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

oh - and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Some Lime&Cerise cupcakes I made for a friend's birthday on December 20. I am soo annoyed with myself for not taking better/more pictures of these cupcakes - they were gorgeous! Lime and vanilla flavoured cupcake with lime meringue filling (bright lime green, flowing out of the cupcake.. why oh why didn't I take a picture) and white chocolate flavoured frosting. My friend is christmas obsessed and every year she had a different colour theme - this year it was lime & cerise! Thus - the lime & cerise cupcakes. I figured lime tastes like lime and cerise tastes like pink white chocolate! I packaged them up in a white paper box with lime&cerise ribbon - they looked very pretty and I'm sure my friend was very glad to receive them. I think they would have been one of my best cupcake creations!

Have a very happy and safe New Year tonight wherever you are - its a quiet one for us!

xxxM

baking with a buddy

I had this week off work and I planned to do lots of baking but it didn't quite end up as planned. I ended up looking after a friend's daughter, so it wasn't the most conducive environment for the kind of baking I had planned, but still we managed to have some fun.

K and I decorated some gingerbread men and xmas trees, and baked a banana cake for my neighbour - with chocolate icing. K got a wee bit carried away with her decorating and some of the gingerbread had more icing than biscuit!

We made extra banana cake mixture so we could also make a small cake for D and some cupcakes for K to take home. The cake was extra moist and bananaery so we didn't even ice them.


The baking was Monday, we went to Wellington Zoo yesterday. Sadly my camera died just as we arrived at the zoo so I don't have photos of all the animals we saw (haha!) but we did have a great time. K got to feed (and get slobbered on by) a giraffe, we met Tahi - the 1-legged Brown kiwi, and generally enjoy the beautiful sunny day.

here is a pic from my last Zoo visit:

It was the first time at the zoo that I've actually made an attempt to go to all the guided talks. The talks were good - and I was pleasantly surprised that every Guide talked about only using FCS (Forest Stewardship Council) approved wood. Apparently, all construction at the zoo uses approved wood to ensure the wild habitats aren't being destroyed to provide the wood and paper products. To be honest, I think it went over most people's heads - they were too busy keeping an eye on their kids in the hot sun. I'd like to be more environmentally responsible in such things, I hate to think where some of our wood products come from!

D and I were planning to go camping tomorrow (after I work tonight ~ urgh!) but I've just realised I'm on call for work, so going too far out of Wellington probably isn't a very good idea. We're still going to look for a campsite very close to the city (with cell coverage) but its likely we'll be staying home! If our backyard was flat - we could camp at home! hehe.

I hope wherever you are, you are enjoying beautiful sunshine and a happy holiday season.

xxx M

white fluffyness

I baked some chocolate cupcakes with white fluffy icing for work yesterday. D had a shared morning tea and my work colleagues always appreciate my baking! D wanted chocolate cupcakes with caramel filling and white marshmallowy icing. (To be honest, it sounded gross to me! too sweet!) I topped with a choc-covered coffee bean. They turned out alright, I added coffee to a standard chocolate batter for extra richness. I then made a caramel filling from condensed milk - but due to time pressure I was a bit lazy and didn't pipe it in after baking. Instead I folded it in with the batter. I immediately regretted this when I realised it had just sunk to the bottom.

I'll definitely pipe in after baking next time!! The other mini-diaster was that I didn't beat my first batch of icing enough. When I got up in the morning the fluffy icing had kind of lost their piped shape .... so there was a mix of melted looking and pretty. (Second batch I obviously whipped enough!!) They still looked OK....

Depsite my disappointment, it seemed everyone loved them. D got rave reviews from his dept, and one of my colleauges declared they were the best thing ever (and ate two!). I didn't eat any - for two reasons; I'm trying to be good, and they were waaaay too sweet for me.

Also from my recent cupcake exploits, I baked for when the in-laws came over. We had a BBQ for D's birthday. When I asked what cupcakes he wanted - he said purple with butterflies. I'm trying to reassure myself that he was thinking of our niece... (hehehe). So that's what I made!

I've been thinking about cupcakes a lot lately. Not eating them, creating them. It seems it is an affliction that has affected many many others in recent times. I can spend hours perusing cupcake blogs. I'm seriously thinking about trying to join Iron Cupcake or Cupcake Hero. Both are monthly challenges to bake cupcakes with a particular ingredient....

