It's time to vote!

It's voting time for Iron Cupcake Earth!

Please go on over to "No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner" and show a first timer some love! :)

Sadly not a winner, but I want to thank everyone who voted for me!
I truely appreciate the support!

Cold weather brings with it...a cold!

Ah, the beautiful rain, we have missed it so much! We have had two solid days of rain now and the garden looks greener already! Unfortunately I have spent the last few days very unwell with a cold, I have been through lots of tissues, cups of tea, and cough lozenges. Today I finally stopped sounding like a man, and am feeling a little better.
I find when I am sick, I get really bored very quickly, there is only so much daytime television I can take, and so I did some sewing to keep me occupied. My dear friend Jess (We call her Hillness) had her Birthday yesterday, so I made her a colourful Birthday gift:

Hillness loves birds, so I designed a love bird tote bag for her, she also recently moved out of home, hence the coasters, and she works night shifts, so I made her a sleep mask to help block that pesky daytime light out!

Today is ANZAC day. It is a day where Australians and New Zealanders stop to remember the men and women who fought during past wars. It is a spiritual and solemn commemoration day. I made some ANZAC biscuits for the day, using the recipe from the 'Exclusively Food' blog. I added about 1/3 of a cup of chopped pecans. They are nice biscuits for a cold windy rainy Autumn day, and they go beautifully with a cup of T Bar's Australian black tea!

Iron Cupcake Earth : Raspberry Creaming Soda Cupcakes

This is my first ever entry into the Iron Cupcake Earth challenge!!

I loved the soda ingredient idea, and kept thinking of my favourite childhood drink...raspberry ice cream soda or 'spiders' as I have always known them as.
I knew I wanted to use raspberry creaming soda soft drink in my cupcakes, and I wanted to decorate them so they looked like the fizzy creaminess on the top of the spider drink.

I had a bit of trouble finding a good recipe using soda that didn't involve using a packet cake mix! But I found one online eventually, and I have to say the raspberry taste isn't very strong, as I have noticed many people saying.

I slightly altered this Orange Juice Fizzy Cake recipe. I halved it, and used raspberry soda instead of orange, I added a little raspberry cordial in an effort to make the flavour stronger. The cakes rose beautifully.

The butter cream frosting consists of butter, icing sugar, raspberry creaming soda, strawberry essence, red colouring. I made it in three different shades of pink and put them together in the piping bag. I topped it all off with a squirt of whipped cream and a cherry!

Raspberry Creaming Soda Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
70mls Raspberry Creaming Soda
1 tablespoon Raspberry cordial
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method
Mix sugar and oil together, add egg and beat for 1 min. Add sifted flour and baking powder alternately with raspberry creaming soda and cordial. Beat for 2 mins. Divide batter evenly among liners and bake for 15-20 mins.

Our April ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=16748
• a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

I believe eating Smarties makes you smarter!!

Hello all, its cupcake time again!

I had half a block of Nestle Smarties chocolate that my sister had given me that needed to be eaten up. I thought it would go well chopped up in some rich chocolate cupcakes.
I wanted to try Devils Food Chocolate Cupcakes, as I had never done them before. I used a recipe found on the Cupcake Bake Shop blog by Chockylit. For the frosting, I mixed up some icing sugar, coco powder, chocolate ice cream topping, milk and about a tablespoon of butter, you know me and frosting recipes...I never follow one!

Smarties Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Chockylit's Devil's Food Chocolate Cupcake Recipe)

makes 12 cupcakes - 350F / 18o C degree oven

Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup coco powder
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract (added for a more 'candy' taste)
1 egg
3/4 cup Smarties chocolate block, finely chopped.

Method

Preheat oven.

1. Measure out everything but the eggs directly into your mixer bowl.
2. Mix on low speed just until incorporated.
3. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
4. Add eggs, beat on high speed again for 2 minutes.

Measure out into cupcake pan lined with cupcake papers. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly in the pan then transfer to a rack to cool completely before frosting.

