Mellow Yellow

Not all cupcakes have to be pastel pink or baby blue.

For the parents leaving their baby’s gender a surprise, a batch of summery yellow and muted grey cupcakes keep the gender safely a secret.

 

 

Floral Feature

pic from here

My spare room is looking very spare. It’s one of those rooms that I have every intention of making amazing, but then real life kicks in (as do budgets) and realistically, time is better spent on rooms we use regularly. 

 

But that being said, I had to do something to add some pretty to a pretty stark room.

And then my amazing team at work inspired me!

On a recent shoot for a client of mine, we had our model pose on a bed of flowers. 

 Simple, striking. I loved it.

So I took inspiration from my creative team of geniuses and made my own floral frame for my spare room.

work in progress...

All it took was a frame, some polystyrene board, and a selection of fabric flowers.

Simply push them into the polyboard, pin down the tricksy ones that want to jump out (there were a few) and voila, a quick and effective flower wall feature.

Final pics to follow soon

xx

Girly Pink Cupcakes

A friend recently ordered a batch of girly pink & white swirl cupcakes for her sisters surprise baby shower.

The mom-to-be very unsuspectingly walked into restaurant filled with all her dearest and nearest all there to celebrate the upcoming birth of her little princess.

If you have a baby shower coming up and are looking for cupcakes, feel free to email me tipsytart@gmail.com and I'll be happy to see what we can do for you :o)

Pop it like it's hot...

Cake pops!
They're the perfect amount of cake in one easy go. (okay okay my chocaholic friends may disagree, saying bigger is better, but for me, these little balls of chocolatey goodness are the prefect size).

I however do not put my pop on sticks. I suppose this defeats the point but I just can't. You know how some people can't bear the sound of nails on a black board? Well I cannot even handle the thought of a wooden stick between my teeth. Just writing this has set my skin on edge, giving me goosebumps over my entire body. I don't know why. That and cottonwool. The thought of cottonwool between my teeth.. okay no, this  is too much for me to even write.
So back to stick-less cake pops.

For my cake pops I use a cake pop tin as opposed to baking the cakes then breaking them up and crushing them into balls. This is quick and easy and much less messy...

Chocolate covered, chocolate, stick-less, cakepops 

For the cake pops I follow this delicious chocolate cake recipe below.
Once they are properly cooled, it's time to prep the chocolate.  

Melt your baking chocolate ( I use 1 slab, but the slab is VERY big so its enough) in the microwave. Leave just one block of chocolate un-melted and stir this in at the end. I read that this is meant to help the chocolate keep it's shine and correct consistency due to some scientific reaction,  but I'm no scientist, so I can't actually be sure.  I just do it anyway...

Once the chocolate is melted and you have stirred in the one hard block, add your powdered food colouring. (I used black in support of our local Rugby team's colours as my friends were all coming over for the game). Specifically use powdered colour so that you do not add liquid to the mixture. 

Roll pop in the chocolate

Allow chocolate to run off, so that its not too thick.

And then it's as easy and sticking a wooden skewer into your cooled cake pop, swirling it in the runny chocolate, and delicately dropping into onto a tray covered in parchment paper. I do a few pops, decorate,  then move them into the fridge as you want to keep them cool so that the chocolate hardens.

Drop onto tray and decorate.

Refrigerate for at least one hour then serve!

Chocolate cake pops

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)

1 cup boiling water

Directions

• Heat oven to 180C. Grease cake pops tin.
• In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed for one minute.
• Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
• Fill bottom half of cake pops tin entirely, then close with lid.
• Bake pops for approximately 10-12 minutes.
• Cool completely on wire rack before coating in chocolate.

 

The Boyfriend wanted to help so stepped in as chocolate dipper.

Marshmallow Flowers

 

Looking for an easy-peasy way to decorate your cupcakes? 

I added a touch of fun to these cupcakes by simply using marshmallows to make flowers.

Firstly ice your cupcake. Then cut your marshmallow into thin petals. I managed to cut marshmallows into 4, sometimes 5, slivers.  The slivers are then super sticky so I dropped them into sugar crystals which stuck easily, just to give them a sparkly look.

Assemble marshmallow petals around a jelly tot on your cupcake, and voila, a flower!

How fabulously easy!

Baby Cakes

It was one of my best friend's Baby shower this past weekend so, as we don't know whether she's having a little boy or girl,  I baked up a batch of gender neutral white pearly cupcakes...

loving her adorable preggy belly!

Halloween kisses

Halloween, although big in the states, is hardly a big deal in South Africa.

However, pretty much everyone I know loves to dress up, so Halloween gets her fair share of celebrating, despite that fact that you won't see pumpkins or skeletons decorating any lawns. It's actually mainly the dressing up that we partake in, and that's about it. (Some kids trick or treat but they have to visit quite a few houses as many folk forget to buy sweets as the shops here don't make a fuss over halloween candy)

This year we headed to a friend's beach cottage down in Umzumbe for a  little shindig. I didn't take too many pics, but I did instagram a few...

I baked a batch of angry spider cupcakes

we may not have pumpkins but we do have oranges...

Day of the dead, pocahontas and a hobo

 

ghostly decor

The Boyfriend and I

and of course I had to make my nails halloween appropriate

If you like it then you shoulda put a bow on it...

Because everything looks better wrapped in a ribbon...

Dress: Ideals, Cardigan: Mr Price, Ring: Asos, Belt: Gifted, Bracelets: Gifted

 

World Baking Day - 19 May 2013

In anticipation of World Baking Day today, last night I received a mysterious wrapped up parcel from I Love Baking SA, which once unlocked, was a box full of ingredients and a challenge for me to #bakebrave and try out a particular recipe. In my box were all the ingredients for Raspberry and White Chocolate cupcakes.
I have my favourite go to recipe for my vanilla cupckes so it was exciting to try out somebody else's.

The mystery parcel

 

  

playing about...

My box of ingredients and the Raspberry & white chocolate recipe challenge.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Recipe from here.

Method: (makes 24 - 36 depending on the size of your cupcakes)

Cupcakes:

• Sift all dry ingredients together.
• Separate eggs so that egg whites are in a separate bowl. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until stiff (where you can hold the bowl upside down without the whites running out). Set aside.
• Melt the Stork Bake and mix remainder of the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients. Once it is mixed fold the mixture slowly in to the stiff egg whites. Do not over mix.
• Bake at 180ºC for approximately 15 - 18mins.

White Chocolate Ganache:

• Melt 500grams of white chocolate in a bowl until just soft set aside to cool but still be melted. Add 250 grams of Stork Bake and mix with mixer.
• Once the cupcakes are cooled, spread the White Chocolate Ganache on the cupcakes.

Raspberry Buttercream:

• Put 500g of Stork Bake and 1 kg of icing sugar into a mixer and beat until mixed. 
• Add 400g of fresh raspberries and mix in.
• Pipe the buttercream onto cupcakes and decorate.
  

As far as baking goes, I have always favoured quick and easy recipes over recipes that requires hours in the kitchen. This one unfortunately does require some extra time, whisking the egg whites and making the ganache, and the end result is just as good as cupcakes made the easy way.

I took these to a family lunch today and they went down a treat, but for me personally, the sweetness level is very high so I do prefer a cream cheese frosting.

But they sure do look pretty...

*UPDATE: Brought a few of these cuties to work this morning and they were received with cheers and lip smacking. (so it is only me that prefers the less sweet options)