December is such a busy month, so far I've been to 6 christmas functions. I'm all christmas'ed out. (Though that won't stop me baking gingerbread this weekend...).

Some of our babies are leaving us on Saturday morning. Its going to be kinda sad, I've grown really attached. We are keeping a couple (read: three plus mum), but I'm very impressed with our ability to resist keeping them all. Two of the boys aren't going to their new home til early January so we'll have them for a wee bit longer.

OK, very much my bedtime.

x x M

i'm back already..

more snaps of our perth trip

Scarborough beach at sunset:

While in Perth, D and I did quite a few touristy things while Paul was at work. Including - a trip to Rottnest Island! Rottness is out in the Indian ocean off the coast of Freemantle. It was an awesome ferry ride - in fact I spoke to both mum & dad while on the way out (cheap mobile phone deal) as we were bouncy up in down in the waves - it was so rough. D got a little seasick - but I was loving it.

We rented a couple of mountain bikes and biked around Rottnest Island. It is beautiful. The weather was fantastic. This is the view from the spot we stopped at to have our picnic lunch:

and a shot of the pier where we hung out ready for ferry pickup - the water
was so clear and you could see schools of fish


perth at night from King's park

D has morning tea this week and I want to try out some new frosting ideas, so I'm off to whip up some cupcakes!!

xxM

how long has it been?

Yeah - I've neglected this blog for ages.... you know what.. I'm not even gonna go there. Lots has happened since my last post in April (?!) and I couldn't begin to cover it all.

In 1o points:

1. We lost many of our furkids. We are now down to three permanent residents. However, that said, we've just taken on a foster - pregnant female (was) ... so we currently have Shi (mummy) and her ten darling 5 week old babies. They are separated now (rats become sexually mature at 5-6 weeks, so we separate a bit before 5 weeks to be safe). We're trying to adopt out as many as we can - but I think we'll keep a couple + mum.

2. D and I went for a trip (in Sept!) to visit my brother in Perth. We had an awesome time, and also saw the Phoenix play (read: horribly lose) while we were there.

spooky pic of my bro @ Freemantle prison on a night tour!

the beautiful Combo

It certainly gave D and I inspiration to do a whole lot more "real" travel when work and finances allow!

I promise I didn't make him carry the bags alll the time!!

3. I got a new job... or perhaps two new jobs since I last posted. I'm still within the same company, but I've now moved to IT. Which is amusing for some, as I'm not exactly an IT guru. I'm doing ok - and really enjoying the change. There are some big changes afoot in my company - so its an exciting time to be involved.

4. I'm still Guiding.. its been a full on year and I'm really proud of our girls. We've been on two camps this year and have achieved so much! We awarded four senior Guide awards and our unit has grown from 20 at the start of the year to 35! This is awesome - go Girl Guides! Its especially cool because this year we celebrated 100 years of Guiding!

5. D and I have the camping bug I think! We've been slowly acquiring gear so that we can go away camping on our own! Our car getting broken into and all my camping gear getting stolen didn't help matters - but we're getting there. We've got leave in Feb next year, so hope to go away and "rough it" for a week.

6. The whole weight-loss thing isn't going so well right now... I was really good, but I rolled right off the wagon! Back on I jump - I'm back at the gym and trying to eat well - December is the worst (yet best) month!!

7. I've still been baking up a storm and have had some great success with new cupcake variations. I'd like to get into the habit of baking a new thing once a week... so I can take pretty pictures and feed my work-mates!

chilli-choc cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing


birthday cake I made for a colleague's daughter

8. I've bought D a couple of cook books (I know, I know, gifts for him that are really for me!) and we're trying to cook two new things a week. Its been fantastic and we feel all chef-y! I definitely need to make/find us some funky aprons to style us right.

borscht (beetroot soup)

sweet potato frittata

9. I removed my 101 list... it was big! and long! I think I need a shorter list - both in term and number of items. I haven't deleted the list - I still want to work on it - but it was daunting and made me not visit my blog. So watch this space for my new short term goals!

10. I finally gave in to Facebook - so if you know me in real life - look me up! I hear its cool to have lots of friends. I've even uploaded some photos.....

That my dears, is it for tonight!

x x xM

Beautiful Easter cupcakes

1. peepcake, 2. Easter Cupcakes, 3. Easter Cupcakes, 4. Easter Cupcakes_1, 5. Easter egg cupcakes, 6. cupcakes; 365, 7. Bunny Cupcakes, 8. Hatching Chick Easter Cupcake, 9. Easter Cupcakes

I finally figured out how to create a mosaic over at Flickr!! So I took the opportunity to make one with photos of some of the beautiful easter cupcakes that others have made! Talk about inspiration!!!

