Apparently this site is just about travel, weddings and cupcakes now. So to fit into the new theme, here are some more pics of baking I've done in recent weeks.

I baked these butterfly cupcakes for a uni friends BBQ a couple of weekends ago. The decorating idea came from Australian Women's Weekly's (AWW) Cupcakes by Colour. I wasn't really happy with how they turned out. They looked better in the book. AWW were able to get their butterfly wings to "flex" a little bit.

On Sunday, we had a picnic in the park with the Veitches. It was an excuse to go all out with a very pink, very girly cupcake. Pink polka-dot wrappers, pink icing and loveheart sweets. The girls loved them. Well, they thought they were very pretty. They didn't eat them though; they just licked the icing off the top. I'm figuring out that kids don't actually eat cupcakes.


More photos of our picnic in the park (slideshow) and cupcakes (slideshow) on Flickr.

Last weekend it was Christina's turn to celebrate her last days as a single woman. For her hen's celebration we headed to the David Jones Australian Derby Day at Randwick race courses. Unfortunately, our point and shoot gave up the ghost a few weeks ago so I wasn't able to take any photos during the day. So, the photos from the day will be forthcoming.

I can show you what I baked for the day though. I baked caramel mud(cup)cakes and topped them with dark chocolate icing. I decorated them in a Looooooooove theme. I took photos of my cupcake creations before leaving the house which was a good idea because once packed in my rolly esky, they got bounced around a bit on the journey. Oops! They didn't look quite this good when I brought them out at dessert time. They tasted just as good though!

In between uni assignments (3 down in 3 weeks, 4 to go!) I managed to fit in some Easter baking. Bakerella.com is a great inspiration for all things cupcakes and her Easter ideas are very cute. I decided to try out her Easter basket cupcakes to take to our Good Friday family gathering.


I'm not 100% happy with how they turned out. I searched high and low for a lolly that I could use for the basket handle. The closest thing I could find were cola lassos and they weren't stiff enough to stand up on their own. So I guess they aren't really Easter baskets.

The boys didn't care though. Anything to do with chocolate and lollies was welcome. Oscar and Leo ate the lollies off the top of their cakes. Leo ate some of the icing on his (Oscar doesn't like icing... weirdo). Then they both put their cupcakes aside for later. They had been overloaded with sweet stuff throughout the day. The adults were less discerning.
More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

This year, to celebrate Andrew's birthday we went to see Avatar 3D at IMAX. Here we are in our 3D glasses. Don't we look sexy! The movie was pretty good. The story wasn't anything new (um... pocahontas anyone?) but it was well-paced and there were enough action sequences to keep me amused. The 3D technology was impressive. Andrew gives it 4.5 stars out of 5 (which is a big recommendation from him).

After the movie we headed to dinner at Wagaya in Haymarket. We'd picked this dinner spot for one reason... sushi roulette. How does it work? Well you order a plate of 6 salmon nigiri except there is a catch. One of the nigiris has double the amount of wasabi than normal. So, one lucky diner cops a fiery mouthful of sushi.

The participants in our round of sushi roulette were Sue, Andrew, Simon, Clare, Brendan and Adam.

Who was the lucky winner? You'll have to watch the video to find out.




Thanks to GrabYourFork for the restaurant recommendation.

At the Make Lounge on the weekend, Natalie and I learned how to make cupcakes look pretty. During the workshop we learned how to ice cupcakes using a piping bag, how to make decorations out of marzipan and how to add delicate touches with a small piping bag.

The most important lesson I learned though was that glitter makes everything look better. One of the first colours of icing I made was lilac. Well, that's what I wanted to make. When I added the purple colouring to the icing, I expected it to go lilac and it actually went a horrible purple grey colour. It looked horrible in the bowl and horrible on the cupcake. Luckily, after I added some pink marzipan hearts and a liberal dose of glitter to the "purple" cupcakes they once again looked edible. Actually, I think they even looked a little bit pretty.

After the poor results with purple, I switched to pink and yellow. You can't go wrong with either of these colours. I think my favourite cupcake was one where the icing had a pink & yellow swirly effect. The effect can be made by putting two colours of icing into the one piping bag. It was pretty.

I found the workshop really useful. I'm a self-taught cook, so often I don't know all the little tips and tricks. Like folding the piping bag over your hand to make it easier to get the icing in. I've had some messy experiences with piping bags in the past. Now I know how to do it properly. Often I come home and tell these things to Andrew. He had a baking mentor so he usually just says "duh!".

I took the cupcakes along to a dinner party with the Holicka family. Gaby (age 7) made a beeline for one of the pink cupcakes. It had pink icing, pink hearts and glitter on it. It was the definition of girliness. I was a bit worried that all the cupcakes would be too girly for Dylan (age 4) but he picked the pink & yellow swirly one. I called it the fire cupcake.

The cupcakes were a big hit with the kids and also with this big kid. I'm really impressed with how easy it was to make them look so good. I just need to practice my piping and I'll soon be churning out beautiful cupcakes like a professional.

Some cupcake baking tips:

• Bring all ingredients to room temperature before using. Adding cold eggs or cold milk to a mixture will cause it to curdle.
  
  
• If the mixture looks as if it may curdle when incorporating the eggs, add a spoonful of flour.
  
  
• When adding the flour, stir only until it is all mixed in - over mixing at this stage will result in a heavy, rubbery sponge.
  
  
• Bake at a lower temperature than most recipes call for.
  
  
• Turn cupcake tray around in oven halfway through for even baking.
  
  
• Foil cupcake cases will retain cake freshness longer than the paper variety
  
  

More photos on Flickr.