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!

Yesterday was Jake’s 5th Birthday and he wanted a racing car cake, Maxi to be exact, from Roary the Racing Car.  I gave him the choice of cake flavour and he chose Caramel mud so it was time to get down to business.

I decided my best option for this cake was to use a loaf tin and cut the car shape from this.  I also baked four cupcakes with the left over cake batter to use for the wheels. Using a picture of Maxi to copy from, I did a free-hand cut to get the car shape and using the cut pieces of cake to increase the height at the back.  The entire cake is covered with white chocolate ganache and a thin layer of coloured fondant.  Maxi’s hat and sunglasses are pure fondant. The rear spoiler I was unable to make from pure fondant as it just would not hold straight so I used a piece of cardboard and covered with fondant for that added strength.  The track is also made with black and white fondant.

The kids all seemed happy with the results and were all very keen to eat a wheel.

I’ve spent many many hours over the past month or so organising a birthday party for my mum’s 60th.  I wanted her to have a spectacular cake. I decided on a three tiered square cake.  Mum loves toblerone so decided to try a toblerone mud cake. My first attempt of this flavoured cake was not so great, using a recipe I found on the internet.  I gave it another go, this time using my normal mudcake recipe and replacing the chocolate with toblerone.  This method worked fantastically producing a lovely cake.

Using a combination of 23cm, 19cm and 15cm square tins, I produced a 23cm toblerone mud, 19cm white chocolate & 15cm citrus mud cakes.  Covered each cake with ganache then covered with a thin layer of sugarpaste.  I decided on a purple and silver theme with butterflies. I handmade mini butterlies to line the bottom of each cake and three larger butterflies, one for each tier.

I was happy with the end result as was mum. Happy 60th Mum!!

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!!

My youngest boy Jake was very excited that his pre-school teacher’s birthday was coming up.  He so desperately wanted to make her a cake so Thursday night we made a batch of cupcakes for her to share with the class.

Jake helped me with measuring the ingredients and putting them into the bowl, cracking the eggs, turning on the mix master and of course licking the beaters and the bowl!  

We made a simple vanilla cupcake mix and I decorated with vanilla buttercream and handmade fondant butterflies and stars.  They turned out well and went down a treat with the class at pre-school!