Happy birthday Brendysaurus and Mitchatops!

So it is the husband’s birthday today – the big 2-7! He shares his birthday with an old timer from his high school he calls a “friend”, Mitch. Since they share the same birthday, we normally celebrate their respective birthdays together with their high school crew. Last year, I made Brendyn and Mitch a Bat Mobile cake (let’s be honest, it was more for Brendyn than Mitch, after all, Brendyn is BATMAN). Given that last year’s birthday cake was more for Brendyn than Mitch, I decided to let Mitch pick what cupcake theme he would like this year. He chose “dinosaurs”.

I was a little slow off the mark this morning with my baking as I had to make Brendyn breakfast in bed. Of course we had nothing in the fringe or pantry for me to fix breakfast, so I had to run to the shops, buy the ingredients, get home and cook the birthday boy breakfast. So after that ordeal, I got started on the dinosaur themed cupcakes.

I was not sure who was going to the boozy lunch festivities, but I knew the old school high school crew would be there in full stead: Steve, Hobbs, Brendyn and Mitch! Given that I am not one to make simple cupcakes, I decided to make personalised dinosaur cupcakes. But how does one make personalised dinosaur cupcakes, you ask? Easy - make dinosaurs named after the birthday boys and the party goers. So I made a Stevosaurus, Hobbs-Rex, Brendysaurus and Mitchatops out of fondant. I made little name labels as well, in case the boys got a little confused after consuming a few too many beers (and let’s be honest, they did)!

Boozy lunch was scheduled at 1PM today and I by the time I had finished the toppers it was 11.45AM. At this stage, I still had to make the actual cupcakes and make myself look half decent. So being strapped for time, I decided to whip up a quick batch of vanilla cupcakes. As the cupcakes were cooking and cooling, I was running around the house like a maniac getting ready. I managed to get myself and the cupcakes looking fairly average by 1PM. Although I was not necessary on time, at least I was not too ridiculously late.

Anyway, the boys were not complaining about my tardiness! They loved their personalised dinosaur cupcakes despite being 27 year old grown men.

Lemon on lemon on lemon makes for something lemony!

My golly goodness, can you use the word ‘lemon’ more in a sentence? I tell you what, you might not be able to use it more in a sentence but you certainly can in a cupcake! And that is exactly what I did last week. I made lemon curd cupcakes. I know it doesn’t sound very appetising as curd sounds like a rude word (turd – according to urban dictionary it means poo), but I assure you it was yummy to the yumma.

So what brought about me making lemon curd cupcakes? Well my amazingly talented colleague, Bernie, made lemon curd butterfly cakes for work peeps (sadly I missed out). Everyone was raving how lovely they were, and if they tasted anything like her scones, they would have been heaven in a cupcake patty. I told Brendyn about Bernie’s cupcakes and he asked me why I have never made him lemon curd cupcakes before? As lemon is one of his favourite dessert flavours along with chocolate mint, coffee, custard and stewed apples. Knowing how uber competitive I am, he suggested that perhaps Bernie was the perfect woman having perfected lemon curd cupcakes and that I probably would not be able to make lemon curd cupcakes anyway! As you could imagine, my eyes turned an ever so light shade of green and it was on…it was on like DONKEY KONG!

I knew that in order to win the affection of my husband, I had to make the lemon curd from scratch. I searched the internet high and low until I came across this divine recipe. The lemon curd was amazing. It was lemony and tangy! Everything I wanted and so much more. I did stray from the recipe a little bit, by adding a tablespoon of corn flour. It made the curd (not turd, get your head out of the gutter!) thicker like a custard consistency.

I then had to house the lemon curd in an equally delicious cupcake. So once again, I searched the internet high and low until I came across this equally deserving lemon cupcake recipe with lemon cream cheese frosting. Although the cupcake base was a little denser than I would usually like, it was a nice off set to the lemon curd. I found the cream cheese frosting did not have enough lemon zing for my liking, so I added extra lemon juice (1/4 of a cup) and lemon zest.

Holy smokes! I do not usually like to brag, but these lemon curd cupcakes were perfect. They were really tangy and packed a lot of lemon flavour. Definitely not for the weak hearted. Lemon on lemon on lemon - that is a whole lot of lemon! If you love all things lemon, then do yourself a favour and make these cupcakes.

Needless to say, Brendyn thought the lemon curd cupcakes were sufficient. They currently sit in equal first place with the Mint Slice cupcakes.

I feel dirty!

Ok, so I feel as though I have kind of cheated on cupcakes. Hence, I feel dirty. And before you jump up and down accusing me of using a prepared cupcake packet mix – I did not! I did something much, much worst. I listened to be my husband (problem number one) and his friends (problem number 2) and made savoury cupcakes (problem number three)!

