News Flash

Congratulations to my brother-in-law, Alex, who recently got his first ‘real’ job as an Online Journalist and Content Manager for Sky News. He’s so intelligent and everyone knew he was always headed for bigger and better things :)

Naturally it was time to celebrate and even though it was the Queen’s bday, I’d rather make cupcakes for my BIL.

So while it was first jobs for some….it was actually the first time I had decorated cupcakes with fondant by myself.

I baked 2 types of vanilla cupcakes, one set from Cupcakes from Primrose Bakery (testing my out my new gift) and the other from Planet Cake. I’m on the quest to finding my perfect vanilla cupcake recipe. Both taste good – but I would say that the Primrose Bakery recipe is best for icing with cream frosting due to the cupcakes’ light and fluffy texture, while the Planet Cake recipe is more dense and moist and allows for better ganache and fondant icing.

Planet Cake vs.Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery

With cupcakes in check. Time to decorate.

The task was not as easy as I thought…but it was a really good learning experience.

Things learnt:

• Don’t use silicon baking trays. Old-school metal trays work best and create the perfect cupcake shape
• Don’t use eating white chocolate for the ganache. I used Cadbury Dream – and while yummy, it makes the ganache more glutinous and makes covering cupcakes harder
• Invest in a set of measuring scales….googling how to convert grams into ml/cup = not fun (and not very precise)
• If you want RED fondant and RED icing DON'T USE liquid food colouring (turns out hot pink). I kinda knew this, but colouring paste is harder to find (especially on a public holiday!) and you have to use A LOT of it.
• How to make the perfect piping bag for piping text.  I recommend the Bretty Crocker method. I ♥ Betty

oh so many times to learn...

Dinner at The Meat and Wine Co. Meat Platters and wine (would you order anything else?) followed by Star Bucks and Sky News cupcakes.

      Go Alexander for Sky News!!

Signing off.