Contessa cupcakes via Moore Wilsons

A couple of days ago when at Moore Wilsons I picked up a few cupcakes to share with a friend and D. Moore Wilsons is like a wholesale/trade specialty store. They also have a fresh part where they sell fresh and gourmet foods, they also sell baked goods brought in from other bakeries. These cupcakes were baked by a bakery called "Contessa" I'm guessing they only do wholesale as I've never heard of them.

These cupcakes were OK - but far from awesome. I had to guess with the flavours as the assistant couldn't tell me what they were - I guess that is what happens when they aren't baked in store).

Chocolate/chocolate. I think this was the best but not amazing. The cake was quite moist and light but the icing was average and hard. It had definitely been frozen/chilled - as you can probably tell from the condensation on the icing.

Citrus/white chocolate. The cake was quite dense and the icing was rock hard - seemed as though it had been frozen/chilled. Too dense for my liking and a wee bit dry.

Vegan Carrot (this one had a sign). I didn't enjoy this at all - but D did. The icing was tasteless and the cake tasted kinda floury to me. I like carrot cake to be moist and rich - which this was not.

Vanilla/pink coconut icing. The cake wasn't as dense as the white chocolate one - but still far from light and fluffy. The coconut icing was OK (tasted a bit like coconut ice) but wasn't fresh tasting. Again - suspect the freezer!

All in all, I was quite disappointed. I like the idea of a Wellington bakery that sells amazing cupcakes. Though, as D pointed out, I wouldn't eat them - so am I really missing anything. They do look pretty. I'd rather bake my own thanks.

I've had a pretty relaxing weekend, and haven't done much at all. I got a couple of books from the library which I've already read. Its going to be full on week at work so I wish I'd been a wee bit more productive. Such is life.

Now its bedtime! Only a few hours before I wake up for work!

xxxM

spicy mocha cuppycakes

These cupcakes were so good, they get their own mosaic. Spicy chocolate & coffee cupcake with creamy coffee buttercream. Original inspiration came from wanting to make a spicy coffee cupcake. I then found Martha's Mocha Spice Cake which helped a bit. I wasn't sure on adding the chocolate - but I'm glad I did. These were an absolute hit. While trying to decide between chocolate and coffee frosting - I also came across How to Eat a Cupcake's verison of Martha's cake in cupcake form. Mine ended up a bit different - but hers looks yum too! Eventually decided on a really creamy coffee buttercream, which D declared the greatest frosting of all time.

I've decided that I need to start writing down these random cupcake recipes I concoct. I can't claim I create them from scratch, because I usually start with an idea about a flavours and then switch & add ingredients from a basic cupcake recipe. There are some amazing cupcake creators out there! All that said, I've decided all my colleagues who get get regular cupcakes for nothing - need to WORK for their cupcake. So I've introduced the feedback rule! In order to guarantee baking from me, they need to provide specific feedback.

Some of the Spicy Mocha Cupcakes Feedback:

“Om nom nom! Delicious. A leeetle bit strong (coffee) for my tastes, but that doesn’t mean I’d say no if offered them again.”

“Heaven in a cupcake - why do I drink coffee?”

“Overall, best cup cake I’ve had all year! Also the first. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is my break down of the experience. The icing is by far the dominant feature of this cup cake, it tastes great and is a excellent coffee substitute. My concerns are that it is not firm enough, and perhaps would benefit from a little more (I don’t know what you use to make it firmer). It currently is more like a processed coffee cream than an icing. I would be concerned that if I dropped it, the cream would go everywhere, where as this wouldn’t happen if it was firmer. In regards to the cake. It wasn’t until my second to last bite that I noticed the great flavour of the actual cake. The cream is quite overpowering in this sense. Perhaps a little less cream would bring out the flavour of the cake a little more. The whole experience has left me with a wonderful after taste. And an alertness matched only by a slap in the face.”

“Yum yum. Very nice and well presented - looked very professional. Little gingerbread person good size in relation to cupcake. Nice texture of cake itself. All together a wonderful eating pleasure.”

“Bloody Brilliant – my favourite so far.”

So it seems they were a success! Enthusiastic(!) commenter #3 did get a cupcake with a sizeable amount of frosting and no gingerbread man! It was quite interesting watching who went for the cupcakes topped with gingerbread men.

xxxM

Phoenix city

What a game! Tonight the Phoenix played the Newcastle Jets and we absolutely smashed them 3 - 0. We took our friend's daughter K along (kids free night) and what a good luck charm she turned out to be!

Keeper Glen Moss was an absolute wonder in the first half (we're gonna miss him next season when he joins Melbourne) and we scored our three goals in the second half. Newcastle were, as usual, feisty and rude. Last time we played them - they were awarded two red cards! Read the full story about tonight's game here.


Sadly, I am back to work tomorrow. I've had a week and a half off work (though I've been on call for a bit of that) and I've really enjoyed doing nothing. I don't even feel guilty about the lack of stuff I got done, or the state of our spare room!

I discovered something nifty today - iGoogle! I noticed it on Scone's laptop.. so I came home and designed my own. (I even used the same header as Scone - it is light during the day and dark at night - how cool is that!?!) D tells me that its been around forever and that I am so slooow, but you know what? I don't care - I like nifty things. You can add all kinds of fun to it - I've got: calendar, calculator, WW points calculator, email, 1-day, grab a seat.... the list goes on!

What I also like is this amusing and poignant article by Michael Laws. I have to agree. There is so much doom & gloom around and for what? Wouldn't you rather be happy - we have a lot to be happy about!

I also read today that Wellington is "NZ's top spot for families". If only D and I could actually afford to have kids, I could agree! We're stuck in that space of wanting to have kids sometime in the next wee while (isn't that vague!) but also wanting to buy a house and knowing that our chances of getting both in the near future aren't high. I know that the traditional plan is that you buy a house and then have babies. But with house prices so much higher than they were thirty years ago, is this still the path to follow? I mean, my ovaries won't last forever!

It is two minutes to tomorrow, so I really have to get to bed...

xxxM

bath time

The other day I had a lovely bath with a pink Lush bathbomb and it made me remember how much I love baths. So relaxing and self indulgent. Sadly, I can't afford to have a Lush bath bomb that often so my dear friend Sconey and I decided to go homemade!

As I speak, our bathbombs are drying in Sconey's hot water cabinet. Hopefully they'll turn out good enough to give away as I can picture a wee pamper box being an awesome gift. We plan to try a few more homemade luxuries, maybe some bath melts or foot scrubs and balms. We did also make some body sugar scrub, but I'm not sure sure on how that turned out. It is made with lemon, green tea, and honey, using raw sugar. It doesn't look very pretty and is a bit wet. Might need to use this batch up quickly!

xxxM