Brendyn had his friends over a few weekends ago to watch the AFL (Australian Football League). The previous week, he and his friends suggested that I expanded my baking horizons to include savoury treats. To keep in theme with my cupcake passion, the boys suggested that I make savoury cupcake … FOR THEM!

I thought I would listen to my husband (being the good wifey that I am) and make him savoury treats. So I made savoury cupcake of all Brendyn’s favourite things: cheese, sundried tomatoes, olives, red onion and salami.

The cupcakes turned out alright. The boys seemed to have liked it, after all they did polish them all off! Basically they were savoury muffins in cupcake patties. To me it was just odd. When I took a bite into the cupcakes, I was expecting something sweet, light and fluffy. Instead what I got was salty, dense and masculine! Ah, you live and learn. So what is the moral to the story? Never listen to one’s husband or his friends!

I do honestly love you Abby dog

I feel bad about my last post. I just want to clarify that I do really love Brendyn's, oops I mean "our" little Abby dog! She is very cute. What breed is she? I have no idea. She looks like the little white dog from the My Dog food advertisements. Cute right?!

I was so proud one night when I was baking and she came up to me sniffing looking for food. There was no chicken in sight, just the smell of glorious cupcakes. My little Abby dog was wanting cupcakes! Never have I been so proud. At that moment, I knew that Abby was truly mine. Who would have thought, the pup would follow in my footsteps and likes cupcakes?! So being the good step mummy that I am, I decorated the cupcake nicely put it on a plate and gave it to her. She ate it all up and joined her daddy in the living room. The next day I was so proud that I had to tell Brendyn. The conversation went like this:

T: I realised last night that Abby is truly my dog and a part of me.

B: "Yes, darling, love of my life, I am not worthy to have you, you are brilliant, your cupcakes are amazing"**, what made you realised this?

T: Well, last night I gave her a cupcake and she ate it. She likes cupcakes! Therefore, we are practically the same person.

B: Firstly, she is a dog, she'll eat anything. Secondly, cupcakes aren't good for dogs!

T: Oh!

**This is an accurate account of how I remember the situation. As there were no eye witnesses, it is my word against Brendyn's. Who are you going to believe? He doesn’t even know how to make cupcakes!

I honestly thought I was being a good mummy and that Abby and I had a deep cupcake connection. Clearly not.

Anyway, just because Abby can't eat cupcakes, there was nothing stopping me putting her on a cupcake! When I made Gina's dog themed cupcakes, I made a little Abby fondant topper. I put the little Abby cupcake topper on a chocolate cupcake (as she loves chocolate). Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of Abby on her chocolate cupcake throne. I only took a photo of the Abby dog topper on a vanilla cupcake. Ah well, you are going to have to use your imagination.

And before all you dog lovers go troppo on me, I know chocolate is bad for dogs and I have not fed Abby chocolate; cupcakes, yes; chocolate no. The reason I know she likes chocolate is because she has in the past eaten her fair share of chocolate. One notable chocolate eating incident is when Abby went all Matrix and leaped into the air out of nowhere and snatched a Tim Tam (iconic Australian chocolate biscuit) out of Brendyn's brother's hand as he was about to put it in his mouth. She makes me so proud.

I didn't have the heart to eat the Abby dog cupcake. This is proof that I love her too much to eat her in cupcake form. See Abby dog, I really do love you!

For the dog lovers

I don't know why people find this so shocking, but Brendyn and I have a dog, Abby. Correction, people don't find it shocking that Brendyn has a dog, but they do find it somewhat perplexing that I do! Well in all fairness, Abby was originally Brendyn's dog and when Brendyn and I got married, I was the evil step mum that stole her daddy!


All jokes a side, it's not as though I hate dogs. I am just not overly fond of them either or animals in general really. I think dogs they are quite cute. But yeah ... can't say I am an animal person, let alone a doggy person. Funny story, when I first met Brendyn's Nanna she asked me "Do you like animals dear? Dogs?" I was so nervous and wanting to make a good impression I blurted out "Of course, who doesn't?!" and thank goodness I did because she then proceeded to say "Good! Every good person does." Yes, I lied to Brendyn's Nanna! I am a bad person - maybe Brendyn's Nanna is on to something. Please don't tell Nana I lied to her!


Ok cupcakes, long story short, my sister, Gina (yes, my name is Tina, well Christina really, and my sister's name is Gina), asked me to bake 20 cupcakes to celebrate her colleague’s 50th birthday. Knowing I like to work to a theme, she told me to make it mathematical and to incorporate dogs if possible. So I thought long and hard on this and decided to make 'five types of dogs' multiply by 'five types of dogs' multiply by 'two types of dogs' equals 'happy 50th birthday'. Sadly, I didn't get a photo of the whole mathematical cupcake equation as it didn't fit into my iphone camera screen. Insert sad face here.


