Recipe of The Week - Fruit Cake-Cups

If you haven't made any Christmas cakes yet, or don't have the time. These Christmas Cupcakes are perfect. They don't take too long to make, and would be great to take to a Christmas BBQ.

Christmas Cupcakes (or Fruit Cake-Cups)

[Makes 12] Printable Recipe

You Will Need...

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

Line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cupcake wrappers.

Put the sugar, butter and orange rind into a bowl and mix together.
Mix together until ingredients are light and creamy.
Add eggs one at a time and mix until completely combined.
Add the walnuts, dried fruit and orange juice. Mix together.

Add the flours and mixed spice and mix in.

Mix together with a wooden spoon until ingredients are all combined.Divide mixture amongst cupcake wrappers, approximately 2 tablespoons per wrapper.

Place in the oven until the cupcakes are cooked - when a skewer inserted in, comes out clean.

Once cooked, place on a cooling rack to cool.

When completely cool, cut out circles of white fondant (ready to roll) and place on top of cupcakes. You can also cut out some holly leaves from green fondant, and make some red balls for the berries. Or if you don't want to use fondant, use some red smarties or mini m&ms.

I had some mixture left over, so I used it to make this Mini Fruit Cake that I gave to my Aunty.

On The Second Day Of Christmas...

My true love gave to me....

A Christmas Elf Cupcake Topper.

This is how you can make an elf out of fondant.

You Will Need...

1 small ball of skin colour.

1 small ball of green. (for his hat, so it can be any colour you want)

1 smaller ball of white.

1 black edible marker

1 triangle cutter

1 circle cutter

Cut out a circle of 'skin' colour, and a triangle of green.

Shape the circle gently with your fingers, so it has a pointed chin.

Shape the triangle gently, so it is curved at the top.

Roll out your white, and cut a small circle. (I used the tip of a piping nozzle)

Roll the remainder of the white into a long sausage shape (as long as the triangle base)

Using a little bit of water, attach the small circle to the tip of the hat, and the sausage to the base of the triangle.

Roll two small sausage shapes from the pink, and flatten them slightly.

Attach the ears to the sides of his head.

Make a nose from some left over pink, and attach with some water.

Draw on his face, however you think an Elf would look. (I'm not the best when it comes to the drawing part..)

Vote for Me

I entered the Cupcake Hero November Challenge - Banana Nut-Cases. So everyone head on over to I Heart Cuppycakes and vote vote vote. You have until December 6th.

On the First Day of Christmas...

Christmas is just around the corner!! 19 sleeps to be exact and the "Silly Season" has well and truly begun!!

I've had a few orders for Holiday themed cupcakes for various Christmas Parties..

These are just a few of the ones that were for this weekend.

Vanilla Cupcakes, with Vanilla Buttercream & Fondant Decorations

Fruit Cakes Cupcakes, with white fondant icing and fondant holly leaves

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.