M

cupcakey goodness

I made cupcakes. D and I both had morning tea commitments at work - what better excuse to bake?! These ones went down a treat - the green ones have green tea icing which everyone loved! This surprised me as when I talk about green tea flavoured stuff, everyone goes 'yuk'.

There would have been a lot more cupcakes if a certain kitchen disaster hadn't happened! Something went very very wrong with my vanilla cupcakes. Though, for the life of me I cannot figure out what!

I also made D some cupcakes with a red bean paste and green tea icing. Red bean paste is a traditional asian sweet and D loves it in the sweets he buys from the asian food store. D was very impressed and now wants me to try and make mooncake......

Bedtime for me...

M

baby shower cupcakes

I am just heading off to a baby shower for a good work friend of mine, Mariana. Mariana and her partner Dan are expecting a wee baby girl in about three weeks. I'm very excited. I baked these cupcakes for the baby shower. Aren't they cute. The photo doesn't really do them justice - the two types of pink are much cuter in real life.

I've planned a few games for the baby shower including pictionary/scupltionary where the items are baby related. (E.g nappy). So that should be entertaining. I made the playdough a nice bright pink colour.

I also bought Mariana a wee book (kinda like a visitors books) where friends and family can record their comments/suggestions/advice. I've noticed on several occasions, first time mums friends getting overwhelmed with all the 'helpful' advice given by their friends and family. I think that new mums need to be treated carefully as it can be quite daunting and upsetting they way people offer their advice. At least with the book, Mariana can read it in her own time with her new beautiful baby girl.

M

Happy birthday Rochelle

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday...

Happy Birthday Rochelle!!!

We are going to their place for a BBQ this weekend, so I'll have to whip up a fantastic birthday cake.....

M

pie, glorious pie

We've had a good friend staying with us for a week and while she was here, she made pie! Glorious pie. Pumpkin pie, lemon pie and chocolate pie! Talk about pie heaven! She has ruined my husband who will now expect pie on some kind of regular basis.

M

Christmas baking

Once again, my blogging has not been as regular as I'd like. Perhaps if I actually posted more often, people would read my blog? I am going to try and update in the orderish that things happened..

Before Christmas, we did a bit of Christmas baking. You know, for Santa. (god that seems sooo long ago now) I baked some Stained Glass Cookies. They turned out quite well, despite my terrible photos. They looked pretty and according to D, tasted good.

I also baked some carrot cupcakes for Santa's reindeer

Yes, those are fake carrot lollies on top. Like I was going to peel down REAL carrots!!

Christmas was great this year, we spent the morning with D's family and the afternoon with Sconey and a bunch of friends. We played games all night and ended up eating our Christmas roast dinner at 2am! It was fantastic Christmas fun.

M

another birthday cake

Here is the football field cake, I made for my darling husband D. I am still very slack at posting at the moment - I'm soo busy!

Hopefully I'll catch up soon. Guides has nearly finished for the year, so that gives me a couple more free nights!

Apologies to those that have tried to get in touch with me and have been a bit ignored.. I love you really!!

M

pinata cake

This weekend we had the birthday celebrations for D's sister, Sandra. To be honest, I'll be quite glad when this wee spate of birthdays is over! That said, there was a new addition to the October birthday calendar with the arrival of this wee bundle:

Isn't she cute? She is our 10 day old niece. She was a very big baby, weighing around 10 pounds and she was born with that thick wad of hair!! Congrats to her mummy and daddy.

On with the birthday-ness..

This is the 'pinata' cake that D and I made for Sandra...

The "treasure" cake inside:

and the pinata shell (chocolate with LOTS of different sized M&Ms)



and after Sandra had smashed it (as opposed to blowing out her candles):

It turned out pretty awesome. Very colourful and fun for Sandra to smash up! So here is a belated...

Happy Birthday Sandra!!!

M

labour weekend

Labour weekend seems to traditionally be a weekend of crap weather. Well not this year! Its been absolutely gorgeous. And now that summer is on the way and we've turned our clocks forward, it is 6pm and still sunny as. I love it! Roll on summer!!

