Cupcakes

Miss F recently turned 2.

I decided cupcakes were the way to go for her birthday cake this year. And buttercream icing was the perfect choice too! I've got a cool little syringe-type thing with different tips for icing, so I had plenty of fun playing with that.

But then I couldn't decide which topping to go with.

Sanding sugar?

Hearts?

Butterflies?

So I went with them all.

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Yum!

I used a packet mix, so cheated a bit, but did make the buttercream icing from scratch.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Spongebob Squarepants!


Ever since our holiday to Qld, the boys have been interested in Spongebob. I don't think they'd ever seen him before, beyond maybe an ad or two on tv or something in a catalogue. We don't have Foxtel and as far as I know he's not on free-to-air-TV (which is the only tv I'll ever have!).

Anyway, we saw the Spongebob show at Dreamworld... we rode the Spongebob Flypants ride at Nick Central... and lucky us got to watch a Spongebob marathon at our apartment on the Gold Coast, on one of our "down days" that also happened to be a bit rainy and cold.

So when I discovered that a local bowling alley had a Spongebob themed party for kids, we booked them in. And the perfect opportunity to make a Spongebob cake!


And yes, I know he doesn't have his spots, but I had got that far without anything going wrong, it was late when I finished and I had no time to make another one if the spots didn't work out, so I quit while I was ahead!

Birthday Treats

My big boy L turned 7 on Saturday. It's been a weekend of cake and gifts. I'm all caked out, but I had enough left in me to make these tasty little treats for L to share with his classmates today.


Made with the trusty Eggless Muffin recipe. I got to use my new toy, an icing syringe for these too. That was fun, but I think my technique needs some work. They were tasty anyway!

Eggless Chocolate Muffins

Take this...


and this..
.
put them together...


and you get this...



mmmm...


yum!


Recipe here. I added chocolate chips.

Something to tempt the tastebuds

A little break from knitting:





Birthday cakes for L and M, and a raspberry cheesecake slice. The cheesecake slice is pre-baking, and the mixture was so yummy I could have eaten it unbaked. None of them lasted very long.

Domestic-ness

Spent this morning baking. Here is the fruit of my labour:


Apricot Muesli Slice. Yum. It's actually pretty good. M even ate a whole piece with absolutely no coaxing whatsoever, and he even said *Yum!* after each bite! The real test will be when L is home and gives me his verdict. I have low expectations on that front LOL

Also made pizza scrolls this morning too. They didn't quite turn out as they should, but they went down ok for lunch so all is good. No pics as they disappeared too fast! I'll bake some more *properly* next time - I cheated and used ready-made pastry this time instead of making my own as per the recipe, and I tell you, cheaters never prosper! LOL

And just to show that I haven't been completely unproductive in recent weeks, I made these too, which are a gift for someone who's name I cannot mention right now, as I'm pretty sure she reads this and it's meant to be a secret, but meh. I'm already way over time, and the cat is probably out of the bag by now anyway. They are a little gift to say *sorry*, and she'll know what for if she reads here, and if she can't work it out, she'll know when she gets them! LOL

Happy Birthday....

.... to the Queen! LOL Unfortunately she wasn't able to attend our home to share these with us, so we are eating them on her behalf :)

In honour of the Queen allowing us to have a public holiday in her honour :) We baked some cookies yesterday. White & Milk Chocolate Tollhouse Cookies to be exact. L helped with adding ingredients and mixing. Also with the eating of the cookie dough. I think I ate about 3 cookies worth of cookie dough myself LOL

I really like the tollhouse cookie recipe, rather than a straight cookie recipe, as they turn out much more cake-like than regular cookies. I'm not a biscuit/cookie fan usually, and I can take or leave them, even if they do have chocolate in them! I really don't like the hard/crunchy/sugary-ness of cookies and biscuits. These are different though. Much spongier, and less dense so more cake-like, as I said. They really soak up milk well too :) The mix made about 3 dozen. I am too scared to count how many are actually left LOL L told me he wasnt' hungry for lunch today, but he was hungry for cookies *rolls eyes* This is why baking cookies is a rare event in this house!

A little something to make you all drool

Mmmmmm..... Chocolate Cake (insert Homer drool here)

Cadbury milk chocolate cake. Yum. What more can I say.

Actually, I can say this... is fantastic with a few scoops of vanilla icecream ;)

(and no, that's not on the CSIRO diet either. But it WAS my birthday :) )