – what a lovely combination.  They were easy to prepare and the end result looked fantastic, requiring little decoration after baking ( a slight dusting of icing sugar) and tasted superb!  These little beauties will be made again in my house, especially when I’m feeling a little guilty

I wanted to make some yummy easter gifts for my family & friends so decided on a new recipe from my Crabapple Cupcake book.  I chose the choc brownie fudge cakes but omitted the nuts due to my friend’s daughter having a nut allergy (she had missed out on the coffee & walnut cuppies the week earlier so couldn’t do it to her twice!!)

 These cupcakes are just devine!! Very indulging!! One is definately enough of these little beauties.  I topped them with caramel frosting and “Celebration” balls.  As these cupcakes were to make easter gifts, I purchased a few plastic containers from my local cheap shop and my four year old Jake and I made some grass from tissue paper to place in each one.  We then placed a few cupcakes in each container and wrapped in cellophane in a bon bon shape.  I think these little cuppies make the perfect indulgent easter treat! Happy Easter everyone !

Today I celebrated my 31st birthday in Mudgee with a few good friends and family.  I decided that my cake had to be something a little different so made 5 x 15cm square cakes.  I have been trying out a few experimental cakes of late so along with a few favourites decided on Cherry Ripe Mud, Peppermint Mud, Caramel Mud, Citrus Mud and White Chocolate Mud.

 I made them to look as though they were a pile of presents and thought this was a great way to show all the different flavours of cakes I can do.  Each cake was covered with ganache and a thin layer of fondant icing.  I chose pastel colours of pink, purple, green, yellow and light brown.  Each cake was decorated with handmade fondant shapes of flowers, stars and hearts. The top tier, I placed some handmade fondant ribbon curls, two handmade fondant flowers and the numbers “31″.

My young son Jake was very keen to help and made a few fondant shapes and numbers to place on the cake.  Everyone enjoyed the cakes and had a lovely sample of each cake to take home with them.  Thank you all for a lovely afternoon.  I’m looking forward to the next Mudgee birthday cake!!