Cupcake Sweets

Raspberry & Lemon Cupcakes

2010-05-16T12:00:00.003+10:00

These were made for a farewell party. I also made 36 mini cupcakes in the same flavours.

Cupcake flavour is my signature vanilla, topped off with two of my most popular flavoured buttercream icings and decorated with large sugar flowers - so cute!

The smell in my kitchen was amazing :)

Website is up and running

2010-03-05T13:25:00.001+11:00

My website is up and running:

http://www.twirlzcupcakes.com.au/

I designed it myself using wix.com - it was lots of fun! :)

Violet Cupcakes

2009-09-03T09:42:00.003+10:00

My cousin asked me to bake her 12 cupcakes as a birthday gift for a friend's mother, but I had no idea if she'd prefer chocolate or vanilla - so I 12 of each! :)

Getting packed into my cupcake courier - I love seeing so many cupcakes all looking alike!

Chocolate on top, vanilla underneath - ready to go!

Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-08-21T12:56:00.002+10:00

Cream Cheese Frosting
A big thank you to Perth Shoegirl (Vogue Forums) for this yummy recipe!

125g cream cheese
30g unsalted butter
1.5 cups sifted icing sugar
1 tspn hot water

Beat cream cheese and butter til smooth, add icing sugar and beat for 2 minutes; then you add the teaspoon of hot water.

My Version
I can never stick to a recipe, so I changed it and this is how I made it:

125g Philly cream cheese - I used full fat, but will try it again with Light and Extra Light
30g margarine - Meadow Lea light
2 cups unsifted icing sugar - I'm too lazy to sift

Beat cream cheese and butter til smooth, add icing sugar and beat for 2 minutes. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Add spoon, and eat entire contents of mixing bowl ;) (yes, it's that yummy!)

Lime & Coconut Cupcakes

2009-08-16T16:21:00.002+10:00

Coconut and vanilla cupcakes, topped with a delicious lime buttercream and sprinkled with shredded coconut.

In one word: YUM

If you haven't tried lime buttercream, I suggest you do - you only need a tiny amount (which is why I didn't do big swirls of frosting) as it has a strong flavour. Very Summery :)

Baby Shower Cupcakes

2009-08-16T15:56:00.003+10:00

Well my little man has finally 'finished baking'! Lachlan entered the world on the 20th June 2009, and he is 2 months old (yesterday). For his 1 month "birthday", my friends and I had Sunday lunch at The Mean Fiddler to celebrate and I made these cupcakes. Unfortunately, having a tired new-mummy brain I forgot to bring them to the lunch! I had one for dessert that night instead, and it was delicious :)

Vanilla cupcakes with blue vanilla buttercream

Topped with mini silver cachous - I love decorating with these!

I know I had a little boy, but I can't help but add some girly touches to my cupcakes ;)

Updating will be a little slow as I don't have as much time on my hands anymore, but I have a couple of birthdays coming up so I'll hopefully be baking some more yummy treats soon!

TAFE Cupcakes

2009-06-19T10:39:00.003+10:00

I made these cupcakes for my cousin's TAFE class:

Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and mini M&Ms - they smelt divine!

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and mini marshmallows - so girly ;)

Pregnancy update: 9 days to go! xox

Lego Birthday Cake

2009-05-30T14:41:00.002+10:00

Sorry for the lack of updates - we've had workmen in our house replacing flooring and re-carpeting, and I'm now 36 weeks pregnant so I haven't had much time to make cupcakes.

Lego Birthday Cake for my friend's 25th birthday - he used to love Lego as a kid ;)

The bottom layer is Betty Crocker Devil's Food chocolate cake, and the top layer is Betty Crocker vanilla cake (tinted bright Lego colours - red, blue, green and yellow). The frosting is 2 sachets of Betty Crocker chocolate frosting, with about 3 cups of icing sugar and some light cream added - it's delicious!!

Two workmen covering the last Lego brick with frosting ;)

Sweeping up the sprinkles

Fondant Babies

2009-05-13T20:17:00.002+10:00

I attempted my first ever 3D figures using fondant today - little baby boys!

I made these as a trial for my baby shower cupcakes, but they're so cute I don't think I could eat them :O

Boy's Cupcakes

2009-05-11T12:32:00.003+10:00

Cupcakes for boys! Vanilla cupcakes topped with Golden Yellow buttercream, fondant shapes & coconut

The fondant shapes are coloured with Royal Blue and Kelly Green

I made the fondant shapes yesterday afternoon and allowed them to air dry overnight

I love the look of the coconut cupcakes sneaking in the frame on the left - yummy!

