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