Baby Shower Cupcakes & Pandas!

Here are the photos of the cupcakes I made for our work baby shower for Rachael. The sex unknown I went for a mixture of pastel pink, blue, yellow and green. The toppers were little penguin lollies I got from my new local lolly shop (i.e. cupcake topper heaven!) How cute are they!?

The cupcakes are the Lemon Diva ones I made previously, with an addition of orange zest and lemon curd filling, and of course I went with cream cheese frosting, my favourite!

Rachael was spoilt with a huge basket of gifts from every one at work, I get so darn clucky when I see little singlets and onesies and socks! I wanted to make some flannelette blankets like the ones my Mum made for my sister when she was born. I hand embroidered them with a gorgeous 'Baby' design found on Needlecrafter.com. I love how soft and cosy this material is, it does look a little bit fuzzy in the photo...

Last weekend I was very lucky to attend a special function in at the Hilton in Adelaide. It was a fund-raiser for the two beautiful giant pandas - Wang Wang & Funi - that are soon to leave China to come live at the Adelaide Zoo. The hotel was stunning and our superb meals were prepared by Simon Bryant from The Cook & The Chef. We were entertained by the Brighton Secondary School Symphonia, for which my sister plays percussion. It had been ages since I had seen her play and I have to say I was mighty proud of her tympani skills! I am very excited for these amazing creatures immanent arrival. Thank you Mum for taking me!

Giant Panda Funi - Photo from here.

Hope you all have a swell weekend!
I am going to spend mine sewing and catching up on some well deserved rest.

＊ Spring & Fruitcake Cupcakes ＊

Spring for me means pretty flowers, an abundance of birds and bugs, raging hay fever, and unpredictable weather! I was down feeding the chickens at sunset last week, when I noticed our nectarine tree had blossomed already...without me knowing it! The blossoms were actually glowing in the sunset light, so I ran back up to the house to grab my sister and her camera so we could capture the beauty. There were so many more amazing blossom photos, it was hard to choose, perhaps I will share more soon.

Spring also means my Birthday is coming soon. I will be 25 this year, I feel the customary 'Oh no a quarter of my life is over and I haven't achieved half of what I should of by now' melt down will hit me soon.

I shouldn't deplore really, my Grandpa just turned 89! Woah! We celebrated with all the family together, we went out for a 'pub' lunch. Afterwards we came home and I served up fruitcake cupcakes that my Grandma had secretly requested me to make.
I have to say these were not the most pretty cupcakes I have ever made, but when we ate them, they tasted delicious, and filled me with nostalgic memories of eating Grandma's Christmas fruitcake, with sweet thick royal icing, during my time at my Grandparents place throughout summer holidays. Ahhh I love bouts of nostalgia...

Fruit Cake Cupcakes - Recipe from Cupcake Creations
Makes 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients

90gms Butter - softened
110gms Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tblsp Orange Marmalade
2 tblsp Sweet Sherry (Brandy would work well too)
500g Mixed Dried Fruit
100g Plain Flour
2 tblsp Self-raising Flour
1 tsp Mixed Spice

2 tblsp sweet sherry - extra (I would add a couple more next time!)

Method
This is where I differed from the recipe a bit. Before I began, I soaked my mixed fruit with the marmalade and sherry overnight, a la how G-ma and G-pa have always done it!

1. Preheat oven to 160C/320F.
2. Line a 12 cupcake pan with heavy duty liners, the foil ones are ideal.
3. Using an electric beater, beat butter, sugar and eggs until just combined.
4. Stir in mixed fruit, sherry and marmalade mixture, until well combined.
5. Sift in flours and spice. Mix well.
6. Spoon mixture evenly into 12 cupcake liners. Don't worry if they seem full, this mixture does not rise much at all, take a moment to smooth the mixture over the top with a butter knife.
7. Bake for 50 minutes, keep an eye on them, they make take longer in some ovens.
8. Remove from oven and immediately pour the extra tablespoons of sweet sherry over each cupcake. Allow cakes to cool completely in pan before removing them.
9. Top with dusted icing sugar, or cut out circles of royal icing and top with half a cherry.

I would like to start introducing you to our 4 kitties, this week... please meet Honeybun...

