easter cupcakes

the kidlets were invited to an easter bash at our friends house today and had the time of their lives! we are so grateful to have the best "village" where people love our kids and make fun times for them. i always feel bad if i don't send something along though, so i made some easter cupcakes and decorated them with some of the leftover smarties from joseph's pac man cake. i have used the same cupcake recipe forever - purely cause it's the best there is.

best ever cupcake recipe

ingredients:

2 eggs

200ml thickened cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 caster sugar

1 cup sifted self raising flour

1. crack eggs into a 250ml measuring cup, then fill to the top with thickened cream. pour into a mixing bowl.

2. beat with an electric mixer for 1 minute

3. pour in sugar and vanilla essence

4. beat for 3 minutes

5. fold flour into mixture with wooden spoon until combined

6. place mixture into a 12 hole muffin pan, lined with paper casings
7. bake at 160 deg celcius (fan forced) until lightly golden, approx 15-20 mins

mermaid cupcakes

i sent madeline off to class this morning with 23 of these decorated mermaid cupcakes for her "birthday." having her birthday mud july means she will never have her birthday during the school term, but she doesn't like to miss out on her special day with the class, so we always take her cupcakes on the last day before school holidays.

but. oh the drama. the mermaid cases and tails carefully purchased for this years party theme only had 23 cases inside...

the cakes did not want to stay in their cases and were moving all over the place in the trays...

meaning i had to actually trim them into a decent size for decorating. hahaha.

 

then my piping bag broke and icing went all over the place...

but we somehow got there. a generous topping of aqua cream cheese icing, a dash "midnight" sprinkles from the queen range at coles supermarkets and the mermaid tail on top? good to go. i was pleased with the end result and that's the main thing right? plus, i was  volunteer in the school canteen today and somehow walked past at just the right time as the kids came out for recess holding them. i got lots of compliments, so they obviously tasted okay. hooray! well. there's the start of birthday month for you miss madeline! 

lemon and coconut cupcakes

i have made these a few times in the last few weeks, i found the recipe when i was googling something else - and they are delish! please have a laugh with me at my picture featuring half a lemon to make sure that everyone at our last goodlet family dinner knew they were lemon flavoured haha! recipe is from here... all i changed was to add a little lemon juice to the icing which was otherwise a little bland. go on and give them a go!

lemon and coconut cupcakes 

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

160 ml can coconut milk

3 teaspoons lemon, finely grated zest

125g butter, melted and cooled

coconut icing

2 cups icing sugar

30g soft butter

1 1/2 tablespoon boiling water

1/3 cup coconut flakes

method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C or 150C fan and line 12 medium muffin tins with paper cases. Place flour into a large mixing bowl. Stir in coconut and sugar and make a well in the centre.
2. Use a fork to whisk eggs, coconut milk and lemon zest in a jug. Add to the dry ingredients, along with the butter. Fold together until just combined but don't mix or beat. Spoon into prepared cases. Bake for 20 mins, or until springy to a light touch. Leave in the tin for 5 mins then lift out onto a wire rack to cool.
3. To make the icing, sift icing sugar into a bowl and add butter. Pour boiling water onto butter to melt it and stir until smooth. Spread over each cake, sprinkle with coconut flakes and leave to set.

birthday ballet outing

yesterday (which was madeline's actual birthday) she and joseph had to come to a midwife appointment with me. they were so well behaved and i was stoked... so afterwards we went to sherbert bakeshop and cafe for a treat

i love it when these two love each other. it's my favourite... i just wish it happened more often! this photo says it all though, it's times like this that make being a mum totally worth it.

it's someone's birthday somewhere? that someone is meeeeee!

after the cafe, we drove a little way up the road to turn around, and used the west australian ballet centre carpark. it was then i had the most wonderful idea. my friend taui works at the ballet centre and should be at work at that time... so i made a call, hoping he was available. to my absolute delight he was, and madeline got the best birthday present of all time, a private hour long tour of the west australian ballet!

we went into all the studios, where madeline was able to dance to her hearts content... not once did taui rush her, he was more than happy for her to dance her heart out and insisted his work could wait, as nothing was more important than madeline's birthday. what a love!

we even got to have a peek into the studio where all the costumes are made!! madeline was in ballet heaven. what a lucky, lucky girl!

posing with uncle taui before going home.

what an amazing gift. i absolutely cannot believe how lucky our girl is! it has just renewed her ballet obsession that much more and she is bursting with joy, telling everyone that it was the best birthday present (and best birthday!!) ever. oh it's great to be seven!

♥

i have no doubt this feisty little redhead is going places! 

easter cupcakes

a few years ago, i saw easter m&ms on pinterest and i was hooked. i love pastel colours (and m&ms!!) so when i was in the unites states recently, i went looking for them at the grocery store, knowing i had a fairly good chance of finding them, being that easter wasn't too far away.

jackpot! not only did they have them, but they had them in milk and white chocolate... so i snapped them up quick smart and hauled them home to sprinkle them all over easter cupcakes for madelines class today, the last day of school before the easter holidays begin!

ready to go in mums magic cupcake tin... (she has been cooking in this thing for as long as i can remember)

with the best cupcake recipe i've ever come across 

and voila! easter (pastel themed... that counts for easter right?!) cupcakes for little miss's class today. the teachers were stoked (and joked that she was definitely getting an a+), the kids were chuffed and they were delicious!! (joseph and i enjoyed one at lunchtime)

bring on the holidays! i'll let you know how it goes. lol

♥

halloween visiting teaching

i do love it when i find something cute and appropriate to add to the visiting teaching message... i've never been a huge fan of halloween, but stumbled across this gorgeous handout on pinterest and was thrilled to see it because finally... someone gets it!

i loved it, and hopefully the ladies i visit teach will enjoy it and the cupcakes i made to go along with them ♥

work bunny

the people i work with are not so religious - but this year i wanted to share my love for easter and all that it represents - with them in some way that everyone could appreciate. so... i made cupcakes!

i started with the best ever cupcake recipe (not only is it actually called that - but it really is...) and then iced them, before rolling the icing in desiccated coconut that i had mixed with green food colouring... and popped m&m speckled eggs on top to make a little nest.

i had so much fun making them, and hope that they were as much fun to eat. just wanted to share the easter love!

red velvet birthday cakes...

my beautiful friend dominique (friend - not sister-in-law - these are two different people!! and yes, i know the chances of not only knowing two people with a name that unusual, but actually being related to one and very good friends with the other, is extremely unlikely - yet i have succeeded in both! thankyou thankyou...) anyway, i better start again, as i am sure you're all lost by now... :|

my beautiful friend dominique rocked up at my house tonight with these - for me!!! i was so excited... well, am so excited - because only two of them are gone so far... her specialty is red velvet cupcakes, and as always, they are exquisite. thank you my love!! you're the best! :)



cupcakes :)

for cody's birthday last week - i made him a batch of colourful cupcakes from jen's fabulous recips - aptly called "best ever cupcakes"... they were freaking awesome - and now doug keeps begging me to make more. so i happily obliged - and dipped the icing on these ones in hundreds and thousands and shredded coconut. so so yummy. maybe having a baby has been good to me in more way than one. ;) i've become a kitchen whiz!

(not) my last day

oh bless... shez from work thought today was my last - and when i arrived this morning, this was waiting for me in the kitchen...

cupcakes, roses and a rose scented candle... just to make sure that everything smelt as good as it looked. what a love!! and now... she's set a standard - this means i'll expect it next friday, when i really do finish. :)