This cupcake is rich and delicious and the candy part of the Smarties adds a nice sweet crunch! My one and only complaint about this cupcake is the chocolate bits sank down the bottom. If anyone knows how to try and prevent this happening I would love some tips!

I am addicted!

To Yo-yo's! I bought a Clover Yo-yo maker recently. They are a little time consuming to make at first, but I find I am getting quicker at sewing them now I have the hang of it, and they are just so cute! I made a whole bunch of them, and had an idea to thread it into a necklace. I love the pink, blue and green colour combination in it!

I would just like to thank you all for the kind and encouraging comments on my Easter cupcakes, I truely appreciate it! I am already working on more cupcake ideas! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! <3

Happy Easter Cupcakes!

I love the Easter holiday, I'll confess its because of the abundance of pretty decorations and delicious food. I adore all the pastel colours and soft fuzzy animals, and its such a great excuse to eat tonnes of chocolate! Even though its not spring here in Australia, it kind of feels like it is...because with the rain, our gardens start springing into life again. Yesterday my Mum, sister and I spent the afternoon gardening and we planted seeds, then I got into the kitchen to decorate the vanilla almond flavoured cupcakes I baked that morning.

I spent ages bent over the bench making pretty little fondant flowers. I was truely lucky when I found an ex-wedding cake decorators kit at the car boot sale earlier this year, it had so many pretty little flower cutters perfect for these Easter cupcakes. I was partly inspired by Bakerella's Easter cupcake baskets, I used her idea of tinted sugar...and was mostly inspired by this quaint vintage Easter card I found on Flickr.

I have to say I am rather proud of these cupcakes and the toppers, I am having trouble bringing myself to eat them...let alone let anyone else! So, sorry about the tonnes of photos, I just loved them all! I hope you enjoy them too, and I wish you all a very safe and happy Easter holiday! :)

I ♥ Banana Cake

I do! I do! I think it is my favourite cake... hmm that's saying a lot...ok its one of my most favourite cakes! I had a banana cake curse last year. Every banana cake I tried to make flopped, although we had a dying oven at the time, and that was probably the reason for it, I labelled it a curse. Since then we have gotten a new oven, and I tried a different recipe, and the curse was lifted!

I found the recipe from 'Cathy Cooks Food' and it was so so easy, it doesn't require oil or butter and is super moist! So I made the cake last night, and decided I wanted a caramel icing. I found a really yummy one and want to share it with you.

Caramel Icing from 'Best Recipes'

60 gms Butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar

Melt butter and brown sugar in a saucepan on medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Blend in sour cream and bring to the boil.
Remove from the heat and stir in sifted icing sugar until well combined. Cool until icing is a spreadable consistency. Spread over cake.

♫ I want your love... ♫

The song has been in my head all morning, after I saw it on the Saturday morning music video program, Rage. I loved watching the video, and really I really love the pink dress Wendy James wears in it. I thought the latest batch of cupcakes I made would match perfectly with the dress!

I made Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes as I wanted to use the remaining fresh raspberries we had. I initially wanted to use white chocolate, but sadly didn't have any, so dark chocolate it was.

I used the recipe on gigi cakes blog, for a white chocolate raspberry yellow cake cupcake. I added my fresh raspberries to the batter, and used vanilla essence instead of raspberry. I hadn't made cupcakes with sour cream in them before, and I have to say I loved it!

Aren't the Cupcake liners darling?

A tote bag for Grandma

It was my Grandma's Birthday last weekend. I had it in my head that I was going to make her a bag with an owl on it for her present. I of course left it till the day beforehand to take on the project, which I will never do again! I was up until 1 am! I followed the tutorial here on Craftser. It all went very well until I had to sew the lining handles and the outside together, that was confusing, but there was another tutorial that explained it better here. Grandma loved the bag, and agreed that handmade gifts are so much more special!

My Grandma used to be a Brownies (Girl Guide) Leader. She has collected owls her whole life, and has an amazing assortment. I think she loved the owl I hand embroidered on the bag!