I haven't posted for a wee while for a few reasons. Firstly, I got struck down with the flu and it was horrible horrible. I was very tired, grouchy, and snotty. I also started my new job (at the same time as getting the flu) so I have been very busy busy at work. I also now go to Guides twice a week, once to my training unit and once to my permanent unit. Still, no excuse not to blog. And especially no excuse to ignore my 101 list. It will be April 2010 before I know it and I really really wanna complete this list.

So for the tiny amount of people who actually read my blog, apologies. Lots of updates to come :)

Another birthday has been and gone so a bit belated:

Happy Birthday Ron aka Father-in-Law!

We went to the in-laws on Saturday for lunch and cake. D and I made a train cake!! I've always wanted to make one. Sadly, I didn't get any really good photos of the cake. It turned out HUGE at 1 metre long. D and I had a blast making it and Ron seemed to really like it. I'm sure they will be eating cake for a week! I think next time we make this, we might just do the engine!

Each carriage has different cargo. One has mini marshmallows, one has fruit jellies, and one has oreo 'wheels'. Our niece Abby loved it.

Ron is really into model trains and the family put together to get him some new trains for his railway track.

It seems D and I have become the birthday cake makers of the family. Its D's sisters birthday next so we have a special cake in store for her!





After the birthday celebrations we visited my dad and his family. Dad cooked a lovely roast beef (which admittedly I didn't eat much of - too full of cake!). D and I watched 'Toy Story 2' with our cute little nephews Latrell and Lazereth.

D and I in our Phoenix gears

D and I being the staunch Phoenix supporters that we are, headed off to the game last night against the Central Coast Mariners. Unfortunately it was a loss, but still a really good game. The Mariners are at the top of the table and we definitely game them a run for their money. It was one all at full time and then the Mariners scored a second goal in overtime. I have my reservations about the yellow card happy ref and his decisions (or lack of). At the end of the day, it was the Phoenix's defence that let us down. One of the goals was literally walked in by the Mariners' player. All that said, they are our team and we love them. (And Perth lost this weekend so we aren't bottom of the table!!).

gorgeous weather for the football

It has been a weekend of football, D and I headed to our nearby park and kicked a ball around for an hour or so in the sun today. We really enjoyed ourselves and plan to do it on a regular basis. D is playing his indoor football game at the moment (I'm supposed to be preparing dinner...)

Speaking of food, I only have one bento to post. We've been quiet slack these past weeks and really need to get back into the swing of things. Maybe this week can be the first week of my regular posting of bento! (Item# 87 on my 101 list)

mini meat patties (made+ frozen specially for bento), mini vege fritatta, toast onigiri, cucumber flowers, laughing cow cheese wedge, and wine gum lollies to fill the gap.
lime flavoured jelly, mandarin slices, and tamarillo.
peanuts and raisins, and some durian chips.
citrus herbal tea and an instant miso

M

wind turbine

last weekend was so eventful, I still haven't blogged about it all! D and I went for a drive up to the Brooklyn Wind Turbine. I hadn't been up there before and the view was great!! The gorse on the hillside is in full bloom and looks absolutely gorgeous.

The bright yellow blooms make a beautiful frame to the view of the city.

The weather was fantastic all weekend and we managed to go out and do so much! Sadly, the weather hasn't been quite so fantastic this weekend. Well, at least I can catch up with my blog. :)

Speaking of catching up, I have managed to cross a few things off my 101 list!

Item #3 - Get married! (though I have noticed since the ceremony that I managed to completely misspell my mother's maiden name. hopefully that doesn't void our marriage...)

Item #35 - Obtain a world map. We managed to do better than that! My dear friends Sconey and Kate bought us an awesome Atlas of the World. It also came with a wall map! And to D's delight, it has images and descriptions of the world flags at the front. I plan to spend hours pondering all the places I want to visit.

Item #57 - I had the dreaded clean out of shoes. I threw away ALOT. Some even had mould growing on them. (*ew*)

D loves goody goody gumdrop ice-cream and last weekend, while stopping at the beach he bought a double cone... he was so frustrated that I didn't want him to lick it til I had taken a photo!

A good friend and colleague had her last day at work the other day. She has been accepted into Police Training College! As part of a farewell for her, I made her a handcuffs cake:

I think she liked it, the whole cake was demolished at morning tea time. Though I think a few people were put off by the grey icing...

another gigantic post. I really do need to blog more often. My blog is a funny place, considering how much I ramble, and I don't think anyone really reads it. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to promote it a bit more...

M