smiley face cupcake

i wanted to decorate some cupcakes quickly the other day. and using very minimal coloured fondants seem to make more sense. so some smiley faces cupcakes seem easy enough to execute quickly.

even made 1 that looked like my husband!

anyway, happy baking!

coconut raisin cookies

i wanted to make butter cookies but when i looked in my pantry i had some small bags of coconut, raisins, chia and flax seeds. so i wanted to get rid of them by putting them in my cookie batter. 

it actually turned out great! to make the cookies, you need:

1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup oats
1 cup coconut threads/dessicated coconut
1/2 cup raisins (that's how much i had left)
1/4 cup soft brown sugar
2 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp flax seeds
1 tbsp honey (or less)
180g butter, melted

1. preheat the oven 160C on fan-forced. that's how you get the nice colour on the cookies.
2. put all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
3. mix the honey with the melted butter and pour into the dry ingredients.
4. stir until all dry ingredients are wet.
5. roll into balls and slightly flatten.
6. place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
7. bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
8. i baked mine for 22 minutes because they were big.

in a way, the ingredients are mostly similar to anzac biscuits. the extra ingredients are the raisins, chia and flax seeds.

anyway, happy baking!

car on the cake

i know it's been a while since my last post but i made it a point to bake and decorate a cake for my husband's birthday a few weeks ago.

as always i had heaps of fun. that cake topper was not as easy to model as i thought it was. it's supposed to be a mazda mx5 that my husband drive but i don't think it looks like that at all.

anyway, happy baking!

first love...

this blog has nothing to do with first love whatsoever! it's just that i'm still feeling a bit smitten from watching a show about the world's greatest first love. there was just so much falling sakura blossoms on every romantic scenes!

the sakura blossoms reminded me that i've always wanted a decorated cake with sakura tree design. so i attempted to decorate my first ever cake!

so my first blog for this new year is about my first decorated cake!

the colour scheme is inspired by one of my favourite things of 2011:

as for the cake, i've made a vanilla victoria sponge with raspberry and vanilla butter cream filling

i wrote a separate blog for making the sakura blossoms here.

it was my first time decorating a big cake so i took the time to sketch my design:

it was a lot of fun!

sakura blossoms

i don't have a specific flower cutter for making sakura blossoms. but sakura blossoms are fairly easy to make if you have the basic tools for making roses. 

the essential tools needed are:
5 petal flower cutter
ball tool
foam pad
knife
most important to have is gumpaste.

to make sakura blossoms:

• roll the gumpaste as thinly as you can on a dusted surface, icing sugar or cornflour.

• use the 5 petal cutter to cut out the flowers.

• use a knife to cut a small slit between the flower petals.

• cut a V shape in the middle of each petal. tip: i've used the end of a heart shape cutter.

• put the blossom on the foam pad and with the ball tool, slide the edge of the petals to thin it out. then, cup the center of the blossom and petals by pressing it gently.

• leave to dry.

when dry dust the edge pf the petals lightly with pink lustre dust. in my case, i dusted my blossoms with ivory.
to make the loose petals, just separate the petals from the whole blossom.

victoria sponge

i have to say that this is one of my favourite cake recipe because it's very versatile and easy.

the recipe is enough to make a 18cm round cake or 12 regular cupcakes or 24 mini cupcakes.

basic ingredients:

200g each of margarine, caster sugar  & self-raising flour

6 eggs, pre-cracked

flavourings:

1-2 tbsp vanilla/vanilla paste/lemon/almond/orange/etc.

coffee - 2 tbsp instant coffee diluted in 1 tbsp hot water

chocolate - replace 50g of flour with 100g of cocoa diluted in 100ml of warm water & 100g of melted cooking chocolate.

steps:

• cream margarine & sugar until pale.
• add chosen flavouring & mix until combined.
• add a third of the eggs with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix until combined. repeat this step until all eggs have been added.
• add remaining flour and mix until combined.
• divide batter into tin.
• bake in preheated oven: 180C.

baking times

round cake: 20-40 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean

regular cupcakes: 15-20 minutes

mini cupcakes: 10-15 minutes

spring countdown...

i am looking forward to dig my hands again in my little vegetable patch & definitely grow more sunflowers!