Very berry strawberry cupcakes

So I made these with my fave vanilla recipe, but between spoonfuls of mix I piped a little strawberry preserve in the center of the cake. When they were baked I found the jam had made its way to the bottom so it might be best just to put it at the bottom next time...

I mixed some cream cheese frosting (the left overs from a couple of weeks ago that I had frozen and then defrosted) together with one teaspoon of strawberry preserve and a couple of drops of pink colouring. To finish off the berry heaven, I topped each cake with half a strawberry. Delicious!

Floral bag

I've been working on the Floral Bag pattern from Helen Ardley's Crocheted Accesories book for a while now.

Firstly, I started it with some Wendy Fusion yarn in the Bouquet Garni colorway and I finished one half of the bag (and all my ball) before I realised that the shop I originally bought the yarn from had sold out AND, worse than that, the range has been discontinued!

So, I went to John Lewis and dribbled over the Rowan Felted Tweed that the pattern suggests you use. But at £5.50 per ball and eight balls required I thought it was a little too much money to justify.

However, the Rowan knitting consultant at John Lewis (and my Blue Kitty knitters friend), Helen pointed out that Rowan have just released an Aran and Chunky weight!! The pattern uses a pink / lilac colorway called Melody which isn't stocked by John Lewis. So, I opted for a nice teal - turquoise goes with everything, IMO!

So I bought two balls and almost finished the pattern in one night. I went back the next day to buy a third ball and the purple and green Felted Tweed to make the flowers. I was planning on using only two colours for the flowers and leaves but seeing it all come together makes it irresistible to buy more colorways! I was especially pleased with the fact that I had finished with only three balls of Aran weight, instead of 8 balls of standard.

I'm so pleased with the results - I just need to finish some of the beading on the red flowers and find a handle (so hard to find 8" handles!!)


While all this was taking place I had trawled the internet for some more Wendy Fusion in the right colourway. I find ONE shop, JUST ONE, that had any Bouquet Garni in stock still. So I ordered three balls and managed to finish the other half of the original bag. I don't plan to make flowers for this bag, but I plan to use some vintage buttons that I have. Then I'll have a matching hat and bag set ready for autumn.

Yellow flowers and butterfly vanilla cupcakes

So, I've got my frosting down now! This week I made the same recipe as last week which I have almost perfected now! Vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (piped with a freezer bag).

I used yellow cases and decorated with some yellow flowers and white hearts with yellow jimmies to make butterflies. I bought the jimmies in NYC from Macy's Martha Stewart collection when I was over there in July for my birthday.

I also used decorated a few with hundreds and thousands to add some extra colour.

Frosting success!! Vanilla cakes with cream cheese frosting and hundreds & thousands

Hurray! I have mastered the cream cheese frosting that I've been trying to accomplish for weeks! And all it came down to was using a whisk instead of a wooden spoon to mix the frosting together.

I used the exact same recipe as last time and I decorated them this week with hundreds & thousands / tiny sugar balls.

This week I also tried something with the piping bag for the first time. I used a zip lock bag, as usual, to pipe out the frosting but instead of cutting across the corner to make a hole, I cut two very small slits going up the bag. This, effectively created a four corner star shape. It wasn't a very defined star, I need to practice to make the slits very delicate, but still was very effective.

I also need to practice making circles with a piping bag because every time I go round I seem to make more of a triangle shape!

I'm very pleased with the outcome, I think they look great. The cakes are absolutely delicious!!

Vanilla frosting and white sprinkles on vanilla cakes

Well, this time I had another frosting fail. But I am determined to get it right!

I used eight parts cream cheese, one part butter and nine parts icing sugar on some vanilla cakes. But it still came out so runny and creamy - not like fluffy frosting at all. It still tastes delicious so once I frosted the cakes I sprinkled them with all of my white sprinkle collection; sugar pearls, flowers, hearts, stars and sugar strands.

My sister suggested that I whisk the frosting instead of mixing it with a wooden spoon next time. That should help to get some air into the mixture and hopefully achieve the fluffy effect that I'm looking for.

Vanilla cakes with vanilla frosting and pink balls

I made some bonus midweek vanilla cakes for my friend Carrie's birthday!!

I actually made a little change to my recipe after reading this month's Sainsbury's magazine. So I made the recipe as usual then ten minutes after taking them out of the oven I pricked the cakes and brushed some vanilla syrup over them. This helped to make them extra vanilla-y and super moist.

I frosted them with canned frosting and decorated with pink sugar balls to make them all matching. Of course I used pink cases to make them uber-cute.

As we went out to Las Iguanas for dinner the waiter brought them out with pink candles after our meal and Carrie loved them. The waiter also commented that everyone in the kitchen was impressed too!

Toffee and vanilla cupcakes

I made these little lovelies with my favourite vanilla cupcake recipe and I added some toffee chunks to the mix before I spooned it into the cases.

Incidentally, I found it pretty tough to find toffee chunks but I finally sourced a mix pack of chocolate and toffee chunks from Somerfield - I just picked out the chunks that I wanted and saved the chocolate ones till another time ;)

For the frosting I made my own (first time not from a can!!!) using one part margarine, two parts cream cheese and three parts icing sugar. It came out a little more runny than I would like so I think next time I'll use unsalted butter instead of margerine, but it still tastes absolutely delicious.

To decorate I bought some toffee sauce and dolloped a big scoop into a zip lock bag, snipped a tiny hole in the corner and piped it out in a grid pattern.

I then gobbled them all down before anyone else got a chance (not really, but almost)!