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!~

Raspberry cupcakes with raspberry frosting

On Friday I was thinking no baking this weekend but then Sex and the City 2 is on tv tonight! I had to have cuppies while watching that!  Also received rave reviews on Friday's lemon cuppies. J said half a doz of his colleagues asked where was the website to place orders coz they thought my little sticker on the box meant I was in business :) Sorry! Made on the whim only! I adapted that lemon cupcake recipe into a raspberry cupcake.

Yup! Obsessing over dollops at the moment...

Love creaming butter & sugar, I always eat a sneaky  teaspoonful.

Tried out my strawberry sprinkles
(didn't have orange at home and this was spur of moment so couldn't use the orange sherbet sprinkles this time)

Tried the cheap Hansells raspberry flavor and
it was better than the bottle on the left which costed ten times as much!

FINALLY! A pale baby pink icing :) I love pink when it's so pale it's almost white.

Dollops of raspberry frosting

The strawberry sprinkles look very sparkly and smell like strawberries but doesn't taste strawberry.

I got round to buying lollipop sticks yesterday, so just awaiting my cake pop stand in the mail and we'll be good to go making Bakerella's spring chicks cake pops next weekend!

Lemon Meringue Cuppies for J's colleagues

Today is RWC 2011 opening day! As most kiwis would be slacking at work today :P I thought some cupcakes would go down well at J's work. My two bosses aren't really into sugary treats so none for my work. I thought about trying out an orange cupcake recipe to go with the sparkly orange sherbet sprinkles I'd purchased this week but J wanted his lemon cupcakes, so that was that....


Googled for a new lemon cupcake recipe as the last Rachel Ray recipe was a terrible - hopeless - lacked flavour and texture, the meringue was also lousy. Luckily this random recipe I tried was nice! Pretty good, a little less lemony than I would have liked, I'll add more juice next round. I also did a french meringue for the topping which was the right consistency for the cute little dollop tops I like. French meringue will definitely be my go to topping from now on as frosting such as buttercream frosting is just way too sweet, only good for occasional use.

Thought about making mini rugby balls but BLEH :P fresh raspberry tastes much better and less hassle for a work night! Glad Spring is finally here! Looking forward to all the fresh berries.

Creamed butter and sugar with eggs added

Recipe called for 2 sticks butter (226 gms), I somehow sliced 227 gms on the first go!
Been baking too much??

Finished batter

Lemon rind to add

Cuppies ready for toppings

Dollops of lemon curd

Topped with a french meringue and fresh raspberry

I find dollops cute :\

3 boxes for J to take to work. I need a reusable cupcake carrier!

Till next time! I'm having a hard time looking for more black cupcake wrappers and my cake pop stand still hasn't arrived :( so probably no baking this weekend from me!

Macarons for J's colleagues

Haven't got round to purchasing the sticks and a stand for making cake pops yet, so that will have to wait another week or two. In the mean time, J had told his colleagues he'll bring some macarons in one day, so I decided no time like the present! Made my two favourite flavors, raspberry and lemon :)

Plain shells

Making the meringue

Couldn't be happier, two great lots of shells with no dramas!

Raspberry ganache filling

Raspberry powder decorating

Lemon curd filling

Passionfruit powder decorating

And there we have it! 60 macarons in 2 hours. Wouldn't do it for money thou! It's a labour of love :) x