Cupcakes For Charity - January

As I mentioned in my previous post, I made a New Years resolution to hold a cupcake fund-raiser for a different animal charity each month this year. This month though, after watching the horrific images of the Haiti earthquake aftermath on the news, it just didn't seem right to raise money for any other cause...

So all the money I raised this month is going to the Red Cross Haiti Disaster Relief Fund...

I baked 3 dozen Hummingbird cupcakes for the sale, which we held at my Mum's theatre group's garage sale. I used a Pina Colada recipe I had used previously, and simply added a couple of ripe banana's to the mix. The cupcakes turned out nicely - very light and fluffy. I iced them with cream cheese frosting and used my now treasured M1 tip!

We raised $126 in total!

Recipe follows...

Hummingbird Cupcakes
Makes 18 cupcakes

Recipe adapted from - Pina Colada Cupcakes in Crazy About Cupcakes

Ingredients

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup pineapple juice
1 tablespoon rum
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I just used Self Raising flour and omit the baking powder & salt)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup crushed pineapple
2 small overripe bananas - mashed

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with liners.

2. With an electric mixer at medium speed beat together the melted butter, pineapple juice, rum, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
(Ok, this step is kind of weird, I have made this twice, and there is no way that butter and pineapple juice is ever going to mix into a light and fluffy mixture, so I just start mixing once a few eggs are in the mix and it works fine!)

3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture 1/2 cup at a time until combined. Fold in the pineapple, banana and coconut.

5. Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.

Frost with desired frosting (I used cream cheese frosting) and top with a sprinkle of shredded coconut.

I am pleased to say that after a bout of hot weather and subsequent listlessness, I have got my baking and sewing mojo back! I am working on a top secret Birthday surprise for my friend Kelly, she is holding a rather amazing give-away at the moment on her blog, so pop on over and check out her amazing work!

Oh and more exciting news! After much hard saving, and combined generous Birthday and Christmas gifts, I was able to get together enough money to purchase my very own KitchenAid Stand Mixer this week! As the colour I wanted - Ice - was out of stock when I bought it, I will have to wait till the end of February before it arrives. I cannot wait!

Much Love!

I'm back! ☺

A Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

I am now home after a month away house/doggy sitting and limited internet access, I had two blissful weeks off work, where I did nothing but read, sleep and went for swims in the pool!

I had a very nice Christmas with the family, having two of my cousins join us from Canberra, I hadn't had a Christmas together with them since I was quite young, so it was quite special, and wow we cooked the best turkey ever!
I made Christmas cupcakes for my lovely co-workers, and even though the season is well and truely over, I wanted to share pictures of them...

I usually have an aversion to shopping and the post Christmas sales especially, I just can't handle the crowds, but I managed to spend a fortune in the very cool sleepwear store Peter Alexander. I was so overjoyed by this find I had to share...

Isn't the vintage kitty illustration print on these pyjama pants just FABULOUS!?

So for my New Years Resolutions I have set two goals. I did not want to make the same old crappy 'loose weight' goals. So with some thought, I have decided to have a cupcake sale most likely at work, to raise money for a different animal charity every month. If you have any favourite animal causes you would like to recommend, please let me know!
The other goal of course being selling tote bags on Etsy, I have finished one new one over the break, but would like to complete a few more before opening for business!

So here's to a fabulous New Year!

Cupcakes, Ponies and Christmas

I have mentioned before that my boyfriend and I house/dog sit several times a year, this time it is for three weeks at a lovely house with two Spoodle puppies. I love the dogs, but they are a lot of work, they have been barking a lot at night at possums, so I am feeling a little sleep deprived!

Also I am deprived of the internet there! I have had to travel home in order to catch up on my blogging; I will apologise in advance if I don't get back to you or don't visit as often as I would normally like to.
This will be our first Christmas away from home, and I have been missing the smell of our real pine tree that we normally get. But I consoled myself with a new pretty pink Christmas tree with the cutest new ornaments, cupcakes and My Little Ponies!

I love my fluffy white lights!

Isn't it lovely?? I am looking forward to the Christmas traditions we have like having my boyfriends sister over for gingerbread cookie decorating, and building the Ikea gingerbread house with my sister. I also plan on baking lots of Christmas cupcakes for my lovely workmates, I am thinking I will make gingerbread, red velvet, and peppermint candy cane flavoured ones, hardly original, but awesome Christmas flavours that I enjoy!!

