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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!

Cake pops attempt and Quick choc cuppies

Saturday happenings, took my kid brother around with me, we went to pick up cupcake wrappers,a mini muffin pan and colour gels before indulging in some McDonalds and heading back to mine to attempt cake pops.

19 packets of wrappers! Should last a while.

Added 3 new colours to the pantry :)

Should have heeded mum's words about cake box mixes! As I was following Bakerella's cake pop method, I used a Betty Crocker's box mix and the cake texture was totally .....pathetic...... by the time I added the frosting, it was just a gloopy mess. Needless to say I knew it wasn't going to stay on the stick, let alone take the form of spring chicks! By some miracle, it did stay on the stick so I just spooned the candy melt onto the cake and had a rather messy finish! Candy melt was also quite thick after heating so might have to add oil to thin it out if attempting a smooth finish next cake pop attempt! Will also bake a cake from scratch next time, although I have one chocolate cake box mix left in the pantry now... Maybe bake it and see how that turns out?!

The cake pop stand arrived last Monday, bottom tiers are huge!

Last night (Tuesday), I was seriously craving cupcakes so I decided to use up that second box of cake mix in the pantry. Luckily the chocolate version was better than the strawberry above. Can't fault how quick it is to use premade mixes. Only took 5 mins before it was ready to go in the oven. So start to finish- 30 minutes flat!

Used buttermilk instead of water contrary to instructions on box

Frosting included in box

Cupcake inspektor on duty!

Pistachio macarons this weekend if I can spare the time. Tenant swap and gardening to do at the rental property :) Chores chores chores!

Banoffee Cupcakes

I haven't had enough of the banana + cream + caramel combo yet so I thought I'd try it in a cupcake version. Luckily family were visiting so they could help with the creamy goodness.


I couldn't quite decide what combination to go for so it ended up being a banana cupcake base topped with mascarpone & fresh whipped cream, finished with caramelized banana and toffee sauce. Not exactly temperature/ travel friendly. I think for a heavy duty version, I'd go a banana cupcake base with caramel buttercream.


Anyways, was busy yakking with mum so only took two photos. Here they are :)

Swirls of cream & mascarpone goodness~

Topped with banana & toffee goodness!

Note to self, should try a champagne and strawberries cupcake sometime soon :D~

Cupcake Courier

As per prediction in previous post, US parcel (sent a week later) has indeed arrived before Sydney parcel! No cake pops to be had today.


Here is the cupcake courier!

What's this for Momma? Aren't all cupcakes meant to be for me? Where you carrying them off to?

Sorry for photo clarity, didn't realise the iPad 2  photo taking ability is nowhere near the iPhone 4's.

Sprinkles & Quick Banoffee

My pantry has been in a bit of disarray, I don't know how half the baking ingredients (flour, powders, sugars, etc...) ended up on a different shelf to the decorating and frosting stuff! So I set about righting the wrong last night. On the way home from work, I bought some spice containers to tidy up my sprinkles which were in the store containers or zip lock bags. Much tidier now! Have a look :)

Rainbow sprinkles on one rack and single colours on the other.

 Also wanted to share my Laduree recipe book, birthday present from a couple of months back, was gonna share it when I made a macaron from a recipe but last couple of times I needed to give them away so couldn't experiment with new recipes knowing how temperamental they sometimes are. Funny story, I actually asked J to get me one but he left it too late till it was out of stock, just as well eh! :)

The banoffee pie I had at Frasers (Mt Eden Village)in the weekend was so yum, I was still craving it yesterday, so grabbed some bananas, cream, condensed milk and biscuits from the superette while getting fush n chups from the local Pomme Frites (so healthy eh! :P) and made one up just to satisfy the taste buds, was too lazy to find a recipe! Please excuse the pictures! Wasn't going for presentation :)

Biscuit & butter base 2-1 ratio, organic bananas

Can of condensed milk with random amounts of butter and brown sugar :P

Dulce de Leche

Slap on some whipped cream and into the belly we go!

Only shame, there was no mascarpone at the superette. I do like the subtle flavor it adds to the cream. We had banoffee for supper and breakfast this morning! :O!

There was a courier card in the mailbox, so on Saturday's redelivery I think we will find that cake pops are a go this weekend! :D! YAY! 

Supplies & Savoury Muffins

I am patiently (not really :P I'm not a patient person! BUY NOW! lol! ) awaiting the arrival of my cake pops stand from Sydney and my cupcake courier from LA! As the shipping gods would have it, the LA parcel although despatched later will probably arrive first.

I purchased my simple acrylic cake pop stand from cupcakeboxes.co.nz, figured it would arrive the quickest...not really happening   -_- There are some beautiful white wooden stands on Etsy which are tempting in future.  I also saw an acrylic/glass cake pop single layer stand within an acrylic/glass covered box on Kourtney Kardashian's kitchen bench during one episode but I've had no luck finding that - that would be my ultimate cake pop stand container!!!

Etsy has white versions similar to this

Cupcake carriers! I had to find one as it was a waste using my kraft gift boxes for J to ferry cupcakes to work if it was going to happen often enough. Also not that easy to balance 3-4 boxes! There are three 'main' options from my research and they all double up as cake carriers.

Wilton's 3-in-1 cake caddy,  it only holds a dozen cupcakes, too small for me.

Progressive Collapsible Cupcake Carrier, good option if you take public transport, collapse it once the goodies are gone. It holds 2 dozen. Although I've linked to the Homestore, you can usually find it heavily discounted elsewhere, it's even been on 1-day  website. I'm not a fan of the circular shape and design of the internal holder/stands but it is a cost effective solution.

So what did I choose? The Cupcake Courier in Petal Pink. I also love the Safron Yellow colour. Pity I can't have both :P It holds 3 dozen! And was quite a mission to source someone willing to courier to NZ. Can't wait to use it!

My black and red cupcake wrappers have finally been ordered through Homestore, I got sick of waiting two months with no sign of restocking so I threw a little tantrum after I emailed the distributor and found there was no supply shortage :P In the meantime, I got yellow and orange ones for emergency supply :)

Savoury muffins for this weekend~ Wasn't looking for a project so easy muffins, didn't even require using the mixer!

Milk and eggs to whisk

Add bacon, cheese, parsley and melted butter

Flour, baking powder, salt and sugar

Add together and stir!

Bake in tulip cups :) All done~

Did I mention little Ani likes to sample all the baking? Here are some random pics of her eyeing up sweet stuff.

And that's all for today!~