Mother's Day Cupcakes

2009-05-11T12:29:00.001+10:00

Vanilla cupcakes topped with burgundy vanilla buttercream and silver cachous ("silver balls")

I love how pretty the swirls turned out on these :)

Vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream, a very wonky burgundy flower and pink sugar crystals

Pink Rose Cupcake Tutorial

2009-05-07T08:03:00.001+10:00

You will need:
- Butter icing
- Wilton gel paste Pink
- Wilton gel paste Rose
- Wilton piping tip 2D
- Piping bag (Multix disposable piping bags are handy)
- Green fondant leaves (tutorial coming soon - or use spearmint leaf lollies)
- Silver balls (cachous/dragees)
- Pink cupcake cases
- Butter knife or small spatula
- Two bowls

Cook your cupcakes and allow them to cool completely (best if the tops of the cupcakes don't rise over the top of the cupcake case line). Divide the butter icing into two bowls, and tint one Pink and the other Rose.

Using a butter knife place a good size blob of Pink icing in the middle of your cupcake, and then slowly spread it from the centre out to the edges. After each spread wipe the excess icing off the knife back into the bowl. Spread it nice and flat and make sure you spread it gently into the ruffles of the cupcake cases so you cannot see any of the cupcake underneath.

Fill your piping bag with the Rose icing and slowly pipe a small swirl in the middle of each cupcake using the 2D tip.

Pop a silver ball on top of each swirl, and place two leaves at the base.

TAH DAH! Now you have a pretty little rose cupcake :) You can change the colour from pink to any colour you like.

Butter Icing Recipe

2009-05-07T07:59:00.001+10:00

You will need:
- 500g packet of icing sugar
- 100g margarine (I use Meadowlea Extra Light)

Add the icing sugar to the margarine/butter 100g or 1 cup at a time and cream with a spoon until fully combined. Keep creaming for a few minutes until the icing is smooth and paler. Now you're ready to either use it on a cake, add colour or eat it with a spoon! ;)

Butterfly Cupcakes

2009-05-06T12:35:00.004+10:00

Vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla butter icing and a fondant butterfly

How yummy does this look??

I used Wilton Rose for the swirls (my new favourite colour I'd say)

Rainbow Cupcakes

2009-05-05T15:02:00.002+10:00

How cute are these cupcakes??

I made a simple vanilla cake batter (from scratch :O ) and divided it into 5 little bowls to colour.

Split open so you can see the gorgeous colours inside - I don't even want to ice these! (I can't anyway, I've run out of icing sugar *hangs head in shame*)

This is my favourite photo :) I love how vibrant the colours turned out! The colours I used are Rose Pink, Sky Blue, Kelly Green, Golden Yellow and Violet.

Another order arrived!

2009-05-05T09:50:00.002+10:00

I love getting mail :)

An order arrived today and it contained:
Wilton piping tips 18, 1A, 8B, 1, 3, and 224; Wilton colour pastes Rose, Rose Petal and Sky Blue; 2mm silver cachous (so pretty!); and a FMM alphabet cutter set.

I'm not that impressed with the alphabet cutter set - I wish I'd purchased a metal cutter set instead, but I'll give it a go.

The Wilton tips 1A and 8B are HUGE! I can't wait to try them out! Looks like Mum will be getting a variety of cupcakes for Mother's Day ;)

Strawberry and Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-05-04T11:15:00.002+10:00

I decided to give my new mini cupcake pan a play today and whipped up a batch of strawberry cupcakes (tinted red).

I tried out two different types of cases, and I think I prefer the red cases over the gold.

My icing was a little bit flat because I added too much milk, and had run out of icing sugar to thicken it back up (shocking, I know!)

Sugar Flower Cupcakes

2009-04-27T13:16:00.003+10:00

Blue vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream, blue sugar flowers and green fondant leaves

Pink vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream, pink sugar flowers and green fondant leaves

These were made to take in to work tomorrow as well as 1 dozen of my new favourite cupcakes - walnut cupcakes! I haven't been in for a few months due to my pregnancy, so I thought I'd pop in and say hi to everyone and spoil them with some sweet treats :)

Oreo Cupcakes and Walnut Cupcakes

2009-04-27T13:06:00.003+10:00

Cupcakes for ANZAC day:

Oreo cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream and an Oreo cookie

Walnut cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream and chopped walnuts - my favourite flavour so far! YUM!

