UFO Cupcakes
We celebrated my son’s second birthday yesterday with some “out of this world” cupcakes! Read more
Posts from the ‘Cupcakes’ Category
Aug 25
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Rainbow Cupcakes For Cancer Research
Last Friday, my daughter’s school was hosting an Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser. Newsletters were sent out asking parents for donations to a cupcake stall that the students could buy from during recess to raise money for cancer research. Read more
Quadruple Chocolate Pistachio Cupcakes
This is a cupcake that I’ve had in the works for a few weeks – my “chocolate cake with a twist” cupcake challenge inspired me! Of course, I won’t enter my own competition, but I did want to try out my idea. Read more
Tiramisu Cupcakes
I love tiramisu, but I haven’t had it nearly enough. In fact, I may have eaten tiramisu only twice in my life. The most recent tasting was amazing. Read more
Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes
We had a very small Christmas celebration – we opened presents here at home in the morning, and then we went to nana’s for lunch where we opened more presents. Read more
Halloween & Autumn Cupcakes
Can you believe Halloween is just around the corner? It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been a full one year since the last one. I could swear that time is speeding up. Just for the time it takes you to read this post, I’d like to take you back in time to last year’s Halloween. Read more
Aug 25
Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
My baby boy, Miles, turned 1 year old yesterday. I can hardly believe it. He’s been the sweetest, most easy-going baby I’ve dealt with so far. His only problem is that he still only has two teeth. I’ve been reluctant to try too many different foods, like the chewier or harder kinds, because of this. He doesn’t like a lot of the solid food that I give him, but so far he likes French fries (I know, worst food ever!), bread, crackers, cheese, yogurt and cucumbers. Bananas and strawberries and apples, not so much.
He doesn’t like pureed food. I believe it’s because he has to be spoon-fed to eat it properly, and when he sees his older sister and brother eating with their fingers or a fork or spoon, he wants to eat like they are. After all, spoon-feeding is for babies!
Recently I went shopping for bigger clothes for Miles with my mother-in-law and bought him a couple of outfits. You’d think that he could just wear clothes that his 3-year-old brother had grown out of, but don’t forget that we moved to the Southern Hemisphere – the summery clothes that fit his older brother when he was 1 year old will not do in winter Down Under! Our seasons are completely opposite and this has been a little annoying, as we’ve had to basically buy all new clothing for the baby. Ah well, it’s not all bad though – shopping for baby clothes is so fun (and terribly addicting)!
For Miles’ first birthday celebration I planned on making a simple batch of colorful cupcakes. I decided on chocolate-on-chocolate cupcakes with mini rainbow chocolate chip decorations.
Jul 21
Peanut Butter White Chocolate Cupcakes
With all the excitement I’ve had receiving entries for my Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge, I had forgotten that I wanted to post about the peanut butter cupcakes with white chocolate frosting that I had made last week! I got the inspiration for these cupcakes when I made these peanut butter cookies and added white chocolate chunks to the cookie dough. It was a really nice combination. I just had to make a cupcake out of it.
Jul 14
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
My family and I have relatively recently moved back to Sydney, Australia from Indiana, USA. There were many reasons why we were looking forward to moving back. And one giant reason why we were not looking forward to moving back – 3 flights with 3 young children, including a 3-month-old baby! We went alright though, as it turned out that the baby was actually the easiest to travel with. He spent most of his time in a Peanut Shell sling, either nursing or asleep. The real trouble was with our 4-year-old and 2-year-old, who were so full of energy, yet were so incredibly tired. Why do kids do that – the more tired they are, the more wild they become? After running around the seats at the gate in San Francisco’s airport during our 5-hour layover, they finally fell asleep in those seats – my daughter’s face was buried under her arms, and my son fell asleep bent over the seat, with his feet still standing on the floor. It was a nightmare, the whole entire trip, but it still went better than what I thought it would have.
We just had to keep looking on the bright side – our plane finally touching down in Sydney.
We’ve been back for about 7 months now and it feels like we never even spent those 3 long years in the US. Even though we did spend all that time there, we didn’t make many friends and we didn’t know our neighbors very well; we didn’t even get out much (but there’s so much more to do here than where we were in Indiana). Here, we are lucky to have some great neighbors – one of them even grows their own fruit and vegetables, organically, and are kind enough to share their bounty with us, such as butternut pumpkins, persimmons, plums, lemons and limes. I’ve made pumpkin bread, persimmon bread, a lime tart, lemon melting moments and lemon butter with some of these fruits. It’s great to bake with fresh food that I know is free from chemicals.
Jun 17
Banana Coconut Cupcakes With Creme Fraiche Frosting And Coconut Caramel Sauce
A big thank you goes out to Cupcakes Take The Cake, where Rachel linked to my latest cupcake creation on Flickr, banana coconut cupcakes with creme fraiche frosting and coconut caramel sauce. I thought I’d better get the recipe for these awesome cupcakes on my blog so that all the visitors from CTTC can make these for themselves.
First of all, let me say that I’ve been planning these cupcakes for weeks. It all started when I made the coconut pancakes with bananas, creme fraiche and caramel sauce last month, which was a recipe from Valli Little in delicious. magazine. I loved those pancakes. The combination of those flavors was like nothing else my tastebuds have ever experienced (probably mostly because I had never eaten creme fraiche!). I started thinking that this flavor combination would taste great as a cupcake as well, and I haven’t made cupcakes in ages!
Over the past week I finally made up my mind as to how I would make these cupcakes. I would use a banana cupcake recipe and stir sweetened shredded coconut into the batter. The frosting would be something of my own creation, which turned out fabulous – creme fraiche whipped with confectioners’ sugar. I made the same caramel sauce for these cupcakes as I made for the pancakes, except I replaced the thickened cream with coconut milk (I would have used coconut cream if I had had any). This turned out fabulous as well, such a great flavor.
Apr 16
Mocha Cupcakes
I take my 4-year-old daughter to ballet classes on Tuesdays. She really enjoys it and has made a new friend in her class. It’s neat to see her perform some of the poses at home – one day she did a plie. Ballet term 2 is now starting after a 2-week long Easter holiday, and my daughter says she wants to continue with ballet.
Ballet class lasts only 30 minutes. Luckily, if I practically run, I can make it over to the nearby Westfield shopping center for a special treat for myself. I visit T2 Tea and sample all four of the teas they have on display that day and have a chat with the friendly ladies who work there. And then I do a fast-walk to get back to ballet to pick up my daughter.
As it turns out, my daughter also likes to sample the teas at T2 Tea, so before the holidays I started going to T2 before ballet class so she could try the teas too, and I sat in the lobby area of the ballet studio and read magazines while she was in her class. They only have a handful of magazines and always the same ones, but I did find an Australian Women’s Weekly magazine (from March 2009!) that I hadn’t seen before and flipped through the recipe section. I found some beautiful mocha cupcakes and read the recipe for them. I was immediately intrigued by it because it used real melted chocolate, almond meal and buttermilk.