Happy things to report:

• My mum has been allowed to put weight on her leg now, so that means no more crutches!
  
• I had a bit of a teary moment when I saw Cat's Little Miss Cupcake blog post, with my cupcake tote bag prize touring the beautiful city of Paris! Thank you so much Cat!
  
• The mermaid tote bag I made for Becky was featured on One Pretty Thing, thanks Rachel!
• The bird/turkish delight cupcakes I made were featured on Cupcakes Take the Cake! Thank you girls!
  

Last week of work before holidays! Woo!

Turkish Delight Cupcakes

Sorry I have been a little bit slack with posting lately. It's that busy time of year, when you spend all your spare time searching for perfect Christmas presents and recipes, writing Christmas cards, deciding on a colour theme for decorations, and dreaming up what the Christmas table setting will look like. For our family, we do not decorate for Christmas until after my sisters Birthday on the 1st of December, we don't want her celebrations overshadowed by Christmas goings on!

This year my sister turned 17, and made a very mature decision to hold a dinner party for her friends. She spent ages choosing what she was going to serve, and did almost everything herself.
I gave her a hand with decorating, her invitations where yellow, white and black with birdies, so we went with those colours and birds for the theme.

We had a table with nibbles, lollies, tea cups & cupcakes ready to go for dessert...

Photo by Caitlin

The table runner fabric was from Ikea, it was black & white with bird print, I bought a yellow fabric pen and added yellow accents throughout the print. The fairy lights strung above the table provided a magical atmosphere.

Caitlin asked me to make cupcakes for dessert. One of her favourite flavours of mine is Turkish Delight cupcakes, so naturally she chose them. I used the cutest black and white polka dot cupcake liners, and the sweetest ceramic mould to make the fondant birdies on top. I finally am a proud owner of a Wilton M1 tip, after visiting about 4 cake decorating stores, someone finally had one in stock! Oooh the swirls it makes are so so pretty!

Caitlin did such a good job, she worked so hard and it all went very smoothly, I was super proud of her. I was also very impressed with her group of friends, she has definitely surrounded herself with wonderful, kind, well adjusted people.


Turkish Delight Cupcakes - Recipe adapted from Women's Weekly Cupcake Cookbook
Makes 15 Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cup (225g) self-raising flour
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
185g softened butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup (125mls) milk
1-2 teaspoons of Rosewater essence, according to taste
2/3 cup of Turkish Delight chocolate bar cut up into small cubes
1/3 cup of finely chopped dark chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/ 160C fan forced. Line holes of muffin pans with cupcake liners.
2. Sift dry ingredients into large bowl, add remaining ingredients, except the Turkish Delight and chocolate; beat with electric mixer on low until speed until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium; beat until mixture is smooth and has changed to paler colour.
3. Now add the Turkish Delight and chocolate, gently fold through the batter (I like to sprinkle mine with flour first to try and stop it all sinking to the bottom)
4. Drop 1/4 cup of mixture into cases. Bake for about 20 mins. Stand cakes for 5 minutes before turning onto rack to cool.
5. Frost as desired, I used a simple buttercream for these cupcakes. Enjoy!

Hope the rest of the week goes nicely for you all! I am so ready for the weekend already!

Latest Blog Swap!

Recently I got a lovely surprise when I went to collect my mail! I had organised to do a crafty swap with Becky of Strumpets Crumpets a little while ago, and I was was overjoyed when I opened my soft and squishy package! Becky made me a beautiful cushion, with gorgeous Anna Maria Horner fabric, and it has the most amazing hand embroidered details.

See? Isn't the embroidery fabulous?

Becky also made me the cutest handkerchief, I LOVE the font and the cupcake design:

Thank you Becky, I really love love love what you made me with so much love!

You should go and check out Becky's blog, she is always making the coolest stuff!

Becky has also received my package so I can show you all what I made her too!!

Becky loves mermaids, she has a really nice mermaid tattoo on her back, which I think is totally awesome, which is what inspired me to make her a tote bag with a mermaid felt embroidered centre...