I had to make the dogs out of fondant first to top each cupcake. Based on the cupcake mathematical equation I needed to make three types of dogs. As you can see below, my mathematics is clearly not up to scratch as I ended up making five types of dogs! Whoops! I can't claim the credit for the creativity of the dog fondant toppers as I copied the topper designs I saw from google images (oh, how I heart google, but that is another blog post in it's self).

On the next night, I had to make the cupcakes. I decided to go simple with this bake job. I made 10 Lindt chocolate cupcakes and 10 vanilla cupcakes. The Lindt chocolate cupcakes turned out fine. The vanilla cupcakes were another story. The first vanilla cupcake recipe I followed was horrible - bland, bland, bland, bland! So I made a second batch using a different recipe and in all honesty it was the best vanilla cupcake I have ever had my way with! It was as though all the stars in the universe lined up, the world was at ease and this cupcake was made. The cupcake was all so fluffy and moist with a hint of vanilla (not over bearing in the slightest). My favorite thing about this vanilla cupcake was how extremely fluffy it was. It was so light - so light that I ended up eating three of them.

Sadly, I forgot to put the lid on the air tight container that housed the cupcakes I was bringing into work, so the vanilla cupcakes dried out a bit. I suspect the same might have happened to Gina's box of cupcakes as I didn't have an air tight container to give her the cupcakes in. What a sad state of affairs.


Speaking of vanilla cupcakes, I could really go one or three!

Iced, iced coffee (insert funky beats of Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice)

Brendyn loves Master's iced coffee (not Browne's has to be Master's). Me, not so much as it gives me tummy ouchies. What’s my preferred hot beverage of choice? At present, it is a soy chai latte (extra hot of course). Yes, a little wanky but deliciously tasty.

Last year, Brendyn and I challenged each other to give up the one junk food that we consume on a regular basis for that entire year. He gave up Master's iced coffee and I gave up hot chips. Did we last? Let’s just say it was a painful 2010 but we managed to get through it. To welcome 2011 (on new year’s eve) Wanna-T Baker, T2 Chaddy D,  through hot chips in my mouth and Brendyn gulped down a carton of ice coffee. Classy and nasty.

So what does this have to do with cupcakes? Nothing really, other than the fact I made coffee cupcakes with creamy coffee icing last week. Using Master's iced coffee as my inspiration. Now I am not sure whether it was because I was particularly hungry, or because I hadn’t had my sugar hit for the day, but those coffee cupcakes were delicious (if I do say so myself)! The cupcakes base was moist with a slight hit of espresso coffee flavour and the creamy coffee icing was to die for. This may have to be my next recipe release, so watch this space.

Hmmm, what next? Perhaps a soy chai latte cupcake (extra hot) is in order.

Boys will always be boys ...

My baking adventures officially began last year, when my little nephew Zachary turned four.  He asked me to make dinosaurs cupcakes for his kindy class. I made these little vanilla cupcakes with dinosaur short bread cookies on top and dinosaur sprinkles. I was so proud of my efforts! I honestly thought I was the bees knees being able to produce cupcakes of such a high standard. 



I now look back my first baking efforts and I can’t help but giggle. Let's just say, I can see now how much I have learnt this year.

Zachary’s parents decided to host his birthday party this weekend past. Still being obsessed with dinosaurs, he had a dinosaur themed party. But, not just any dinosaur party, a Zachyosaurous themed party - Zachary wears red spectacles and his mum managed to find an image online of a dinosaur wearing red spectacles, which we subsequently named Zachyosaurous!

Given all the work his mum and dad put into organising the party, I felt the pressure to step up to the plate and bake something extraordinary. I made twelve raspberry cupcakes topped off with Zachyosaurous edible fondant toppers and a butter cake with a giant fondant Zachyosaurous sitting on top. Originally I had planned to make a three dimensional Zachyosaurous cake, i.e. carve the dinosaur out of butter cake and decorate it with fondant, but sadly ran out of time.

In my usual style of leaving everything to the last minute, I only started to bake and make the cupcake toppers the day before the party after work of course! Needless to say, I stayed up for most of the night to make sure everything would be finished on time. The only thing that was keeping me sane at 4AM, with fondant and flour in my hair and colouring smeared down my pants, was the thought that Zachary would eventually grow out of novelty cakes. But then it hit me, I still bake novelty cakes for my adult husband!

Anyone who knows Brendyn knows that he loves Batman to the extent that he thinks he is Batman. Being the supportive wife that I am, for his 25^th birthday last year I made him Batman cupcakes.

Wanting to make my husband the best cake possible (and being a good wifey), I researched various Batman themed cakes over the past year for Brendyn's  26^th birthday.  I came across a Batmobile cake and knew that I had to make it!

I guess boys will always be boys ...