almost!!

I had half an omg moment tonight.

I stumbled across a recipe that I had actually made 6 months ago, declared the best cupcake EVER, and then promptly forgot about.

So I made it again tonight and apparantly I had forgotten just how amazing the cake was.....light.....fluffy.....beautiful flavour. Then I remembered why I had forgotten about it (lol) the cupcakes don't rise the way I like. I like perfectly domed cupcakes.

These were perfectly flat :(

I am determined to work on these and MAKE them domed.....I don't care how many dozens of cupcakes I have to make.....I'll make it work.

Stay tuned for the other half of the omg moment, whenever it may happen!!

The Great Cupcake Experiment.

I'm on the hunt for a fantastic vanilla cupcake recipe. I've already got a chocolate one that is my favourite, but I have yet to find a vanilla cupcake recipe that makes me go OMG. As a result, I ended up with several batches of cupcakes in my kitchen on the weekend. Alas, no OMG moment.



They looked nice. They smelt nice. They tasted nice....but the texture was all wrong. Far too dense.

I also did another batch from Magnolias recipe. I was really disappointed. Far too dry.



I used all my nice cupcake papers and all the little roses I made too.....oh darn, I guess I'll just have to go and buy some more stuff!!

I've been doing some extensive research online though, and have printed off several cupcake recipes. I also have one from the planet cake book that I have yet to try. I am also going to go back to Jennifer Graham (of the Crabapple Cupcake Bakery) and try that recipe again. There are several books I have at home that I haven't had a chance to even try 1 recipe out of.....so it's just trial and error until I find the perfect recipe I suppose!!

The Cupcake Factory, Drummoyne.

I've been intending to go to The Cupcake Factory for a long time. And I finally got there today.



It's a TINY shop, we opened the door and there were 3 people in there and once we had squeezed in there, none of us could move, but it's really cute!!

We ended up getting a large caramel swirl and a choc strawberry, and 2 mini chocolate cupcakes.





I tried the caramel swirl one first. The cupcake was SO nice and soft, one of the best I've had, and the icing was nice however I couldn't really detect a caramel taste to it?? It just tasted like vanilla, and to me the only thing that made it caramel was the lolly on top of it. Nice, but nothing special.



Next, I tried the mini chocolate cupcake. I'm really sad to say that I didn't like it. I am not one to reject cake, I love cake, any size, shape or colour (except for you carrot cake. Get out) I do not discriminate with my cake. I just didn't like the flavour or texture, I found it a bit dry, but the presentation was nice!!

Next was the choc strawberry. Vanilla cupcakes, vanilla icing with strawberry choc curls. It was really nice, but didn't pack much of a strawberry punch. I did enjoy it though.




Address:
The Cupcake Factory
147 Victoria Road (Enter on Edwin Street)
Drummoyne
Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri 9 - 5
Sat 10 - 4

Stop. Cupcake Time!!

One of my sisters friends ordered 2 dozen cupcakes from me for her husbands 40th birthday. Just plain vanilla, 12 with chocolate icing, 12 with vanilla icing, all finished off with a slice of mars bar. $50 for 2 dozen, which in my opinion is quite good, because generally cupcakes retail for around $80+ for 2 dozen.

I used Magnolia's vanilla cupcake recipe. I've only made it once before, and it was while I was in England with very limited supplies, but I'm happy to say that the recipe said it would make 24, it did make 24 and I needed exactly 24. Win win!! I am always hesitant about giving people cakes/food without tasting it myself to make sure that it's ok, but the smell that came out of the box when I opened them this morning to ice them was divine so I'm confidant that they'll taste good too.

Cakes for a friend + Adriano.

It was my friends housewarming this Saturday just gone and as I'm always looking for an excuse to bake cakes, this wasn't an exception.

There was SO much food....it was like being a kid in a candy store!! There was even a chocolate fountain....yes, a chocolate FOUNTAIN!! Zahh!! Needless to say, there was never much of a distance between the chocolate fountain and myself, it's lucky anyone else got a look in with me there!!

Anyway, I took some white choc cupcakes and a Madeira cake covered with fondant. I'm pleased with the result:





I also finally made it to Adriano Zumbo on Sunday!! I was soooo excited, I've been wanting to get there for SO long. I didn't plan it too well though, as we got there at about 1pm, and of course by that time he had run out of almost everything!!

We did manage to grab 2 chocolate macarons & a citron tart......holy frig they were delicious!! I can't even describe the amazingness of the macarons.....crisp, light, fluffy, heavy, smooth, creamy, crunchy all at once?! How does that happen?! It was just like a little party in my mouth!! I'm not a massive fan of citrus, however the tart was nice, such a strong, zingy lemon flavour, you could feel the flavour of it on your toungue for several minutes after swallowing. The filling was creamy and smooth, the pastry crisp and buttery. Pretty good in my opinion!!

Everybody loves Elmo!!

My sister has a habit of saying yes to things, and then getting everyone else to help her. This Elmo cake was no exception.

A work colleague saw a few cakes that my sister had made in the past for her daughters birthday parties (several, several years ago) and requested an Elmo cake. Sure, no problem. She then asked me to help out.

I've never made a cake like this before, so to say that I'm pleased with the outcome is an understatement!!

My sister baked the cake (I'm not going to lie, it was a packet mix!!) and I then went over to help (a.k.a ice the whole thing).



Despite my apprehension, Elmo wasn't terribly difficult to make!! We blew up a picture of Elmo, traced him on to some greaseproof paper and then attached the image to the cake with toothpicks and I cut around the image to create the shape of the cake. The eyes and nose are made of fondant, the black outline is licorice and the icing is betty crocker. I know, shameful, if I had have been in charge I would have made it all from scratch!!

Cake Decorating Central @ Castle Hill

What better way to start this blog than to post some photos of a couple of new purchases??

I went to Cake Decorating Central at Castle Hill on Saturday. In a word: amazing!!

It's one of those places where you walk through the door and your breath is taken away and your heart rate starts to quicken, there's just SO much stuff to look at!! A countless number of cake tins, cake boards, little molds to make flowers and leaves, a wall dedicated to cookie cutters (which my friend likes to call the great wall of cookie cutters!!), cupcake papers in the most beautiful designs, shapes and sizes, edible ink, colour pastes, cake boxes and cupcake boxes.....honestly, the list goes on, it's just awesome.












My favourite papers are the black and silver ones. They're so pretty!!

Website: http://www.cakedecoratingcentral.com/
Location: Castle Hill - Unit 23, Hoyle Avenue, Castle Hill
Opening Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri 9 - 5, Thurs 9 - 7, Sat 9 - 3

They also have a shop at Campbelltown - Unit 2, 5 Harbord Road, Woodbine, Campbelltown (opening hours are the same as the Castle Hill shop)