Happy St Patrick's Day!

Top o' the morning to you!

Baileys buttercream is delish, to be sure to be sure!

And for the kiddies, vanilla is pretty good too!

Luscious Lemon

On Saturday I had a massive baking itch I just had to scratch (as did Spencer, "mummy mix?"). I also had a huge craving for lemon so decided lemon cupcakes where in order!

I don't want to sound totally up myself but these where THE BEST lemon cupcakes I have ever had. I used so new papers that I had found in W.A. and was a little dissapointed at them going translucent but they still looked pretty. And I had made some fondant butterflies using some cutters I had found in Perth, pretty!

In other news I am going to lodge my kitchen application to council tomorrow, fingers crossed everyone!

Happy Caking

Cupcake Crawl

Well we are back from our huge trip to Perth. Many delicious discoveries where made including some cupcakes which I will add to the review of my Sydney cupcake tastings.

I love food, which is quite obvious by looking at me :o) Without a doubt going to Plant Cake was my main reason for going to Sydney but I have to say I was also excited about all the yummy food I could eat too!

Around 3 years ago I was in Sydney and I saw Cupcakes on Pitt and it was at that time that I thought “Hey I wanna do that” So I headed there first...

I was disappointed before I even stepped in the shop! When you used to walk past the window was full of all the beautiful cakes on display but sadly all that was on display was a crappy small cupcake stand with a few old looking cupcakes and hello kitty paraphernalia everywhere. I could quite quickly tell that new people where running the joint. The cupcakes are small but at only $2.5 each reasonably priced. I got a strawberry, milk chocolate, raspberry and vanilla.

Strawberry cake was ok, it had artificial flavouring added. The cake was ok not moist but not too dry, I suspect lots of rising agents used in the batter as it was really holey. Buttercream was smooth but I could not tell what it was made with it was very sweet. Milk chocolate was YUCK! The cake was so so dry I couldn’t bring myself to swallow it! Vanilla on Vanilla is my favourite cupcake but it is so hard to find a good one and cupcakes on Pitt failed in this flavour too L It didn’t even taste like vanilla cake it was just sweet, on the upside the buttercream was nice and smooth how I like it. They looked beautiful and where boxed up nicely but the taste just wasn’t there so personally a big FAIL to Cupcakes on Pitt.

(Which is sad as they look so cute!)

Next stop was The Cupcake Bakery in QVB. I had been admiring their website for a while as it is in the kind of style I would like one if I ever had a business. Anyway I was expecting a cool little funky retro shop and what I discovered was an average shopfront in the middle of the food hall. It looked dirty and the staff where all young girls too busy gossiping to serve me. I made my choice of Chocmint, Strawberry and Vanilla. I was pleasantly surprised! I would not brag about them or rush back to eat them but they had a real homemade taste to me. The cakes where on the dry side for me but most people wouldn’t be bothered. The buttercream was gritty which I hate but definitely tasted

like it should – sweet and buttery. Basic but cute decoration, they are quite a decent size and at $3.50 each a fair price.

(Sorry bad photo, they got squashed!)

The next place I stumbled across was The Cupcake Factory. I only found this place because it was on the corner of Adriano Zumbo’s Cafe. It was day 2 of my course and I was fairly caked out so just got 1 vanilla on vanilla. This place was just a shop no kitchen and as I got there the lady was placing cuppies in the cabinet out of a large plastic container so I suspect that yes there is a large cupcake factory somewhere that just supplies the 3 stores. This one was weird! The cake was just a normal butter cake, quite nice actually not dry but the icing! OMG I don’t even know what it was, it tasted so buttery and almost custardy? Just plain decoration, a buttercream swirl with 100’s and 1000’s. $3 each. Sorry no photo.

Now over to W.A! My Aunty knows how I love cuppies so took us to Babycakes to grab some morning tea. The owner served us and was very lovely. I was happy to see some love and detail go into the decorating with little fondant shapes handmade for some of the cakes . We picked 6 of our favourites and headed off somewhere nice to sit and taste test. Again I was disappointed L It is so bizarre how different everyone’s cupcakes can be!

