I thought Cameron had a lot of hair but after comparing him with Abby at four months old he doesn’t look like he has enough!

We have hairy babies

The three cupcake flavours

I made three flavours which I was told were all delicious. I was too full by the time I had any, and could only handle a taste of the chocolate ones (I blame the bump taking up all of my valuable food space).

The first was Chocolate Cherry with chocolate fudge cream spiked with cherry liquer, and sprinkled with real chocolate hail. I would normally make them as Black Forest cupcakes with fresh cream but it was a bit too hot to do that in advance.

Chocolate cherry cupcakes

Then there was a Lemon Vanilla with a lemon buttercream and fruit jube on top. The little lemon wedges were candy I bought from the UK – so yummy and perfect as decoration.

Vanilla lemon cupcakes

Last was Lime and Coconut – though I completely forgot to put lime juice in it (just used zest), whoops! These were topped with Malibu buttercream, toasted coconut and a giant marshmallow

Lime and coconut cupcakes

The girls froze the leftovers and I’ve been told they defrotsed fine. I made myself some chocolate cupcakes yesterday and having them cold from the fridge today was not bad at all. Good to know I can keep iced cupcakes for when I have a random cupcake craving!

Abby with mum

For some reason Abby’s been extremely clingy these last few days, and will cry at things that normally don’t bother her (like leaving her to play). I’m guessing her chest infection, combined with teething and the large number of people around have something to do with it.

Cupcake cake, of course

Anyway, at least mum got the party she wanted for her baby and caught up with people she hadn’t seen for ages (I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted with everyone, so apologies).

Abby enjoyed her presents, and loved the cheerios and chippies. The cake was yummy, even Abby got to have some.

Mmm cake

Thankfully the weather was summery enough for people to be outside – even too hot for most of the day, but the main point is that it didn’t rain. Abby wore a cute gingham dress that grandpa picked out while in Sydney.

Lots of work, but lots of fun. Maybe next year she’ll be a bit more social! And I’ll be able to drink!!

Oooh presents

Being summer, I thought a cocktail-inspired cupcake was in order, so I came up with the Pina Colada Cupcake. It has chunks of pineapple baked into it and topped with buttercream laced with Malibu.

The recipe is once again based on the awesome Scout’s Cupcake, tweaked for this variation.

Like eating a cocktail!

My belly button now looks like a moon crater with raised edges.  I wonder what it will do by the end of this trimester…

On Sunday I had my baby shower. Thanks to my cousin and Ms Constantine for organising things, and everyone who made it there.

Of course I had to make cupcakes and opted for the favourite black forest. I also made a lemon coconut flavour so I could make use of the dessicated coconut that I finally got around to getting (although I only used it on the icing).

Baby shower cupcakes

I opted to ice the lemon cupcakes by using a layer of butter cream and then plonking a giant marshmallow on top. A sprinkling of coconut made them look extra fluffy. Some royal icing helped to cement the teeny fondant flowers on top to complete the baby girl look. Lazy but quite effective I thought. I also learnt that I need to use more butter cream because the marshmallow may look like frosting but doesn’t give the same moistness and finger licking quality as frosting :)

The hubby made some cookies that I put away in Chinese takeout boxes for the guests.  Mmm, chocolate cherry, and almond and white chocolate…. He thinks he may have missed an ingredient from the chocolate cherry ones because they turned out rather flat and floppy, so apologies. I think they still tasted good.

The baby shower was great fun. We also got a lot of useful stuff that will help us get started when the baby arrives. Baby clothes, especially girls’ things can be unbelievably cute! Can’t wait to use everything.

We also had our first antenatal class last Wednesday. It’s quite scary learning what is going to happen. My cervix is apparently going to expand to nearly the size of a compact disc and that’s before I can start pushing the baby out!

Last Sunday we were invited to Kiwi Wolf’s hubby’s surprise birthday get together.  Myhubby volunteered me to make the cupcakes – lucky for him I like making cupcakes and he knew it anyway.

I decided to make two flavours – lemon lime (based on the Coconut Lime Cupcake recipe but minus the coconut essence) with a zesty lemon butter cream, and a Black Forest cupcake with fresh cream flavoured with cherry liquer. They were both delicious and I was sad that I could only fit in one of each :[

Lemon lime cupcakes with lemon butter cream frosting

Black forest cupcakes with cherry liquer flavoured cream

The hubby decided to make chocolate chip cookies. He managed to find the other recipe that we love. This one has coffee in it, and is a light cookie with a salty sweet scrumptiousness. I prefer it over the last chocolate chip recipe I posted. Unfortunately I didn’t get around to taking any photos before they were all eaten.

I’m not sure exactly where we got this recipe from or what we had altered, but it’s gooood.

The intention was to use the dessicated coconut that had been hanging around in the pantry since ages ago, but when it came to it I couldn’t find it anywhere. Maybe I’d already thrown it out because it was getting manky…

So I ended up using coconut essence, which isn’t the same, but it gave a nice subtle flavour.

We also bought a jar of Marshmallow Fluff when we were in the States a few years back. The hubby thought it was a great souvenir because it’s ’so American’, but we didn’t really know what to do with it. Then on an episode of Good Eats, Alton Brown made some marshmallow fluff-type frosting, so that gave me another reason for baking these cupcakes.

