Cupcakes with Siddiqa

Phew! It took me the whole day but I managed to finish making my pinata cookies. I thought it would be much easier than I experienced when I saw the tutorial on this blog, but it took a lot of patience, time and of course concentration. The hardest bit about making these cookies was cutting the slices of batter once it had come out of the freezer. I had problems with it breaking half way through and I couldnt get the slices to be as thin as I wanted and ended up with pinata cookies that were massive!

Layering the batter was also a huge task mostly because I couldnt find the right size container for it and ended up using one bigger than I needed. I also ended up with a lot of leftover cookie bits after cutting out the shapes.

I decided to make some butterfly shaped cookies and the rest into cupcake shapes.

These cookies are heaps of fun to make and the end result is worth it, but I’m going to try and find an easier way to make something similar. Watch this space!

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I did it! After months of wanting to make a rainbow cake, I finally found the time (and the colour gel paste) to make it! I spent 2 1/2 weeks in Auckland visiting family and I was itching to get back into the kitchen to try something new so as soon as the public holiday came around, I was back into baking mode.

Theres heaps of different ways to make Rainbow cake and I made it the way I found the easiest. I used boxed buttercake mixtures and ready made vanilla frosting. These are the items I used :

Separate the batter into 6 bowls (I know there’s 7 in the picture but that’s because I made a mistake). I found the best way to make sure that they were all equal was to use a measuring cup. Start dividing using 1 cup and then go from there.

Colour each one the colours of the rainbow! Try and get it as bright as you can.

Bake each colour one at a time in a round cake pan. It took me forever because I only have one round cake pan the right size! So to save time, try and borrow one from someone but make sure the cake pan are the same sizes. Once the cakes have cooled, starting piling them one on top of another frosting each between each cake. I thought I had applied  a lot of frosting but when I cut the cake, you could hardly see it. So be generous if you want it to show in between the layers. I used about four tubs of frosting for this cake.

Frost frost and frost some more. I did the crumb technique, then left it in the fridge for about 2 hours before applying the final coat of frosting.

Ok so the cake was a little wonky and thats probably because I didnt bother to smooth it all over. After all, its all about the inside!

And ta-da! Beautiful colours!

Enjoy!

Jaaved celebrated his 30th birthday over the weekend so I decided to give him a little surprise at his work by preparing a dessert table for his workmates and him to celebrate. Not only was it a huge shock to Jaaved when he walked in the office that morning, it was also a mystery on how I managed to get it organised without him having the slightest clue

The dessert table consisted of 30th themed cupcakes, little caramel tarts, oreo mousse, cups of popcorn and M&Ms and berry punch. These are all some of Jaaved’s fav things put together for him and his workmates to enjoy together. I’m so glad that the treats were enjoyed, all that came back home that afternoon were my platters and decos!

Happy Birthday Jaaved. Lots of love. xox.

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I made these cute little cupcakes for Jaaved’s cousin when their baby girl Imahn was born a few weeks ago. Traditionally, when a baby is born, the parents give out little gifts to family members on this joyous occasion. Zakiyah had requested cupcakes for each family on this gorgeous platter and for the cupcakes to have a baby theme. The little tags were made by Jaaved and we added the chocolates on each platter to finish the look. Each platter was wrapped in pink cellophane with some white ribbon and distributed.

The cupcakes were red in colour (special request) in vanilla flavour with white chocolate ganache swirls. I then added the toppers. The little bow ones are my favourite! The mould was gifted to me recently and were perfect for these cupcakes!

Congratulations once again to Zakiyah and Ibrahim on the birth of their little bundle of joy.

Enjoy!

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Cookies.

They’re not cupcakes but they are just as yummy! I had a go at baking some sugar cookies and decorating with royal icing. Royal Icing can be such a pain to work with when you first start. It’s mostly the consistency that you need to get right and you need different consistencies for the same colour! I went through piping bag after piping and have decided to invest into some icing bottles. Sigh.

Anyways, they aren’t my best work but I’m not giving up. I am sure to make some more cookies and practice more piping.  Youre probably wondering where I came up with these designs right? I’ll be honest. This is what they were meant to look like, but um. well. they didn’t. Sigh.

Have a go though! It’s a lot of fun You can use any cookie recipe and to make royal icing, go to Coles or Woolworths and buy a bag of royal icing (just add water) and off you go!

Happy Baking!

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I had some leftover green fondant that I wanted to use up on my cupcakes so I came up with these pretty little designs. Theres so much you can do with a few flower cutter and texture sheets and these are the just the beginning of some simple designs.

I’m attempting a rainbow cake while I’m visiting my hometown Auckland and hopefully it turns out as good as I picture it in my head. If not, oh well, at least I have plenty of people to eat it up!

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Here are some more cupcakes with little roses piped on.  I used whipped ganache for the roses and the leaves are made from fondant. I’m very pleased with how these cupcakes turned out. Look at those perfect round tops! I don’t usually get them so good and I’ve realised that the key is…. good ganache.

If your ganache is too runny, there is no way you’re going to get a good smooth consistency and be able to apply it and shape the ganache on top of the cupcake. And if your ganache underneath the fondant is not smooth, then the fondant isn’t going to sit nicely on top. So, when you try to make these, make sure your ganache is perfect to apply.

Moist Vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate ganache, covered in fondant. nom.

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Remember when I mentioned in my last blog that I want to start using different designs on my cupcakes? Well, I tried stenciling! I used a cake stencil that I had purchased a while back. With some leftover whipped ganache I spread it over the stencil and…. ta-da!

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