I will admit the chocolate cuppie with chocolate ganache was nice. There was lots of ganache but you can’t complain about that and the cake was moist but as Mark and Kim agreed it just didn’t taste that chocolaty. We had a banana which was ok, Kim had raspberry and was disappointed to see only a few little berries push into the top.

Now to vanilla, big thumbs down. The cake was so dense and moist it was like it was undercooked. I suspect it was meant to be like a mud cake but to me that is just not how a cupcake should be. The buttercream was hard to pick, I think it may have had some cream cheese in it and it was thick. Again not my personal preference for a cupcake. At $3.95 the most expensive cuppies I have bought but with all the ganache I can see why! But $23.70 for our selection of 6 made it an expensive and disappointing morning tea!

Lastly we had lunch at a cute little patisserie called Sugar and Spice. Vanilla cupcake was yummy, yay! It was more of a sponge so light, fluffy and moist. It was dipped in ganache so didn’t look amazing but did taste lovely. Spencer definitely thought so too and at $3 was a very fair price. Sorry no photo again.

So there you go, it seems it’s hard to find a good cupcake! Hopefully one day I can change that J Now remember this is all just my personal opinion, please feel free to taste test yourself!

Back from the big smoke

Hi Everybody!

Sorry it has taken so long to report back, I did a huge post and lost it! Argh!

Anyway I’m back from Sydney, and had an absolutely fantastic time! Of course everyone was lovely and I learn’t so much. It’s funny how I used to look at cupcake photos and think how the hell did they do that? Now I look at them and can figure out exactly how :o) They did go through quite a bit of basic information which was good even if you already knew things, it was great to speak to the other ladies and learn a few tips as well as share some. The most exciting part for me was working with the fondant, something I have always been afraid of! I have no idea why I think it’s just because it’s something I have never worked with. It was also great to learn how to ganache and cover the cupcakes which is something I had been dying to learn. Everywhere I look now I am inspired and see patterns and designs I could turn into cupcakes, I even got a design idea off the bottle of bodywash in the shower this morning!

Now I just have the huge task of slowly collecting all the equipment I need (and want!) so I’m hoping to get some orders soon so I have an excuse to buy stuff! It’s so hard when nothing is available here and everything has to be ordered, although I have found a local supplier of fondant which is good.

With thanks to the help of my biggest supporter I have my paperwork all ready to submit to council. There will need to be a few changes to my kitchen (I believe) but nothing we can’t handle (I hope!) I am not going to send it in until we get back from Perth as I have been told they usually contact you 10days after getting the application so I obviously want them to be able to contact me. This is going to work, it has to! I am desperate to start advertising and getting my name out there, it will come in time.

Oh and back to Sydney for a moment. I visited 3 different cupcakeries which I will review in my next post. And I went and had breakfast at Adrino Zumbos cafe one morning before the course and it was lovely, something I had wanted to do for a while. It was so nice to have time to myself and to not have to cook or cleanup after anybody, I did miss my boys but not too much :o)

I have some cupcakes planned for this week and I will be trying a new buttercream method which I learn’t at PC, so I will be back asap with my cupcake reviews.

Happy Caking

I am addicted to PC courses now and am desperate to go back and lean more!

Mind the terrible piping, thats really something I need to practice.

Back in the game...

Ok, so I know I haven’t posted anything on my blog for a very long time and I apologise.

Christmas was hectic, I baked my arse off! (Well not really, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could do that!) I made chilli jam, gingerbread, my Christmas cookies, pudding truffles, rum balls, apricot balls, baileys balls, peppermint bark, white Christmas and baileys rocky road fudge. And I can’t forget my gingerbread cupcakes, they are my new favourite flavour. Photos to follow.

