Birthday Cupcakes + Soirée Goodies

Phew! what a busy week I had last week. It was just one of those weeks where I needed to be somewhere/ do something everyday. One of the most exciting things about last week was that after what feels like a lifetime, I finally passed my driving test! Yipee! So I have been enjoying being out and about in our car and not having to pester anyone for a lift anymore or relying on public transport. I have also loved being able to take myself along to Hobbycraft and walk up and down every single aisle at my own pace..regardless if I'm planning to buy anything or not!...starting to think I am a bit addicted to that shop though! Last week I officially registered as a home baking business with my local council and an EHO officer came out to inspect our kitchen. So that's me through all the red tape now to start selling my home baked goodies. I have been doing a bit of research into setting up a cupcake stall at a few local markets so I will keep you all posted when I finally have a date! It's all very exciting!

Last week a colleague in work kindly asked me to make some cupcakes for her partner's birthday, as a gift from their kids. I made 24 vanilla cupcakes with alternate teal and dusky pink glittered buttercream icing, topped with coloured fondant stars spelling out 'Happy Birthday Daddy'. I was so happy to hear that they went down a treat! (...thanks Lou!)

At the weekend we went to my good friend Charlotte's flat for a wee soirée...any excuse to get my bake on. I wanted to perfect my jammie dodgers and I had bought some fondant during the week so I wanted to experiment a bit with that. I ended up making a batch of jammie dodgers only this time I added the zest of a lemon. It's not a strong taste of lemon in the biscuit, just gives them that extra something else. I also found some biscuit cutters with fluted edges in my cupboard so I think all in all this batch was tastier and looked prettier too. I have played about with fondant icing a few times before but I would really like to be able to do more with it. As much as i love that all my baking is completely self taught, I am very much looking forward to a cupcake decorating masterclass that I am going to next weekend. I think the main things I will be learning at the class are the techniques of fondant icing, embossing fondant and sugarpaste flowers. I cannot wait! So, as well as my jammie dodgers I also made some vanilla cupcakes topped with white fondant icing and then I made some fondant hearts and some fondant bows. I must admit the bows were a bit fiddly to make but totally worth it in the end, they look so pretty! I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but if you need to stick icing to a cake etc....golden syrup is great for this. I just spread the tiniest bit onto the bow and it stuck to the white fondant, pretty much just acts as an edible glue! Here's some pics of the goodies!

I hope you have all remembered that it is Valentine's  Day next week! I have a few baking treats up my sleeve but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for Mr.Geek so you will just have to wait until next week until I blog about it!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

The Cupcake Geek x