Sitting in the cupcake courier

Someone already pinched one of the Oreo cupcakes so I filled the space with an Oreo cookie ;)

Butterfly Garden

2009-04-25T12:12:00.002+10:00

Pink vanilla cupcake and vanilla buttercream, topped with a pink sugar flower, green fondant leaves and pink fondant butterflies.

I had extra pink batter left over so I made this cupcake for my Mum :)

Sugar Crystal Cupcakes

2009-04-25T11:26:00.007+10:00

Coloured vanilla cupcakes with matching coloured sugar crystals - delicious! :)

Pink cupcakes with pink sugar crystals

Lemon yellow cupcakes with yellow sugar crystals

Violet cupcakes with purple sugar crystals (they look brighter in real life)

Teal cupcakes with blue sugar crystals

Sitting in the cupcake courier

Vanilla and Chocolate Buttercream

2009-04-23T12:21:00.002+10:00

Vanilla cupcakes topped with chocolate buttercream and pink sprinkles - YUM!

Vanilla cupcakes topped with chocolate buttercream and white sprinkles

Vanilla cupcakes topped with chocolate buttercream and pink fondant flowers - these tasted delicious with the chocolate buttercream :)

Chocolate and Vanilla Buttercream

2009-04-18T09:02:00.002+10:00

Chocolate cupcake topped with pink vanilla buttercream - there are sprinkles in the batter again :)

I rushed these last night for brunch today so the cupcake cases were 'slightly' overfilled ;) woops

Vanilla and Vanilla Buttercream

2009-04-16T11:46:00.003+10:00

Colour: Violet with pink, white and yellow sprinkles

There are rainbow sprinkles inside the cake batter :)

Colour: Teal with rainbow sprinkles

Yum! I couldn't resist eating a teal cupcake after this photo

Colour: Lemon Yellow with blue sugar crystals

I am totally in love with the Wilton colours - I highly recommend them!

Sitting sweetly in the cupcake courier.. before we started eating them ;)

Sugar Flowers

2009-04-16T09:07:00.003+10:00

Clockwise from left: Apricot, red, hi-lite mauve and green

Clockwise from left: white, blue, lemon and pink

Sugar Flowers: http://www.cakedecoration.com.au/

Hooray!

2009-04-15T17:28:00.006+10:00

Two of my orders arrived today:

Wilton Gel Paste Set of 12 colours (Lemon yellow, Teal, No-taste Red, Brown, Copper (skin tone), Violet, Pink, Burgundy, Golden Yellow, Royal Blue, Black, and Kelly Green)
Apple blossom sugar flowers x 200 (apricot, blue, hi-lite mauve, pink, lemon, red, white and green)

Wilton Gel Paste: http://www.cakedeco.com.au/
Sugar Flowers: http://www.cakedecoration.com.au/

Vanilla and Vanilla Buttercream

2009-04-13T16:27:00.003+10:00

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and pink sprinkles

I love these sprinkles, but I wish they weren't so crunchy ;)

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and chocolate sprinkles

Simple and very yummy :)

Chocolate and Nutella Ganache Cupcakes

2009-04-11T10:05:00.002+10:00

Chocolate cupcakes, topped with a rich Nutella ganache and sprinkled with crumbled Easter eggs - YUM!

Nutella Ganache
200g Nutella
3/4 cup cream (I guessed)
2 cups icing sugar
150g Nestle cooking chocolate

Heat cream on the stove and pour over the Nutella; stir until combined. Slowly add icing sugar. Melt chocolate and add to mixture (it tasted far too sugary, so the chocolate was a last minute addition). Allow to cool for about an hour before spooning over cupcakes.

The Nutella ganache is so delicious that we've been eating it straight from the bowl (shhh!).

ps. Please excuse the bad photos, I was in a bit of a rush to get them into the Cupcake Courier.

Chocolate (strawberry filled) and Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-04-09T09:27:00.004+10:00

Chocolate cupcakes, filled with strawberry fondant cream, topped with a delicious chocolate buttercream.

Strawberry Fondant Cream
- 2tbs Strawberry flavoured fondant
- 3tbs Cream

Heat mixture on the stove, stir until combined.

