Dessert for Dyl...it's about time!

 

You will remember my friend Dyl, from last week when I posted about the Whoopie Pies...and given that he has been living in the UK for the last couple of years, he has not had the pleasure of sampling My Favourite Cupcake's delicious treats....so while he was here, I decided that was something that definitely had to be fixed!

I had a couple of people over for dinner, and dessert was chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate icing, topped with fresh strawberries dipped in milk chocolate....I'll be honest, they were pretty mouth watering! :)

Dyl my friend, it was lovely to have you to stay for a while - I'm glad that I finally got the chance to give you a sample of my "hobby"...you've been such a great supporter from the start, it was only fair you got you own batch!
 
Come back and visit again soon :)

xxx

Your mother should have named you lovely

Today was my Indian's birthday, so I made him a cake to celebrate.  His favourite cake is maderia, but that seemed a bit boring for a birthday, so he got a personalised chocolate cake instead. (In truth the maderia cake that I baked had an argument with my oven, and my oven won)

The message on top was specially crafted to suit my friend - on a daily basis I hear the phrase "Your mother should have named you irritating" whenever I ask for artwork - it seemed only fair that a similar phrase appear on top of his birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Sel! 
I hope that this year you do not receive a Weber braai and that your friends buy the right watch...Heaven help them if they don't! ;)
Wishing you a great year ahead my friend.
x

Taking Bets with Boys

This is what award winning cheese cake looks like

Taking bets with boys - this is what I have learned:

1. If you threaten them with a challenge, even when they know they are going to lose, and they still always take the bet
2. When they realise that they are going to lose, they bail before it has to be proven to them in person
3. They will do almost anything for baked goods!

Last week I took two bets with a guy....after he lost the first bet (to do with beer and awards and boy stuff), he was silly enough to suggest that instead of him actually conceding defeat, we would instead have a bake off....little did he know that I was actually a chef! 

Suffice to say I won the bet by making the cheese cakes in the pic above....no surprises there seeing as though he bailed on baking anything and opted out of the bake off before it began!  What was my prize you ask....roast chicken dinner cooked for me in person by said guy....it was delicious....well worth the 45 minutes it took me to make the cheese cakes! 

Bets with boys....I will take one any day! :)

I heart Le Creuset!

The bonus about having the best friends in the world (see below post), and being into all things foodie, is that when Christmas comes around, I am always spoiled with lots of AWESOME goodies!  This Christmas my friends played out of their boots and gave me these awesome little Le Creuset heart shaped ramekin dishes - complete with little lids!

Now anybody who loves fusing in the kitchen will know how awesome all the Le Creuset products are, so you can imagine how stoked I was to have a whole set of these little ramekins....so RAD...thank you girls!

xx

Thank yous aside for a minute, the other night my sister and I had my parents over for dinner and it gave me the perfect excuse to use my new dishes...I used the recipe that came with my new favourite kitchen accessories and made Berry Creams.  What is really great though, is if you go onto the Le Creuset website, you can find a whole lots of really good recipes for all sorts of things....if you are keen to check it out...click here.

Mixed Berry Tarts

This year I spent Christmas in the Karkloof at my uncle and aunt's place in Mbona - a nature reserve just outside of Howick.  We got to some fishing, some walking, some watching movies with my twin cousins and a lot of eating and drinking....it was totally my kind of weekend away!  It is such a chilled setting - the buck and zebra come right up to the house - you can see from the pic above - beautiful.  

We had the most delicious Christmas lunch, and my contribution was the dessert (of course), and I made white chocolate custard tarts with a mixed berry topping...nice and lite after a big Christmas lunch!

(Just a side note to all you foodies - how awesome is summer - so many berried to choose from!)

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!

Pink berrry delights

My Mum's birthday was on the 21st of October, and unfortunately Meg and I couldn't be around to celebrate with her on the day, so we had a birthday lunch the weekend before.  Coupled with the birthday lunch, we also celebrated Bryan and Lauren (our cousins) completing the Amashova....fresh strawberry cupcakes were definitely the order of the day! :)

It's a summer kind of cupcake

There is no better place to be on a sunny weekend in Cape Town than somewhere in Camps Bay!  A chilled braai with mates in the sun, with some wine....and a cupcake (of course)!  What a rad weekend!  Thanks Caitlin for the delicious steak...the best ever...bring on summer and braais all the time!

Teachers Tea Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes with strawberries and chocolate balls and marshmallows - just a bit of all sorts really.  I made these for Meg to take to her staff tea last week.  Some spoils for the hardworking teachers at RGJS in Cape Town :)

Berry delicious

It's been a while since I made cupcakes with strawberries and cream, so I thought they would be perfect for my friend Jo's birthday....which was actually last week, but she was in Natal with her family, so she is getting them today when we pop in for a drink at Fat Cactus to celebrate.  

Enjoy my friend - hope you had a fantastic birthday

x

Strawberries and Cream

To date, the clear favourite cupcake at work is a vanilla cake, with a vanilla and white chocolate icing - topped with a fresh strawberry and pearly sugar balls. This being said, nobody was complaining when I arrived at work with this tray of cupcakes for Sarah's birthday.

It seems all the other flavours have a long way to go before they can claim poll position and be better that is trusted fav.

White Chocolate Strawberries and Champagne

It was a sad day when my friend Kate decided to up and leave us at my office and head for greener pastures elsewhere.....not so sad though that some strawberry and white chocolate cupcakes (and some bubbles) couldn't liven up the Friday afternoon farewell...even if it was only a quick fix!