The thing is even with all that baking which I love I just lost my mojo. My last few batches of cupcakes where duds, and I just felt like a failure. I have never had a problem with papers coming away but every batch I have done lately the papers are coming away and I don’t know why. My recipe hasn’t changed and I am using the same papers as always. I have researched on the net and everyone seems to have a different theory on why this happens. I hope to get answers at Planet Cake.

I can feel myself slipping back into the old Kate, the one who had no self confidence and gave up everything the minute it got too hard. I can feel myself getting scared about Sydney, I was so bloody excited but now it’s only a week away I am doubting myself. What if I can’t keep up? What if they see what I can do and laugh? I know that isn’t the case but these stupid thoughts enter my mind.

And then I’m worried about when I come home, then what? I can’t advertise or sell my cakes because my kitchen isn’t licensed. Everyone supports me and tells me my work is good, I just wish I felt the same way. The council are being a pain and giving me conflicting information about getting my kitchen approved and I have as usual given up. There are 2 ladies selling cupcakes in Cairns already and that really upsets me, I wanna give them some competition! My work is so so different to theirs and I wanna be able to get out there and show it! I just wish I could stop doubting myself and hitting brick walls.

Anyway enough of that rot! I’m changing my attitude! With a week to go until I leave I need to change my way of thinking, 2010 is the year I finally start doing what I love. I’m going to be more open to things and just enjoy life. Once I am back from Sydney with my mind full of information and the dive I need I’m pursuing this licence and getting this little business going!

So then I’m off, I fly to Sydney on Thursday 14^th to have a day of shopping and cupcake eating and then my course starts on Friday. I come home late Sunday night and am having Monday off to spend with my baby boy! I will write a post about my experience when I get back and lots of photos, can you believe they let you take photos during the course!

I feel more positive already!

and they're off!!

HI! Yesterday was my first Melbourne Cup with no big people or champagne :o) The kiddies and I made hats for fashions on the field and we had a horse race and everyone won a "Kate's Cup"!

Even though I was having a lovely day with the kids there was something constantly popping into my head, I HOPE MY CUPCAKES ARE OK!?!?! Haha I made some cupcakes (up till 12:30am, so tired!) for a friends function and had to drop them off in the morning. Normally I am in control of the cakes up until the very last minute and set them up for functions but today I had the kiddies and couldn't do it!

Anyway I needn't had worry as apparently they where a success and all went very quickly!

These are lucious lemon cake filled with tangy homemade lemon curd and iced with a sweet lemon buttercream and handmade sugar roses.

Nice side view of the pretty pink papers

And these are my new favourite! Moist Chocolate cake filled with Raspberry Chocolate ganache and topped with Raspberry Italian buttercream and handmade fondant butterflies and folwers. DELISH!

All packed and ready to go in the Cupcake Couriers

Happy Caking Everyone!

Will eating brains make you smarter?

I hope so...

Oh dear I have neglected my poor little blog...

Anyway I’m here now!

Now I’m not fond of celebrating Halloween, it’s not my kinda thing but with all this cool spooky stuff around there has been lot’s of craft project available to me for FDC. So this afternoon the boys wanted to bake, and Mark had suggested I make Halloween cupcake for him to take to work on Friday. So we set to work making Vanilla cuppies with a swirl of blood (raspberry puree) and gray matter buttercream.

I don’t wanna toot my own horn but they rock! One of the best vanilla cuppies I have made, I have been experimenting with recipes to try and get the perfect vanilla and I *think* I’m pretty close. Spence was following me around saying CAKE! CAKE! CAKE!

Also in exciting news I am finally the proud owner of 2 cupcake couriers! I can now safely carry 72 cupcake without fear, it’s so frustrating working for hours to perfect your cupcakes only to have them destroyed in transport!!! I have one pink and one blue.

11 weeks till I hit Sydney and Planet Cake BABY!!

I shall be back probably on Tuesday as I am making Melbourne Cup Cuppies, will be working all weekend on my fondant decorations.

CYA then and happy caking!