Donna Hay Vanilla Cupcakes

Just tried out the Donna Hay Vanilla Cupcake mix I got the other day.  I haven’t seen her kits back home, but had seen them advertised in her magazines.  So, of course I had to buy it and try it out.

So, in the box there are cupcake papers, a bag of cupcake mix and a bag of icing mix.  You have to add eggs, milk and butter.

They take about 20 – 25 minutes to bake and the mixture makes 12.

 
 
Simon iced them and truth be told, he did a very good job.  I think I am the one that needs practice.  I wasn’t allowed near them though, he told me off when I tried to ice some so I stuck to scooping icing out of the bowl and licking it off my finger :)

 

Another day, another cupcake

These were our treats today while we on the loose in Melbourne.  They come from The Cupcake Bakery on the corner of Flinders Lane and Elizabeth Street :)
Melbourne is going to make me fat and poor.

Mmmmm… Melbourne

Simon and I are in Melbourne for two weeks!  Today was day two of our holiday and we headed into town for some shopping.  Our first stop was at Little Cupcakes, a little store in Degraves.  We shared 10 (well 9, Simon’s mum had one) mini cupcakes between us.  Mmmmmm mmm.  And we had milkshakes in cute ceramic retro looking cups.

So, after being little piggies we trotted around town.  Melbourne is heaven if you love cupcakes or chocolate.  And lets face it, who doesn’t?  I didn’t try any other sweet stuff today, but below is a collage of some of the things I spied. 

Top Row: Another cupcake shop that was around the corner from Little Cupcakes – those are giant cupcakes on the top shelf.  Lindt Chocolate has a cafe and shop! (I love Lindt – probably my fave chocolate)

Second Row: The Hopetoun Tea Rooms – this place looked amazing; the window display was sooo mouth watering.  It was packed too, people were waiting to get a seat here.  I want to go back and join them.  Haigh’s Chocolates – this company had a couple of stores in town.  Might pop back to buy my family gifts (although, I don’t know if this will work because of past experiences: I’ve tried taking home fudge from the fudge cottage in Christchurch, but I end up eating it before I leave and having to return to the shop and buy more.)

Third and Bottom Row:  These are snaps from inside the David Jones food hall.  OMG.  This place is like Farro or Nosh back home, but ya know, like three times the size.  The last picture is just of choose your own sweets at one of the malls.

What else? Oh, at the food hall I got a box of Donna Hay muffin mix.  Will try making them later in the week and let you know how they go.  I was going to make a banoffee pie, but the Australian supermarkets don’t stock caramel condensed milk and I can’t be bothered boiling a normal can to make it.

Ciao for now!

We have received an award :)

Mel Dehar has given this to us after reading and trying Courtenay’s ‘V’ flavoured cupcakes.  Thanks heaps for the recognition we’re super happy you enjoy our blog!

Sugar Rush!

  
So lately I’ve been craving V energy drink, but as I am acting as incubator to a little bambino it probably isn’t the wisest choice of refreshment, so I thought I’d dilute it making ‘V’ flavoured cupcakes.  And, to complement the tangy sweet taste of ‘V’ I added ‘Nerds’ as decoration!  I searched the net and there are plenty of Redbull cupcake recipes, so I took a couple and adjusted them to make the my own original recipe.

Makes 10 – 12 cupcakes

1 cup ‘V’ energy drink
¾ cup caster sugar
⅓ cup canola oil
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 ½ cup plain flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180˚C. Place cupcake papers in muffin tray.
Combine sugar and oil by mixing together.
Add the ‘V’, vanilla essence, baking soda, baking powder and salt, mix quickly.
Sift the flour into the mixture in three additions, being careful not to over mix each time.
Fill each cupcake casing ¾ full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they turn a light golden brown and the tops spring back when touched.
Cool on a wire rack.

To ice I used a a basic butter cream icing (125g butter and 1 ½ cups icing sugar) and added the remaining ‘V’ instead of a tablespoon of milk.  You can colour the icing any colour of your choice but I used a pink and orange swirl to complement the colour of the ‘Nerds’.

Enjoy – but don’t blame me if you are bouncing off the walls with a sugar rush after eating!

 

* Gorgeous pink cupcake casings were purchased from Living & Giving and are made by Robert Gordon Australia.

