New blog site

We've moved over to www.teamjjbakery.com! Come check out the new blog design!

Strawberry Trifle

I'd been thinking of trifle for  a while now, with the abundant supply of strawberries around. So...trifle tonight! Huge bowl for the two of us. Bet Ani will be asking for some cream and cake...Actually she's already stolen a small piece of cake while I was putting it together! Such a cutie :)

All the ingredients before assembly...oh noes, I forgot! I put lots of lychee liquor in it, didn't have any brandy in the pantry. No trifle for kitty...

Clockwise from top, fresh whipped cream, fresh strawberries, freshly baked sponge and strawberry jelly

Till next time!

Lil Lemon Meringue Pies and Apple Pocket Pies

Made two dozen lil LMPs and a pocket apple pie each for dessert as the family were coming over for red wine lamb shanks dinner! Think the lil LMPs are great for tea parties...in fact ANY party! Good bite size for each person.

Baked the apple pocket pies a little too hot so the edges are slightly burnt :( Still, was good to try out my WS apple mould for the first time!

Got a pink cake stand in anticipation of Ani's (My little darling ragdoll Anarchy aka Kiwimagic Ice Angel) first birthday. We've got an amazing present for her! Tell you more on her birthday post. 

Would love some handmade Jeanette Zeis and Whitney Smith ceramic tiered cake stands, cake stands and cupcake stands at some point to have a collection to stage a beautiful tea party. Just don't like the cheap thin Made in China ones that Stevens sells. Also need some glass domed sets and antique looking tea & saucer & dessert plate sets! All sounds rather pricey...better build up slowly ;P 

Watermelon Cupcakes

Did a rush job Thursday night on a batch of watermelon cupcakes. I didn't sift the flour, mixed everything in a jiffy and got a couple of air bubbles and deflated cupcakes. hehehe!

Made watermelon flavored red cupcakes, used dark chocolate buttons as the 'seeds' and topped it with green vanilla buttercream. Didn't get the buttercream texture right so no cute dollops :(

Chocolate 'seeds'!

Here's the rest of the Williams Sonoma stuff, can't wait to try out the Apple Pocket Pies! :) And the decorating bottles are for icing christmas cookies, got them on sale. Next up I'd like to try some pandan cupcakes but I have to find some ingredients that are not readily available at the supermarket.

Moet & Chandon Strawberry Cupcakes

I'm getting ahead of myself here and making champagne cupcakes to celebrate the All Blacks victory tomorrow night! 

It had to be black and white. Go the ABs!

This week I got some new toys. Flower cutters and veiners had arrived in the mail as well as my personal embrosser from Williams Sonoma. Other goodies should arrive on Monday.How I wish I lived in the U S of A! I would love to shop in places such as Dean & Deluca whenever I fancied :( Farro Fresh and Nosh Food Market can't compare.

Made from scratch! No box mix here. The 'From the kitchen' version had a rather boring rolling pin picture.

You can buy interchangeable plates. I got this one for non-baking present giving.

Last night I tried out the Petunia cutter and was blown away by how easy it was to use. I think it was a combination of good cutter and good fondant! It was my first time using Satin Ice and I can tell you I will not be buying any other brand from now on. It is super dooper easy to use! Doesn't stick and smooth finish.

My flower trays only arrived in the mail this morning so I improvised and stacked them on my pressie tray from Miss Bakeaholic.


My champagne strawberry cupcakes was adapted from DC Cupcakes recipe available on Oprah's website. It recommended pink rose champagne however I figured an ALL BLACK bottle was more appropriate! I lie... LOL, J told me to choose a bottle we had multiples of, it just so happened to be black, the Piper Rose Sauvage I had my eye on is still sitting safe with the other champagne bottles :( hehehe! :)

Champagne started bubbling when poured on the yummy fresh NZ strawberries...

And here is the finished first batch, I made it today so J could bring 2 doz to work tomorrow to ease the crappiness of working on Rugby World Cup Final sunday. I shall be eagerly waiting to head out with J the minute he gets in tomorrow :)

Sorry I'm commenting in paragraph rather than caption. The photos keep jumping to other parts of the post whenever I attempt to add a caption... How annoying! Cupcake courier getting used for the first time above.
And below is the second batch for home. Kinda ran out of champagne buttercream!

And that's all for this weekend. Go the ABs!!!

Just saying Hi! (and sharing latest mail goodies)

Found my Kiwicakes order lobbed over the fence yesterday. I like the initiative when there are no fragile items in the box! As was the case this time :) I don't like having to wait for Saturday re-deliveries! Here's a couple of pics of Ani helping with the unpacking as she always does.

Isn't she gorgeous..........*heart melts

Playing the the star cutter.....yup! I'm thinking ahead to Christmas tree cupcakes

The Satin Ice is for a cake I'm going to attempt to fondant cover for Ani's birthday next month with absolutely no training. That should be interesting! At least Satin Ice is a good product so fail rate should be lowered :P Wouldn't hold my breath thou :P I also got some rose cutters as I want to try making some of these beautiful cupcakes like Bella Cupcakes some day. 

Photo copyrighted by Bella Cupcakes

Champagne strawberry cupcakes for J's colleagues this upcoming Labour Weekend. Will use a petunia cutter and veiner to finish of the rose swirl. Petunia cutter and blossom cutter available on TradeMe, sold by Miss Bakeaholic. You can see my Wilton 2D tip in the picture above. Also bought a spare 1M tip and two 1A tips as my current 1A tip has tarnished due to me throwing it in the dishwashing and leaving it soaking in hot soapy water and what not :P


And weekend after I will be baking watermelon cupcakes! You know, red watermelon cake with chocolate chips (to resemble the seeds) topped with green watermelon frosting? :D! As I've been obsessing over what watermelon cupcakes taste like ever since seeing one on an online cupcake shop's menu.


Last but not least my blog is finally getting a makeover in a month! It's been a long long wait (4 or 5 months booking in advance!) for the popular The Pixelista and I'm moving over to WordPress :)

Pistachio macarons & Lavender macarons

Busy weekend up ahead so I thought I'd get the macaronage out of the way tonight! Chopped some fresh roasted pistachios to go on top of the pistachio ones, a pity the lavender species in my garden is not flowering yet so no lavender petals to go on top of the lavender ones. Simple white chocolate ganache in the centres. 

Verdict? I still love my lemon curd macaron >_<~ Waiting to spot the next batch of fresh raspberries at the supermarket. I want to try doing a home made ispahan! Rose macaron with fresh raspberry and lychee centre. Heavenly combo! Right....time for a cuppa tea!