Honeybun has appeared previously in a post about Peachy-keen/Bananarama cupcakes!

Honeybun came to us first out of the four. We had been in contact with our vet, looking to adopt a cat in need. They introduced us to Honeybun, a gorgeous tortoise shell cat, who was on strong stress medication from living with a giant, and I mean GIANT labrador called Barney.

We took her into our home, and she soon settled in, and was able to come off the medications. Honeybun loves sleeping in bushes in the garden, and is always always the last to finish her dinner, I think she actually likes to taste her food rather than inhale it, her special favorite treats are tiny tastes of milk, and bits of Vegemite on toast! Honeybun rarely looses her collar, and she is often disgruntled with the boy kitties, I like to think she is the prim and proper lady of the pack.

This sweet picture is by my sister Caitlin.

Cupcake Hero! - Banana Caramel Cupcakes

In my previous post I mentioned I had another cupcake order! A dozen cupcakes in three different flavours for a gorgeous gal Lauren, for her Birthday! We worked together to come up with the flavours, and Lauren gave me free reign on the cupcake design. In the bustle of making and decorating these cupcakes, I didn't have time to take any decent photos, but luckily enough for me, Lauren took some real beauties!

Jam Doughnut cupcakes, with cream cheese frosting, and apricot jam centre:

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes, with a gooey Nutella and roast hazelnut centre, and rich ganache frosting, sprinkled with chopped roasted hazelnuts:

And finally Caramel Banana Cupcakes, light fluffy banana cake, with a decadent caramel frosting, topped with a jersey caramel, banana lolly, and a drizzle of chocolate:

I was lucky enough to have a few extra of the banana caramel cupcakes, and boy they were delicious if I don't say so myself! So, I thought I'd make this recipe my entry into Cupcake Hero!

Banana Caramel Cupcakes - Recipe from Australian Women's Weekly Cupcakes
Makes 16 Cupcakes

Ingredients

125g softened butter
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 cup mashed overripe banana
1/2 cup (120g) sour cream
1/4 cup (60mls) milk

Method

1. Preheat oven 180C/160C fan forced. Line muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar in bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Stir in sifted dry ingredients, banana, sour cream and milk, in two batches.

4. Drop 1/4 cup mixture into cupcake liners. Bake for about 30 minutes. Stand cakes for 5 minutes before transferring onto wire rack to cool.

Caramel Frosting - recipe adapted from Best Recipes

Ingredients

2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream
60g butter
Decorations - lolly bananas, jersey caramels, melted chocolate.

Method

1. Melt butter and brown sugar in saucepan on medium to low heat and stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Blend in sour cream, and bring to the boil.
3. Remove from heat and transfer into a bowl, leave to cool for about 10 minutes.
4. Sift in icing sugar and beat with electric mixer, keep adding icing sugar until mixture is of a piping consistency, holding stiff peaks.
5. Put into piping bag and pipe swirls. Top with a lolly banana, a jersey caramel, and drizzle melted chocolate over the top! Mmmm then enjoy!

I'll let you know when voting begins!!

This weekend, I saw off my dear friend Kim at the airport. She is off to Beijing, China for a year to learn Mandarin at a Chinese university. I am so proud of her for taking such a big step in her life, and am secretly envious of the grand adventures she will have! I have blossoming plans to go visit her in May next year! Kim will be blogging her experiences at "Kim's Adventure In China", go check it out!

Before Kim left, I made her a promised and long overdue tote bag, and a passport cover. Kim asked for purple hues and Cherry Blossoms, I really enjoyed working with these colours:

For the passport cover I used Bunnybum's tutorial again as it was extremely helpful when I made one previously. I guess I had better make myself a passport cover eventually too!

I have a busy few weeks coming up, I will try and keep up with blogging amidst all that is going on. My uncle from Canberra is over to help us celebrate my Grandpa's 89th Birthday this Friday, I will be making him fruitcake cupcakes. I have a baby shower coming up which I will be making cupcakes and gifts for, and a new swap in progress with the very cool Becky from Strumpets Crumpets.
Also, I noticed my first year bloggoversary is looming very quickly, and I have a HUGE give-away planned to celebrate! Stay tuned folks!