Apple Computer Cupcakes

My little brother was 27 this weekend, and he came up to visit to celebrate our parents wedding anniversary (also this weekend!). He’s a visual effects artist and has done films like Harry Potter, Stardust, 2010 and Inception – how cool is that? So computer cupcakes seemed like the way to go…. They’re lemon, filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon butter cream, finished with blue fondant icing and sugarpaste decorations.

Shoes and Cupcakes

I made these girly shoe and handbag cupcakes on Monday and took them into work today as it was my boss’s last day – she loves shoes and bags. I made the decorations at the weekend, and really had fun with them although they took quite a long time to do as I cut the shoes out by hand. I’m definitely going to get a shoe cutter set to make the process quicker and easier. I tried a new chocolate cake recipe, but was not very impressed with the results – will stick to my normal recipe in future!

I also made these record and headphones cuppies to coordinate with the shoe and handbag cupcakes for another colleague leaving on the same day. He DJs, so I thought these would be appropriate, even if they are a bit pink and girly, lol!

Baby Shower Cookies

These are practice cookies I made for my friend and line manager who leaves this week – I’ll really miss her! The real ones had tiny lilac flowers on the pram instead of the white flower and the wheels turned out  a bit better that the practice ones but I still found them hard to do! On the babygrow, I replaced the white flower with a little lilac flower and left off the “baby” writing as I felt it wasn’t up to scratch. I went for all lilac wrapping rather than the pink spot paper and yellow ribbon as she doesn’t know if she’s having a girl or a boy…

I got the cutters and cookie presentation box from Cakes Cookies & Craft Shop who I use quite a lot for supplies.

Racing Car Cupcakes

It was my friend’s little boy’s birthday on Saturday, so this is what I made for the party. He was six! Aw :) The board is covered in fondant with a track and little boulders and flowers, most of which you can’t actually see in the photo. The cupcakes are chocolate with chocolate buttercream topped with racing cars, sixes or candles and checkered flags.

Japan-Inspired Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes this weekend for the Autumn issue of UK Handmade magazine. I don’t get time to do baking at the moment, other than when I’ve committed myself to something, so it was really nice to have to make them for the deadline next week. The theme is Japonism, so I’ve topped green tea cakes (made with matcha) with fondant circles and fondant decorations – sushi, chopsticks and cherry blossom. I think they look really cute, although I think they looked a bit nicer in real life – a little set of Japanese-inspired cakes for a special occasion :)

Japan-Inspired Cupcakes

They were quite simple to make and the instructions will be in the magazine when it comes out in September. I quite liked the green tea, although it was a bit grassy for my taste, despite being a big lover of green or herbal tasting things! I made an almond cake base and added the matcha powder to it, so it had quite a nice almond flavour and then the hint of grass… I think I’d describe them as like eating sugared almonds whilst lying on a freshly mown lawn ;)

Japan-Inspired Cupcakes

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

It’s finally strawberry season… I’m hoping to have time to make these for a family barbeque on Sunday. They’re simple to make and the strawberries take no time at all to dip into chocolate and leave to set, but the results are fairly impressive!  I originally made them for UK Handmade magazine (see the post below) – click here to read the recipe on page 27.

Volunteers' Week Baking

It’s Volunteers’ Week this week! To celebrate, I baked some biscuits and cakes and invited volunteers in to have a tea party with us at Community Corner in Stamford Library. I made * a lot* – this pic is just some of them :)

Polka Dot Birthday Cake

Ooh, lovely birthday cake! I didn’t make my own cake for my birthday in the end – my Mum made this pretty cake for me! It’s yummy fruit cake inside with a layer of marzipan, mmmm. The photo is actually only half a cake as we had an early birthday party on Sunday and ate half of it!

Easter Baking

This is the Easter baking I did for UK Handmade magazine last year. I really struggled to take a good photo as the light was so dull and grey on the day I needed to take the shot! The biscuits were very quick and fun to make – just butter biscuits decorated with some rolled out fondant, stamped out in circles and flowers, or topped with mini eggs. The cupcakes were simple lemon sponge topped with lemon glace icing and fondant flowers. A fun project to do with the kids over Easter! Click here to see the tutorials in last year’s magazine.

Also, I just had to share a pic of the Easter gift my brother and his girlfriend gave me: chocolate shoes! How awesome is that? :D Shoes….. that you can eat! They are so cute and I’m now dying to try making some myself. Tempering chocolate is on my to-do list this year…

Chocolate Shoes

Spring Flower Birthday Cake

I made a quick birthday cake for my friend’s birthday last night and finished it off this morning. Lemon sponge, filled with lemon curd and cream and covered with lemon buttercream – I was tired when I baked it, so I managed to slightly burn the sponge! Then this morning when I assembled it I over whipped the cream. And then I didn’t make enough butter cream, so the cake slightly showed through the buttercream outer coating! Ooops… This is what happens when I bake when I’m tired. It turned out OK, but not one of my best… On the plus side I did get to reuse my spring flower decorations :)