Meet Rufus

It's been 2 weeks since my last post, and I promise I have a very good reason......

This is Rufus.

He's a blue heeler cross and he's so very handsome. He's approximately 3 months old now, and was born sometime in September.

I adopted him from the lovely people at S.A.F.E. (Save the Animals From Euthanasia)
If you're looking for a pet, I would recommend looking at Pet Rescue first or any shelters and homes in your city. They have all kinds of animals that need a loving home and you could find your new best friend.

He's the reason I've been absent from the kitchen for a while. He takes up most of my time (in a good way of course) we play in the backyard, and have naps together.
He's always hungry, and stays up chewing my shoes, cushions, mats, lamp cords all night.....

Now that he is settled in, I shall be back baking in no time.
Hopefully soon I can make him some pupcakes and treats so he can join in the baking too.

Happy Housewarming

My friend just moved into a new house, and she had a housewarming party on Saturday.

I made these for the party...

All Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream...
...to go with this cupcake stand that I gave her as a housewarming present.

Recipe of the Week - Strawberry & Cream Shortcakes

These were supposed to be sponge cupcakes. But somehow.. they turned into some sort of shortcake. I'm not sure what I did wrong.. but they weren't what I thought they would be. I think I overbeated the mixture when I was beating the eggs. Overbeating is a big NO NO when making sponge cakes. I'll keep practicing!!

Strawberry & Cream Shortcakes[Makes 10] Printable Recipe

You will need...

Plus cream & strawberries for the filling.

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius, and line 10 holes of a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake wrappers.

Beat the 3 eggs for approximately 5 minutes or until they are light and fluffy. (Try not to overbeat them..)

Add about 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time, making sure it is mixed in after each one.Sift the plain flour, corn flour and self raising flour into a bowl, and then sift again.
Sift the flours once more, this time into the egg mixture.

Gently fold in the flour. Again, try not to overmix!
Pour approximately 1/4 cup of mixture into the prepared tray, and place in the over for 20-25 minutes.
Once they are cooked, place them immediately on a wire rack to cool.
Once cooled, whip up some cream (I used about 1/2 cup) and cut up some strawberries (probably about half a strawberry per cake) you could also put jam, but I didn't have any!
Take the wrapper off the cupcake, and cut the cupcake in half. Place a heaped teaspoon of cream on the bottom of the cupcake, and then some cut up strawberry ontop of that.
Replace 'lid' of cake.

Who Lives in a Pineapple Under The Sea?

SpongeBob SquarePants!

I made these cupcakes for an 8th birthday. SpongeBob SquarePants themed.

Patrick Star

SpongeBob SquarePants
Gary

Sheldon Plankton
Mr Krabs
Sandy Cheeks
All Vanilla Cupcakes, with vanilla buttercream icing, and blue and white cachous.

Recipe of the Week - Banana Nut-Case

This is the recipe I came up with to enter in the Cupcake Hero Contest. I've never entered before... There are some amazing bakers out there that make incredible things and I was just too nervous to enter anything!! But this time, I thought why not! You can find more information about Cupcake Hero here, as well as great recipes and other cool things at I Heart Cuppycakes!
The ingredient for November is... Peanut Butter!

Banana Nut-Case Cupcakes

(also known as Banana - Peanut Butter - Honey filled - Choc Chip Cupcakes)

[Makes approximately 18 cupcakes]
Printable Recipe

You Will Need:

I used normal cadbury dairy milk chocolate, and cut it up to resemble choc chips. You can replace this with actual choc chips if you want. Or any kind of chocolate you feel like.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and line your cupcake tray with wrappers.

Beat together the peanut butter and the sugar.
Add the eggs to the peanut butter/sugar mixture
Beat until thoroughly combined.

Stir in the flour, bicarb soda, mashed banana, sour cream, milk & chocolate in 2 batches.
Mix together until all combined.

Place a heaped table spoon of mixture into the prepared cupcake tray.Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Let cupcakes cool for 5 minutes in the tray before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.
Once cupcakes are cooled, cut a hole in the center. (You can do this however you find easiest.)
The easiest way I have found is using a large piping tip. Insert piping tip into top of cupcake and you have even sized holes for each one! Remember to keep the bit you take out to place back on top once cupcake is filled.

You will need for the filling and icing:

Drizzle honey into the centre of the cupcakes you just made and place 'lid' back ontop.

I'm not sure exactally how much honey I used (sorry!!)
It would have been approximately 1/2 teaspoon for each cupcake!

Spread a thin layer of peanut butter over the tops of the cupcakes.
You can always leave the cupcake at the Peanut Butter stage if you're not a huge chocolate fan..

Next spread a layer of nutella over the peanut butter.
Using a vegetable peeler shave some chocolate from a block and sprinkle on top of the nutella.

Recommended : A tall glass of ice cold milk.