Wedding Cupcakes for Mr and Mrs Rock

This last weekend I was in Matuba...just near St Lucia (for those who don't know) for Britta and Tanner's wedding.  Britta, or Cookie as I more fondly know her as, went to school with my sister and so has been "in our family" for many years.  My whole family drove out to Zululand on Friday and spent the weekend in the sunshine icing cupcakes and sharing in the wedding celebrations...can't think of a better way to spend a sunny weekend in December!

Now I know that when it comes to weddings everyone wants to see the dress and the tables etc,so I have a attached a couple of pics of all of that....just to give you an idea of how magical the day really was.  (And let me just say...before you even look...the pics really aren't going to do it justice...was SO beautiful!)  I was lucky enough to be asked to make the cupcakes for the wedding, so there are a couple of pics of those as well.

Congrats Cooks and Tanner!  Wishing you many happy years together...so glad I was able to be there and share your special day :)

 The Chef hard at work before the wedding

The bridal party and some of the decor

More Decor

Bride and Groom

The Cupcakes

Animal Cupcakes....it's a zoo out there!

These cupcakes belong to my friend Gwyn - it is her birthday today, and being an animal lover I thought she would appreciate the little animal characters on top of the cupcakes.  Admittedly, the Lion needs a little bit of work, but I think the Elephant and the Rabbit are pretty rad!

Happy Birthday Gin....I hope you have a fantastic day my friend.  Cheers to you for 25 great years - will  have a drink for you from Durbs tonight - sorry I'm missing you dinner!  

Lots of love to you moley girl :)

xx

Officially a real Chef

I'm sure you have noticed (over the last little while) that there have been a couple of non cupcakes things creeping into my blog.  For those of you who don't know, that is because I have (since July) been doing a Patisserie Chef's course - which ended last night when I did my final prac exam.  The pics below show what was on the menu...it consisted of the following (starting on the left):

Creme Caramel with Spun Sugar

Lemon Tart with Fresh Strawberries

Vanilla Panacotta with Chocolate Runouts, Berry Compote and Fresh Cream

Bread Rolls

It has been a long time since I had to do a prac exam for something, and let me tell you, 4 hours absolutely flies by!  I'm too stoked to be complete with the course and even more stoked that I passed!!!  If you want to check out more of the goodies that I baked during the course - you can click here.

I am now proudly going by the name Chef Niki...the name has quite a nice ring to it doesn't it! :)

I Heart Strawberry Tart

Slowly but surely my skills are spreading to areas outside of cupcakes...this is something that I am very excited about!  These strawberry tarts are the first ones that  I have made using my new  heart shaped tart tins...just love them!

Baking is in the genes!

The five little faces that you can see in the pic above made this cake....how cute!  It was also for my Gran's 80th, and the little faces are all cousins of mine....much younger cousins, but cousins all the same.  I thought their efforts deserved some praise so now this pic is on my blog.

Well done guys...definitely the best chocolate cake I've ever had! :)

Christmas Cake...it's already that time of year!

I cannot believe that is already the time of year when covered fruit cake is appropriate!  I feel like I have blinked and the year has just disappeared!  That said, I was quite excited to make this Christmas Cake - love the little fat angel, she didn't make it onto the cake in the end, but she is too cute!

A note to all of you out there - Christmas is almost here....just a little over a month to go...so those of you who are looking for cakes, make sure you get your orders in early!

Granny's 80th

My Granny turned 80 last week, so the whole family (except my aunt and uncle in England) went to Salt Rock for the weekend to celebrate.  We had a fantastic lunch on Saturday with awesome food and lots of wine...and cupcakes for dessert  

Happy Birthday Granny - 80 years old and still going strong - I'm so glad I have your genes! :)

xx

Chocolate Tart Taste Test....dum dum dum

Being the token chef in the office has its advantages - this morning I arrived at work to find this awesome chocolate tart on my desk.  My friend Newton had baked it, and wanted an opinion...and who am I to stand in the way of a taste test for a chocolate tart!  

Newton -  myself and the girls flattened that tart in about five mins!  Absolutely love the orange chocolate flavour....two big thumbs up from all of us!  Now we want to know when we are getting the next one! :)

Chocolate and Decadent Nougat Cupcakes

I'll be honest, it is not often that I feel the inclination to want to eat the cupcakes that I bake - most time my concern for my hips get ahead of me and I refrain.....not so with these ones!  Sally Williams may just have been my favourite person in the whole world when I made these cupcakes....her nougat is seriously to die for!

Vanilla cupcakes topped with chocolate icing and a piece of luxury nougat...it doesn't get much better than that my friends!

Rowan - happy birthday dude, hope you enjoyed the actual cupcakes as much as I enjoyed the toppings for them! :)

My Fairy Cake Mother Strikes Again!

Oh my gosh!  How spoiled am I!  When I got to work this morning, I found this beautiful cupcake stand waiting for me....just chilling there on my desk waiting to put a smile on my face! :)

It was sent to me by Clare - she is MFC's favourite fan and sent it to me from Oxford in the UK.  After having a good look at it, I found that it is made by a company called Talking Tables - they make all sorts of beautiful table accessories, from name cards to cake stands to cupcake holders...if it's cute and can be put on a table - you will find it on their website.  I had a quick browse through their site just a little bit ago and all their stuff is really awesome!  To have a look at the site, or to order your own cake stand, click here.

Clare - once again, thank you so much for the spoils!  This surprise has absolutely made my day!  I am one very stoked cupcake! xx

Western Province....eat your heart out!

These AWESOME cupcakes are the result of our friend Dyl having taken a rather silly (in my opinion) bet with me that WP were going to beat the Sharks in the Currie Cup final....his naivety was so sweet that I couldn't resist....WP for a win....let’s be serious! J

Anyway, back to the story at hand - rather than enjoy this well earned victory (thanks little Lamb you beauty) on my own, I thought I would share the goodness with the world!  I’m sure he will begrudgingly blog about how he was forced to bake at some stage as well....so for those who don’t know, you can find his blog here...it's actually pretty good so I recommend you take a little look see. 

Dyl – thank you my friend...love that the Sharks are now officially mine!  You have made my week and it's not even 8am on Monday morning!

x

x

Love letters from the USA

Much to my delight this package was waiting for me when I got home today...it was a birthday surprise from my Best....Erin...from all the way in Nevada!  YAY!  Thank you so much for the beautiful gift my friend, I LOVE IT!!  The apron is so cute (as you can see I've already tried it on :) ) and you know how I feel about Hot Tamales!!!

You are a gem my friend and I miss you terribly!  I'm gonna find an excuse to bake with my new apron asap!
Lots love
xx

PS: If there is someone out there in cyberspace from Hot Tamales....how about you hook South Africa up with some of the goodness....or you can just send some cinnamon my way....I'm not phased either way really :)

Blueberry Cupcakes

Because Lexi is one of My Favourite Cupcake's biggest fans, she got cupcakes on her birthday yesterday and again for work today....lucky girl!

At least the second time round she got a more "healthy" option with these blueberry cupcakes .

Birthday love for Lex

I woke up on the 31st of November feeling very hungover after a rather large Halloween party (thank you Bakes) and made these cupcakes for my friend Lexi's birthday lunch.  What a fantastic day!  Good food, good friends - you know the rest! :)

Happy birthday my Lex, thank you for an awesome lunch.  Love you lots.
xxx