Becky also loves her cute little pooch Mickey, so I thought it would be fun to make her a box pouch (using this tutorial) with "Becky loves Mickey 4eva" on it! I even found a cute magnet which reminded me of Mickey at a market, and had to include it in...

As little extra, I made Becky a 'pin' wheel (using this tutorial) with the same fabric I used as the lining of the tote bag, I chose orange fabric as she is from Florida and well, I know there are a whole lotta oranges there ;)

I love swapping, it is such a fun thing to do. I get a real kick out of making really personalised gifts that my partners will love. But I think I need to focus more on my dream of making bags to sell on Etsy now... I have some time off before Christmas, and I am so hoping it wont be too busy so I can get heaps of sewing done!

Mum Update: Mum went into the fracture clinic today and had her cast taken off and was x-rayed, only to have the cast put back on again for another week! But she was told her fractures are healing well, so all in all good news.

Hope you all have a swell week!

Giveaway Winner!

I sincerely apologise for taking so long to announce my give-away winner. You see, ever since Halloween life has been a little bit hectic, as my Mum fell off a step ladder and broke her leg!

After a few days in hospital we found out she probably wont need surgery, and she was able to come home with crutches and a full leg half-cast. I am sure she will come to enjoy her forced time off work once she learns how to relax a bit!
I in the mean time have become the stand in 'Mum' in the household, keeping busy with a bigger share of housework, cooking and being the taxi driver!! So Mum, I do hope you rest up and...

I really enjoyed reading every one's responses to my give-away question, there were some really interesting answers. The majority of people seemed to go for dazzlingly clever, and that is what I would have chosen too. However there were some very good responses for angelically good and divinely beautiful as well.
I am overwhelmed by all my new followers, I wish you a very warm welcome and hope you enjoy my blog! I will hopefully be able to visit you all soon when I have a chance once we settle into a new routine here at home.

So without further ado, the winner is...

Congratulations Cat a.k.a Little Miss Cupcake! I think fate/karma must be on your side. And I am a winner too, it's so exciting that my bag is going to be paraded around the streets of Paris! I will be in touch soon to get your postal details!

I had a lovely Birthday on Friday, thank you very much for the well wishes. Had a fantastic family dinner at my favourite Chinese place called Lim's - the reason its my favourite? The staff sing me 'Happy Birthday', while bringing me a sparkler laden fried ice cream dessert, AND I get a nice bottle of champagne from them too, what more could a girl want?

I will leave you with my VERY late picture of the Halloween cupcakes I made. I hope you all had an awesome Halloween :) I was dressed up as a mermaid before our unexpected trip to the hospital!

Please send my Mum some get well love, it all helps :)

Blogoversary Giveaway!!

Yep! I have been doing this blogging thing for an entire year! In some ways it doesn't seem like a whole year, and in others it feels like much longer than that!! I have been so lucky to have made some wonderful blogging friends, and I truly appreciate all the support and encouragement from everyone who has left me such sweet and kind comments, it has allowed me an outlet to be creative and express myself outside my day job. I wondered if I would tell my story of how my blogging journey began, or how my blog name came about, but I think I will bore you with that another day! All you want to know is WHERE IS THE GIVE-AWAY right!? lol

(This pic was taken by my sister Caitlin in a fun photo shoot we did yesterday, many more from the series to come! )

So without further ado...

You could WIN this cupcake tote bag, designed, hand crafted and sewn with love by me:

It could be YOU turning heads with this sweet and colourful bag!!!

Can you see? The lining is made from the cutest cupcake pattern...

To get you started on filling this bag with necessities and goodies, I am including some MIKI Passionfruit Lip Sorbet, a handy cupcake magnetic address booklet, and a pack of the most adorable Sniff designer tissues!

How to Enter:

You MUST be a follower of my blog. Everyone can enter, I will ship internationally.
Leave a comment telling me your answer to the following question...
Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you!!

I have been racking my brain on what question I would like to ask for my blogoversary give away. However after recently watching Ann of Green Gables it was abundantly clear...

Tell me: Which would you rather be?
Divinely beautiful, or dazzlingly clever, or angelically good? and why?

You have until the 6th of November (My Birthday!) to enter this competition, I would very much appreciate it if you spread the word about this via Twitter or on your blog!

Good luck everyone, and thank you again for your kindness and support,
it means the world to me!