I poked holes in the top of each cupcake with a chop stick, and drizzled about 1tsp of strawberry fondant cream over them while they were still piping hot.

Perhaps these may be best eaten with a spoon ;)

Disappointing

2009-04-08T09:25:00.003+10:00

Well my order arrived, but it was not at all what I was hoping for.
Firstly they were out of stock on the apple blossom flowers (they phoned me though, so I have ordered them through a different company instead), and now I have just opened the parcel to discover that the petal dust is 'non-edible' (this was not mentioned on their site), the 3 inch 'muffin cups' are actually mini muffin size, and the Spiderman toppers are rather.. well.. crappy (broken pieces, wonky eyes etc).
Not happy Jan! :(

My First Swirls!

2009-04-07T13:06:00.005+10:00

I finally attempted my first ever frosting swirls - and I'm very proud of how they turned out! I recently purchased some disposable piping bags, as I had found a Wilton tip that I'd purchased over a year ago but never tried out, so I thought I'd give it a try today.

The cupcake in the background originally had vanilla buttercream on top, but I wiped it off so I could practise piping on a real cupcake.

My first swirl attempt is in the top right corner

I wish I'd realised sooner how quick and easy piping frosting was, it took less then a minute to pipe all 4 swirls - plus it was a lot of fun!

Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes

2009-04-06T13:48:00.004+10:00

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.

I just love the dainty little apple blossoms on top - I cannot wait for my big order to arrive!

Buttercream
4 Cups of icing sugar
100g Butter

Cream the butter with a spoon, and gradually add the icing sugar.

My Cupcake Courier has arrived!

2009-04-06T09:22:00.005+10:00

I'm very excited to announce my very first Cupcake Courier arrived today - delivered right to my front door! (Thank god, as I had no idea how I'd fit in going to the Post Office this week)
It is a lot bigger then I expected, but I'm very very pleased with it. It looks strong and well made, and very classy - I cannot wait to show it off this Easter! :)
VERY impressed with their customer service, and I will happily be recommending them to my friends and family.
(Big thank you to Keren from The Cupcake Courier!)

http://www.thecupcakecourier.com.au/

Fondant

2009-04-05T15:27:00.002+10:00

I ordered some yummy looking fondant today which is coloured and flavoured, so I'm looking forward to it arriving. I ordered raspberry, peppermint, strawberry and pineapple - yum!

I also ordered some fondant cutters in alphabet and number shapes which will come in handy for the 18th birthday cupcakes I'll be making in June - so excited!

In a week or two I'll be placing an order for some 250g fondant packs: 4 pack of primary colours (red, green, yellow, blue), a 4 pack of pastel colours (ivory, peach, blue, pink), and a 250g pack of lilac coloured fondant. They also have some gorgeous looking orange which is tempting so I'll have a think about that as well :)

Vanilla and Caramel Cupcakes

2009-04-04T14:43:00.004+11:00

Vanilla cupcakes with a delicious caramel buttercream - yum!

Caramel Buttercream
4 Cups of icing sugar
2-4 tps of Nestle Top N Fill Caramel
Milk

Combine the icing sugar and caramel (add as much as you like really - start off small though, because it is very rich and sweet). Add milk if needed.

Sugar Flowers

2009-04-04T09:37:00.003+11:00

My first order of cute little sugar flowers arrived yesterday! I opted for the smallest ones to get an idea of sizes, and I'm actually really happy with them. The colours I ordered were pink and yellow (blue too but it was out of stock) and I cannot wait to pop them on top of some cupcakes.

I placed a second order last night for a box of 168 assorted colours (pink, yellow, blue, white) so I'm looking forward to that parcel arriving - as well as some hot pink fuchsia petal dust, some teeny tiny silver cashous and some Spiderman toppers for my cousins 9th birthday in June.

The Cupcake Courier

2009-04-03T09:38:00.005+11:00

I have finally ordered my first Cupcake Courier!

I ordered the 'Crystal Clear White' colour and I cannot wait for it to arrive so I can fill it up with goodies and spoil my work colleagues.

http://www.thecupcakecourier.com.au

I have already decided on my 3 favourite basic flavours to bake and take:
12 x Vanilla with vanilla buttercream
12 x Caramel with caramel buttercream
12 x Chocolate with chocolate buttercream

Hopefully that should cover a variety of different tastes :)