Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ah, so parts of Auckland have been without power for a few days now, driving everyone insane...me included. But after getting our power back we went round to my Aunt and Uncles house and I made some cupcakes for my cousins birthday. 

They are my infamous red velvet cupcakes--an American classic, but who doesn't love a good one. This recipe is tried and true, and has never let me down. Will always be a crowd favourite!

Red Velvet cupcakes with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting 

Banana Salted Caramel Cake

It is my grandparents birthdays this week and since I am down at Lake Rotoiti for the weekend, I decided to make a birthday cake for them. It is a banana cake with salted caramel and cream cheese frosting filling with a brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream.

So Happy Birthday Nana and Pop (Pasty and Buzz)!

Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcakes

These are a moist vanilla cake with white chocolate ganache filling and a raspberry swiss meringue buttercream. New Zealand white chocolate is superb and has an excellent mouth feel compared to American white chocolate, making it a must do in the cupcake scene. 

Anzac Cupcakes

Well its that time of the year again and exams are looming in the near future. So what does one do when they have jammed their head with as much information as possible for that period of time? Bake of course! Aka the perfect study break.

So I turned to my little notebook I keep by my bed for the crazy flavour combinations I come up with at 3 am to find one that would suffice. I came across some real Kiwiana flavours like lamington, banoffee, or Anzac so after about 5 minutes of strict deliberation, I decided to make the Anzac cupcakes.

Any other flavour suggestions for the future? :)

They are a golden syrup cake with coconut and golden syrup caramel filling, golden syrup frosting and topped with toasted coconut and an Anzac biscuit.

Lemon and Marscapone Cake

It was my wonderful godmothers birthday yesterday, so I turned to the trusty pages of my Bluebells Cakery cookbook and decided on making a vanilla bean cake with lemon curd and marscapone filling, topped with pink rosettes of vanilla bean buttercream.

This recipe uses a unique way of mixing the batter, by adding butter to the dry ingredients until it turns into breadcrumb sized pieces, then adding the wet ingredients. But despite this unique way of mixing, it is a foolproof, delicious recipe that is sure to win over the hearts of anyone who has any slight resemblance of a sweet tooth.

Boredom Leads to Making Cupcakes

I was home alone all day yesterday and after spending the majority of the day doing homework and eating dinner at 5pm followed by way too many lollies, I switched on the TV to watch cupcake wars. This inspired me to bake some cupcakes with whatever we had in the fridge and pantry, all homemade as always!
 I decided to use the leftover caramel from Becca's birthday cake last week to make a triple caramel cupcake and a vanilla, raspberry and chocolate cupcake. 

So I made them, using my favourite old recipe that has never let me down and began to bake.

The Triple Caramel Cupcake is a caramel cake, filled with salted caramel, with caramel buttercream and a caramel drizzle topped with an almond brittle.

The Vanilla, Raspberry and Chocolate Cupcake is a vanilla bean cake with raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

This weekend has been a lovely relaxing five-day weekend for me after a hectic week of exams. Had a fantastic weekend away to my grandparents lake house at the gorgeous Lake Rotoiti and got back yesterday afternoon. Today was so lovely and warm here--where did winter go? No complaints from me though! So, I had a great ride on my sweet Remy this morning, followed by an afternoon of cupcake baking! Could it get any better?

So after doing some research last night, I took inspiration from my previous salted caramel cake and the 'Fleur de Sel' cupcake at Kara's Cupcakes in California to come up with this one.

It is a chocolate cake with salted caramel filling, vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream and salted caramel drizzle with fleur de sel sprinkled on top.