Lemon Loaf

This lemon loaf is easy.  Mix everything in a bowl, chuck it in a tin, then bake.  Done!

 

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
90g melted butter or margarine
2 eggs
Grated rind of 1-2 lemons (depending on how strong you want the lemon flavour of your loaf)
½ cup milk
1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
juice of 1–2  lemons
¼ cup white sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 160˚C.  Mix all ingredients except for the lemon juice and the ¼ cup of sugar, into a bowl until a smooth batter is formed.  Pour into a greased loaf tin (approx 22 x 11 cm) and bake for 45 minutes or until lightly golden brown.  Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
While the loaf is baking, place the lemon juice and ¼ cup of sugar into a pot.  Simmer over a low heat to melt the sugar and stir to combine with the lemon juice.  Remove from the oven and drizzle the lemon syrup over the top.  Leave to cool, then remove from the tin to slice and serve.

Little and Friday

 
Simon took me to this cute wee place on Saturday.  One of his clients collects Crown Lynn and he was telling them how I am a fan of Crown Lynn – they suggested taking me to Little and Friday because I would love it.  They were correct :)

 
Little and Friday is adorable.  There is one massive white table inside with various cakes acting as a centrepiece accompanied by little cups and saucers with ribbons tied around them.  The out door tables and shelves inside are old white-washed crates.  Everything in the cabinet looked delicious and is all made on site.  We purchased so much stuff that I can’t remember what everything was called :P

They don’t have a website, but you can check out their cake menu.  They are open Wednesday – Sunday. 

Little and Friday
43c Eversleigh Road, Takapuna, Auckland
P: (09) 489 8527

A bun in the oven!

And... it's a boy!  Congratulations Courtenay! 
Courtenay is pregnant, and Thursday night she and her husband Shane found out that they are expecting a boy. 
I made her cupcakes to celebrate and Jude (one of our work colleagues) brought in balloons.  We set them up in Courtenay's classroom on Friday morning before she arrived at school to give her a surprise :)
Courtenay is due Feb 1st.  She is doing very well and baby looks healthy.

My new toy

I am quite excited about trying it out!  It’s a Kuhn Rikon frosting decoration pen.

Banana Bread

So, I decided I wanted to try making bread.  I haven’t attempted it yet (I’m scared of using yeast and leaving the dough to do whatever it is that you leave it to do) however, Simon (the boyfriend) liked this idea so off we went and purchased a loaf tin.  I had bananas to use up, so I found this old recipe that I salvaged from a magazine years ago and we gave it a go.  Easy peasy too.

Makes 2 loaves.      Ready in 1 hour 10 minutes.

1 ½ cups flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
395g can sweetened condensed milk
50g butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 160˚C.  Line the bases of two 21cm x 11cm loaf tins.  Combine the flours, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Beat together the eggs, condensed milk, butter, golden syrup, vanilla essence and banana in a separate bowl.  Add to the flour mixture and mix gently until well combined.
Spoon into the loaf tins and bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centre come out clean.  Cool in the tin before turning out.

Now, apparently these loaves are great iced in tangy lemon icing.  We were too impatient to wait and make some!  Mix together 2 tablespoons butter (melted), the juice of a small lemon and 1-2 cups sifted icing sugar together until smooth.  Add more juice and sugar as needed.  Ice the loaves and leave for 30 minutes to set.

Simon has fallen in love with our new loaf tin and has made a fantastic looking lemon loaf without me :(  I will try and get him to make one again in the weekend because a) I love lemony things and want to try it, and b) so I can share it with you!

Oh, and thank you Simon for taking the photos for this post and of the cupcakes at The Cake Stall in the previous post :)

The Cake Stall

 
I visited this little place called The Cake Stall on Saturday.  Very cute – if I were to own a shop it would be like this place; beautiful cakes and slices for people to sit and eat as well as stocking baking supplies for sale such as cupcake cases and decorations.

 
I had a slice of Chicken mustard pie and one of their Rocky road cupcakes.  Yum!  And, while I was eating a lady came in to pick up a cake she had gotten made to order – it looked pretty damn delicious.

The Cake Stall
754 Manukau Road, Royal Oak, Auckland
P: 625 1232   F: 625 1242,
E: info@thecakestall.co.nz
www.thecakestall.co.nz