Cupcake heaven

Emily's last day in the Fantail Room at her pre-school (New Shoots) warranted a gift of cupcakes, for the hard-working teachers who invest their time into trying to make our daughter into a decent human...and her pint-sized little friends who have put up with Emily's bossiness. She now joins the 'big kids' (i.e. the 2-3 year olds) in the Kea Room.

It also gave me an excuse to try two new things: making fondant roses (thanks to a youtube tutorial  - youtorial?! - delivered by a very posh English person) and another cupcake recipe - one given by Barbs, my work friend from Wellington, who declared it the best cupcake recipe EVER. I'm always skeptical when recipes are presented as such - not because I doubt other cooks have found them so brilliant, more because I may be the first cook EVER to actually stuff it up.

However, I managed to avoid failure on this occasion. The recipe called for buttermilk and I think it was the ingredient that made them special.

Emily checking out her 'thank you' cupcakes for her teachers and friends in the Fantail Room at her preschool.

To test my theory on the awesomeness of buttermilk, I added it to the standard Edmonds recipe instead of milk and the result was fantastic.

Since word has got out about my new passion for baking I have received some beautiful gifts like these paper cases and cake decorating accessories and the best pinny in the world (thank you Laura, Jon, Sarah and Glenn).

My mother-in-law arrived from England on Friday armed with all manner of retro doilies for presenting cakes and cutesy Olympic cupcake holders, so keep an eye out for more creations.
TTFN x

Nailed the brioche!

If a picture paints a thousand words, I wonder what the word count is for the smell of freshly baked cinnamon brioche. Until technology advances, you're stuck with looking at these babies...



I believe the word is voila!

The perfect coffee break: with freshly baked blueberry, passionfruit, white chocolate brioche

I'm not one to shrink from self-praise; they were awesome. Definitely worth a night of the dough proving in the fridge. I strayed from the cinnamon sugar rolls to a passionfruit, berry filling as well, but Neil, clearly a brioche purist, prefers the cinnamon. The berry ones were delish, but I  have to reluctantly agree. Thank you to the wonderful Ripe recipe book (kindly lent from Ange and Crawford).

Cook books have become my friend since I've started this challenge and I've earmarked an overwhelming number of goodies to add to the baking list. The Hummingbird Cafe blueberry muffins were perhaps my best yet, but since then I've produced some yummy boysenberry and white chocolate ones from good old Alison Holst and even some of my own creations turned out well... so maybe I'm just getting the hang of it!

On the path to muffin greatness: blueberry bad boys

Dan & Emily 'help' with the baking

Lemon drizzle cake and chocolate caramel slice also made their way out of the oven and into the mouths of friends. The base of the slice was too coconutty and there was too much of it in comparison to the caramel and chocolate - in my opinion at least; everyone else was too nice to offer any criticism (note Neil wasn't there - he doesn't hold back). The drizzle cake seemed to improve over the next few days. Definitely make that one again.

Chocolate caramel slice and lemon drizzle cake

(L-R) Vicky, Crawford, Cara and assorted children sample the morning tea fare

Have some serious cakes to make soon with Emily's and Dad's birthdays fast approaching. Emily's cake request is simple - she wants a 'pink one'. So watch this space...
TTFN!