Get together at ours

I have totally neglected this blog over the last few months *pulls sad face* but there has been a good reason! Over the last few months I have been trying my hardest to pass my driving test and finally at the end of May I finally did it! I had to put the baking on hold unfortunately whilst my life revolved purely around driving lessons! I passed on my 2nd attempt and I am SO glad its all over now...it really is the most nerve wracking thing to have to go through.

Anyway...hopefully I will get back into baking in a big way in the coming weeks/months. I feel like with my driving and then going on holiday I really haven't had much chance to even think about baking.

The only small amount of baking that I have done recently was a good few weeks ago when Karl and I decided we would have a small get together at our flat. I couldn't resist cooking up a batch of cupcakes! I made vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter cream and decorated with my own sugar paste creations...check out the piccies below.







PS I finally treated myself to a new cam after the other one failed to focus on anything. These were the first pics I took with it..excuse the crappyness of them...my photography skills have much improved since these pics were taken!

Vanilla Cupcakes and Nelson's 2nd Birthday

When I got invited to Nelson the dogs 2nd birthday party my brain starting working overtime thinking of ideas for themed cupcakes to take along to the party. Of course the party was more of an excuse for everyone to get together, have a natter and eat cake than a birthday party but Nelson seemed to love all the attention from everyone!

After much pondering I decided to stick with a vanilla cupcake. I used the recipe from the Love Bakery book - I love this recipe! It is by far the best vanilla cupcake recipe I have tried! I bought a little doggy bone and a little doggy paw cutter for the sugar decorations and kept to a blue and white theme. The only slight problem I encountered was colouring the butter cream - I wanted it to match the blue of the paws and bows but it hadn't crossed my mind that butter cream is off white....I ended up with green butter cream..panic!! I added a tad more of the colour and it seemed to right itself but ended up being a slightly darker shade - no one seemed to mind though as they tucked in!

Sorry about the poor pictures - I was literally running out the door with my cake box when I realised I hadn't taken any pictures!