My lovely visit to Fair Cake

 The other week I FINALLY took one of the lovely Shahkita's courses at Fair Cakes. I have been ooggling and googling over her website, wondering what those pretty little cupcakes taste like. Yes, you see, when my two rugrats are alseep, instead of doing house work, I look at cupcakes online.

Anyways, so everything you read online (that is nice) is absolutely true. She is funny and experienced, and quite frankly inspirational. Like me, she is not a chef or baker, she is someone who got sick of her 9-5 job and found something she loves. Despite all the trials and tribulations, she has kept going and going and going.

I left her course feeling very inspired to keep my dream alive, to keep working at being an entrepreneur and grow my own business. Her cake making and decorating skills are all self-taught which also inspires me. If you put your heart and soul into it, a bit of hard work still pays off. I don't see that ethos here much in the UK. Our whole Aussie world is built on the 'hard work' ideologies. So it was lovely to see her hard work and inspiartional dreams instead of another 5 min scam just trying to take your ££'s.

Here are some pics I took of her lovely cupcakes which are even more breathtaking in real life than they are on her website. Mine fell out and all around in thier box in my attempt to rush off and pick up my rugrats. But still deeelishussss!!

coconut cookies

My 3 yr old son LOVES to cook but I am always on the hunt for recipes that are manageable for us both: so he can DO most of the cooking and I DON'T have to do lots of cleaning up.
I found this recipe and it is a great one for kids. All you have to do is melt the butter, which I did on the hob as we don't have a microwave. But I am sure you can even let the kids measure the butter and put it in the microwave to melt, just need supervision taking it out as it will be hot.

We added 1 tbs of food colouring to the melted butter for fun. Quarrian is obsessed with colour and paint and loves when I put food colouring in their water table, or even in the bath! God bless him.

The mixture comes together like play dough so it's easy for the kids to handle and shape into flat circles. If they make mistakes or it falls apart, just put it back in the bowl and try again.

Recipe:

1 cup of self-raising flour (or substitute for gluten free flour)

3/4 cup of sugar

1 cup of desiccated coconut

1/3 cup melted butter (or non-dairy margarine to make vegan)

3-4 tbs water

optional: 1 tbs food colouring to make it freaky!

Directions:

1. melt butter

2. add all dry ingredients to bowl

3. add melted butter and water

4. mix together with a fork to start with and then your hands

5. shape about 1 tbs of dough into flat circles and put on tray, about 1-2 cm apart

6. bake in over for 12 mins at 150 degrees Celsius.

 yes, they really ARE that orange LOL

The infamous Hummingbirds Bakery.

So, I finally got to go over to west London and pick-up some cupcakes from Hummingbirds Bakery. I was so excited because I find it difficult to get around central London by myself with the two babies. They don't last too long in the stroller before they want to get out and run havoc and I have to stop and feed them every 20 minutes or so!

So my friend Barbara called to say she was visiting London and can we catch up... and jackpot, she is staying in Kensington! Now I have an excuse to go all that way! AND DH is on holidays so he can keep the kids!!! Double jackpot.

So off I went and dragged Barb around until we found it. It looks simple on the map, but South Kensington is one of those tube stations that opens onto 5 different roads! Agh!

I had to get one of each so I bought a vanilla, chocolate, black bottom, carrot cake, cherry blossom and red velvet.

The carrot cupcake was divine, nice and moist texture with great cinnamon flavour, and gorgeous cream cheese frosting. Definitely a favourite. I would buy that one again.
The chocolate cupcake was ok, the icing tasted funny like it had too much cocoa powder in it, and the cake itself was a bit dry. The red velvet was better with gorgeous cream cheese frosting.

The waiter said the black bottom was the 'best one in the store'. For those of you who don't know (like me before I had a black bottom cupcake), black bottom is dark chocolate cake with a vanilla cheese cake top and cream cheese frosting. I found the chocolate cake too much and too dry. The top half of the cheese cake part was delicious, but I am partial to cheese cake, actually I LOVE cheese cake. More cheese cake on top would have been fabulous!

The vanilla cupcake was disappointing. I was expecting a 'real' fresh vanilla flavour when I bit into the cupcake but nothing, just plain butter cream. I wouldn't buy that one again.

The cherry blossom was delicious. That was also a favorite. Delicate frosting complimented by this delicate sponge, like a floral vanilla. So yum. I would definitely buy that one again.

I would say the trip was worth it! The kids ate them all when I got home and didn't seem too disappointed by the fact that there was a big bite taken out of each cupcake. :))))

Healthy cupcakes??

Cupcakes are full of calories so I am testing some healthier options.

I found this recipe on a website (which I have temporarily misplaced due to the zoo that is my house).

The raspberries are delicious, but a little tart but I didn't mind. But if you are a sweet tooth,  you could swap for  blueberries or blackberries which are not so sour.

The cake itself has a bread flavour and texture, as opposed to a soft spongy cupcake texture. But the subtle flavour of the lemon and vanilla makes it tasty. The walnuts are fantastic, complementing the nuttiness of the whole wheat flour.

With only 120 calories or so per cupcake, this is definitely worth a try.



Recipe:
1 lemon (rind)
1/2 cup sugar (I substituted agave syrup which has 65% the calories of sugar)
1 cup no fat butter milk (semi-skimmed milk or soy milk)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 egg 
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup plain white flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbs vanilla essence
2 punnets of raspberries (or approx 1 1/2 cup of frozen ones)
100grams walnuts (about a handful)

Directions
1. mix the lemon rind with the agave syrup (or sugar)
2. add the oil, egg, vanilla essence, milk and salt in a bowl.
3. add the flour and baking powder and mix
4 gently fold in the raspberries and walnuts
5. put into cupcake cases or muffin cases and bake in oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 mins.
6. cupcakes can be frozen for about a month in air-tight bags.

Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes, and a dash of Courvoisier

If you want something unbelievably gorgeous, try this quick and easy recipe!

I used Courvoisier, but any brandy, rum or other liqueur will work.
You could add Cointreau for an orange-chocolate combination, or Tia Maria for the chocolate-coffee combination.


Ingredients: chocolate gnash
200 grams of dark chocolate (I use Asda dark chocolate 85p)
375 mls of double cream
4-6 shots of your favourite alcohol.
2 punnets of fresh raspberries

Ingredients: chocolate cupcakes
1 packet of Betty Crocker Devils Food Cake Mix
2 or 3 eggs
some oil
some water

Directions:
1. Make the cupcakes according to directions on packet. Let cool down.
1. Put a little water in a saucepan and then place a glass bowl on top.
2. Put the cream in the bowl and add the chocolate broken into small pieces.
3. Gently whisk until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture is dark, thick and glossy. Then stir in the liqueur and take off the heat.
4. Let it cool a little and then put in fridge to cool right down and go thick. Give it a stir every little while so it cools evenly.
5. When it is thick like cream and keeps its shape you can put it on the cupcakes. If you put it on to early it will run off.
6. Top with fresh raspberries and eat straight away!! They don't keep presentation overnight as the raspberries let their juices out and it goes all mushy, but still tastes great. 


Tips:

• Kids and breast-feeding friendly: Leave alcohol out! Mix a shot of alcohol into each individual portions instead for the drinkers.
• The  more alcohol you add, the longer you need to leave it in the fridge.

Absolutely delicious. Even better for those of us who are strapped for time or finding ourselves having to cook with one hand (while holding bub in the other). I am sure you can do everything with one arm! You will definitely impress with this recipe!