cupcakes with a message go on film set again!

oh, god forgive me if i have committed some kind of insane sin by theming my precious cupcakes for a movie shoot about drugs...but what is one to do when one's younger brother asks for such a thing? so last week it was his movie shoot and this weekend it is one of his classmates. they are filming out in Co. Wicklow, in the middle of nowhere and because the cupcakes went down so well at the last shoot, he hinted wildly at the most welcome prospect of some for this weekend - to get that sugar kick and keep everyones energy up.

so, when he produced the script and i read a story about a drug dealer in an accident on a country road...i scratched my head. how to do something themed but still tasteful! the drugs involved in the story, heroin, were being transported in the dealers car in brick form (hence my three little bricks on one cupcake!) and involves the dealer being injured and getting out of the car and eventually leaving a trail of heroin behind him...hence the trail across the cupcakes. the one and only saving grace, i think, was the message to 'just say no'.

i used a caramel cupcake recipe for these ones, simply because they always turn out well and they are also my brothers favourite flavour. plus last week they all had chocolate ones so nice to have something different. iced them with vanilla buttercream. it's interesting because my brother specifically requested for the traditional cupcake cases, rather than the funky paper souffle cups that i have been using recently. he says the souffle ones are way to difficult to get the cupcake out of and make your fingers all messy with icing. so figuring where the crew will be i used traditional papers for ease of eating!

these are definitely the most 'interesting' theme i have ever had to work with, but hopefully, the crew will enjoy getting their hands on them out there in the midst of filming!

easter nest cupcakes - a celebration of all things spring!

so there are a number of easter baking challenges this month in the world of food blogs and i wanted to submit an entry....ta da! here it is...my easter nest cupcake. i had so much fun making this and hey, that's what it should all be about. plus it was so fun finding all those beautiful spring flowers to photograph it with too!

i'm entering this for Master Baker March Challenge, Easter Cake Bake and the Spring Funny Cuppy. Seems a lot but, what the heck, might as well max the little delight out seeing as it was so much fun to make.

now for the recipe...

Caramel Cupcakes

cupcake :
100g white chocolate
125g butter
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. golden syrup
2/3 c. milk
1 c. plain flour
1/3 c. self-raising flour
1 egg

preheat your oven to whatever usually works best for you. line your cupcake pan.
combine chocolate, butter, sugar, syrup and milk in a double boiler. stir untel melted and combined.
allow to cool.
sift flour and mix into caramel mixture.
stir in egg.
divide the mixture and bake for 30 mins.
makes 12 cupcakes.

icing :
4oz butter
1 t. vanilla extract
2 - 2 1/2 c. icing sugar, sifted
1/4 c. milk

in an electric mixer beat butter until soft. add vanilla essence. add in icing sugar gradually making sure it is properly combined, alternating with milk. add enough to reach a good spreading consistency.

decorations :
chocolate mini eggs
cadbury's flake
fondant roses and leaves

assembly :
spread a layer of icing on the cupcake. break up the flake and pile around the outside. use some icing to attach roses and leaves to edges of nest. put in the mini eggs and sprinkle remaining flake to cover any empty spots.

dare to devour! it's hard because it looks too pretty!

p.s. read what Baking Delights had to say about these cupcakes here! thanks for the special mention :)

that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet - easter cupcakes to go!

lo and behold, my little pink roses finally grace cupcakes. these were ordered by a friend for her easter sunday lunch tomorrow. i'm so happy with the way they turned out. i used a caramel cupcake recipe, vanilla buttercream icing and sugar fondant and chocolate eggs for the decorations.

i shall be meeting her later to pass them to her and hope she likes them! i'm still really enjoying the look of those pink roses...not bad for a first time using fondant, me thinks!

my very first order...baby cakes, baby!

we were at my friends place for dinner on wednesday and brought the lemon cupcakes pictured below. anyway, during the evening she mentioned that she was going to a christening over the weekend and would have loved to bring the little lemon cupcakes with her! well, never one to beat around the bush, i said that i would gladly take orders and, surprise, surprise, she jumped at the chance. i was so thrilled...my very first order! she chose 'caramel' as the flavour and for decorations just stipulated that they be something pink, because the baby is a girl! so this evening i set to work and had so much fun decorating these little baby cakes. they are almost too adorable to eat with everything matching in pink and white. hope she likes them when i pass them to her tomorrow and hope that this might be the start of more orders. a big thanks to her for having the faith in my baking!

also i want to say a big hooter-tooter, whopper-doo-dah of a 'thank you' to everyone who visits my blog and supports me with comments on how i'm doing. i have just received 1,000 visitors since starting to put my blog out there in february of this year and it feels so good to have made it to 4 figures! you guys ROCK!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! - chinese new year cupcakes

so, very excited today because it is our first meet-up with the Singaporeans in Ireland group! we're going for a Chinese New Year party and of course, no guesses as to what i am bringing! yes, yes, chinese new year cupcakes of course and don't they look cute as a button? i completely lucked out after a long hunt for golden coins to actually find chinese gold coins in the oriental emporium here. they are just too perfect and without them...well they just wouldn't have looked so festive. i used a previous recipe for caramel cupcakes for these as i didn't want to experiment with anything new and the caramel cupcakes are pretty neutral in that most people like caramel (on other occasions when i have baked cupcakes with particular flavours people have not liked them i.e. gingerbread, black forest) so i wanted to have a flavour that most people like (have you ever heard anyone say they don't like caramel?) so hoping that these go down a treat today and for those celebrating, wishing you all Gong Xi Fa Cai!

caramel mudcake cupcakes

so it was hubby's birthday today and had to make something special for him because it's his first time away from home on his birthday and from family. so i had been thinking about making something toffee-like because i love the taste of toffee and recently bought a toffee cake from the local supermarket but was disappointed by how much ginger was added to the recipe so that you really lost the smoothness of the toffee taste and were overwhelmed by this aftertaste of ginger (which i'm not a big fan of - giner that is, as opposed to toffee, which i'm a huge fan of!) not great! so i stumbled upon a recipe for caramel mudcake cupcakes and decided to give it a whizz. you melted the important toffee base ingredients first - golden syrup, brown sugar, butter, etc and even the smell of the ingredients melting together was enough to make you salivate. when they finally came out of the oven, the smell was so good.....WOW - just not enough words to describe it! i iced them with vanilla buttercream icing which tasted just like vanilla ice-cream (thanks to this great vanilla extract i bought at a local gourmet shop) and decorated with rainbow sprinkles because let's face it...a birthday ain't a birthday without some rainbow sprinkles!!!! Happy Birthday, honey x