My recipe is as follows, and as always it’s based on the basic Scout’s cupcake recipe.

Coconut Lime cupcakes with Marshmallow Fluff frosting

Vanilla cupcakes with lemon icing

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate flakes

Bright vanilla cupcakes with strawberry and apple flavoured icing

Vanilla cupcakes I made for my hen's tea party with Malibu, Cointreau and Kahlua icing

A selection of cucpakes for Ms Constantine's birthday

Blue Obama cupcakes (not the obscene version)

Well, we’re not American, but Obama’s presidency gave me an excuse to be silly with cupcakes. If you want to know what I mean, see my post on Cocktails and Obama Cakes.

Dark chocolate cupcake with lemon icing

Trial cupcakes for the brother-in-law's wedding

The 72 cupcakes we made for the brother-in-law's wedding. Flavours were chocolate, vanilla boysenberry and lemon, with vanilla or lemon icing.

Dark chocolate black forest cupcakes with fresh brandy cream

All my cupcakes are variations of the basic Scout’s Cupcakes recipe (see my Tea Party Essentials post) – the most simple, fail proof recipe for light, fluffy cupcakes.

I had been wanting to make black forest cupcakes for months but hadn’t gotten around to it – mainly because they have fresh cream instead of icing so it was best to wait until there was an occasion where the whole lot would be eaten in one day.

Finally I decided that our last barbecue of the year would be a great time to test these out.

Black Forest cupcakes

I based the recipe on my favourite for Scouts Cupcakes and made a few alterations. They turned out great and I will definitely make them again soon :)

Update 30 August 2009:
I’ve adjusted the flour and cocoa ratios to eliminate the need for two types of cocoa, and yet still get a rich but fluffy cupcake. The extra 1/4 cup of dry cocoa makes up for the juices in the cherries. Also, use cherry liquer in the cream if you have it.

Black Forest Cupcakes

• Break 2 eggs into a cup measure and fill to the top with fresh whipping cream.
• Pour into a large mixing bowl and beat on high with electric mixers for 1 minute.
• Add 1/4 teaspon of vanilla essence and 3/4 cup caster sugar.
• Beat for another 3 minutes.
• Stir through 1/2 cup of Morello cherries (you get these tinned or in a jar). Cut them up roughly first.
• Sift in 1 cup of standard flour plus 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.
• Sift in 1/4 cup Dutch cocoa.
• Fold to combine taking care not to over mix.
• Spoon into 12 cupcake cases.
  Usually I end up with a couple extra – if you are making a double batch, you can get 30 cupcakes.
• Bake for about 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius until a skewer comes out clean.
• Remove from tins (they can be quite fragile for a few minutes after baking) and cool on wire racks.
• Whip some fresh cream with a dash of cherry liquer or brandy and pipe onto cupcakes.
• Decorate as you please.
  I used real chocolate hail, red sprinkles, and white chocolate drops. Maraschino cherries or shaved chocolate on top woud be good too.

Tea Party Essentials

Eeee! Look at all my pretty things. Not just good to look at, but will be most useful at every tea party.

From top right going clockwise:

1. Cupcakes! The recipe I swear by is one for “Scout’s Cupcakes”. It’s a gorgeous recipe that’s so simple and makes really fluffy cupcakes – the best I’ve found. I make them chocolate sometimes.
   The orginal recipe is available from Taste.com.au but here is my version modified with some clarifications and suggestions:
   Scouts Cupcakes
   • Break 2 eggs into a cup measure and fill to the top with fresh cream. (In New Zealand we only have one type of cream but overseas make sure you buy the thick stuff that can be whipped.)
   • Pour into a large mixing bowl and beat on high with electric mixers for 1 minute.
   • Add 1/4 teaspon of vanilla essence and 3/4 cup caster sugar.
   • Beat for another 3 minutes.
   • Sift in 1 cup of self raising flour (I normally use standard flour plus 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt).
   • Fold to combine taking care not to over mix.
   • Spoon into 12 cupcake cases (or more if you have extra batter) and bake for about 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees celcius until golden and springy to the touch.
   • Remove from tins straight after baking and cool on wire racks before icing.
2. 3-tier cake stand to display all your goodies. This was a score from Ikea in London. I hadn’t been able to find any decent ones at home and any that I did find were hideous or really expensive. This is eagerly awaiting use!
3. Pretty teacups and plates. I fell in love with these when I saw them at Farmers – they were footed, red and with polka dots! And they remind me of Alice in Wonderland. I haven’t yet used these either because I only bought them a few days ago.
4. Sprinkles, and lots of them.
5. A large teapot so all your guests can fill up.
6. A simple, elegant and sturdy cakestand (it’s underneath the teapot in the picture) to display more cupcakes, or maybe a mega cupcake…
7. The middle picture is actually an ice cream bowl, but it has cupcakes painted on it and so pretty that it can’t be left out at a tea party. I see it more as a lolly dish, maybe to put some decandent truffles into?
8. Under the ice cream bowl/lolly dish is a wooden Lazy Susan. I purchased this with cake decorating in mind. This was another bargain from Ikea as cake turntables aren’t so cheap here in New Zealand.

I can’t wait for my next tea party where all these pretty powers can combine!