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!