Yes! I am participating in this year's RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY! YAY!

About 3 weeks ago or so, i was contacted by Kye, Corporate Partnerships Manager of RSPCA NSW, to see if i was interested in making cupcakes for their VIP RSPCA event. It was so bizarre because before receiving Kye's email i was meant to contact RSPCA to see if i could offer some help but that email ended up in my gmail draft unfinished. Somehow Kye managed to grab hold of my contact somewhere online and contacted me for this. I'm sooooooooooo excited yet still surprised on how coincident the whole email thingie is.........

The VIP's i mentioned is referring to the media in SYDNEY (eg: Yahoo7, NineMSN etc etc) and  hopefully the media will make a little coverage about My Sweethearts Bakery. 

This time i'm not alone! I will be joining with Sharon Wee Creations to help in this event :)

Before all the email incident with RSPCA, i actually contacted Sharon to ask if she would like to join with me in this RSPCA cupcake day. She was very interested and we both thought two pair or hands are better than one pair.

That's what brought us two together and we started chatting and found out that we both had similar pathways in this baking industry. I must say that i'm happy to find myself a baking buddy and the best thing is she lives not far from me and in SYDNEY!! We now share our trade secrets and also the juicy gossips about the latest baking tips :p

Can't wait to work with her in this RSPCA event and i will be posting the pictures once the cupcakes are done! so stay tune and keep and eye out for my cupcakes! and help us support RSPCA cupcake day~

Some picture of the pups that will be on the cupcakes 

All about 

..........................pink......................

Here's my next batch of model cakes for my new website! 

I wanted something lovely and sweet for the brides to choose from so i went with this idea. The inspiration pretty much came from a couple of cake pictures i saw on flickr (i can't remember who and which site) but i'd just like to give credits them for the wonderful inspirations.

Stay tune! More model cakes to come :) 

green's my next color~

Its time for a giveaway! 

(open to all international readers too!)

• Enter for a chance to win these items, apron and pot holder, with cute little cupcake prints on them. They are so to die for and a must in your kitchen household.

• Leave a comment on this post. Tell me what brings to you this blog and how you found out about it. If you want, you could add a brief intro about you and where you are from.       (i am curious to know more about my readers and where they are from or how did they come across this blog. From another website? Stumbled upon it? Oh yes, i just love reading commeeeennnnnnts ) 
  
• The draw date will be on 1st August 2009 and winner will be announced at 10pm EST
• In your comments, please also leave your email or blog link so i can contact you if you win.
• One winner will be chosen using the Random.org integer generator and your integer is the rank of your comment

GOOD LUCK!! and start leaving me comments!

 For the next two weeks, i will be naming my 'Wordless Wednesdays' to 'Floristry Wednesdays'.  

I'm currently taking a short floristry class at Pearsons.  The classes are so much fun! I just have to post some pictures up and boast about them ;p

Contemporary Style Vase Arrangement

 

Purple Rose Medival

Flower Brooch

I can't wait for my next class!!!!!!!!!!! 

Today is my day to enjoy and be a chocoholic freak! 

I have a big urge/desire/WANT! for a huge slice of chocolate cake. MMMMmmmmmMMMMMM

*salivating*

I thought i'd just post in some pictures of the cake i made :)

Chocolate for your eyes 

Enjoy!

Heard about tiramisu cupcakes??? 

me: nope........... *long pause* maybe i should try them out since i've got mascarpone spare in the fridge. :)

I must say i need some practice in working with mascarpone and espresso. I think i either mistook a step or did too much beating on my icing. It was a little runny but it still was yummy-licious. *thumbs up*

I've decided to share the recipe with all my readers and do let me know how you go if you are giving this recipe a try! Good Luck!

Tiramisu Cupcakes (adapted from 'Baking: from my home to yours' Dorie Greenspan)

Ingredients 

For cupcakes:-

2 cups of cake flour

2tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

10 tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup of buttermilk

For espresso extract

2 tbsp espresso powder

2 tbsp boiling water

For expresso syrup

1/2 water

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp kahlua

For frosting

 230 gm of mascarpone (1 tub from for the grocer)

1/2 cup icing sugar (powder)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp  Kahlua

1 cup cold cream

Instructions:-

(To make cuppies)

 Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake liners

Sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside

In mixer, beat butter until creamy, then add sugar and mix. Add eggs one at a time (beat about 1 minute after each addition) Then add vanilla.

Gradually add flour and buttermilk (alternate!!!) starting and ending with flour mixture. 

Fill cupcake liners and baker for 17-20 mins.

(To make espresso extract)

In small bowl, blend espresso powder and boiling water. Mix and set aside

(To make espresso syrup)

In small saucepan, heat water and sugar until sugar dissolves. Pour syrup into a bowl and stir in Kahlua. Set aside.

(To make frosting)

Combine mascarpone, sugar, vanilla and Kahlua in large bowl and whisk till smooth. Then in stand mixer, use whisk attachment, whip the cream until it hold stiff peaks.

Then use spatula to stir in 1/4 of whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture. Fold in  the rest of the whipped cream with a soft touch. Lastly add espresso syrup to frosting to taste.

Lastly spread your frosting on the cupcakes and yummo-licious!

Introducing Sunshine! My newest cake model for the Spring/Summer edition. 

I would highly recommend to couples looking for a spring and summery wedding.

more pictures here

When A first approached me to make this for her wedding cake, i was like yea, its easy, i can do this (although it's my first time making a corset cake) But during the process, i realized nooooooo, it was more challenging that i though. Not the decorating part but cake assembling part. 

First was to get a pan big enough to bake a large sheet cake but somehow i couldn't find one that would satisfy the size i am after so i ended up baking 2 square 10 inches cake and put them together from there. 

Second was to draw the outline of the corset onto the transfer paper. I kept getting either a too fat or too thin corset, nothing went the way i wanted it to be! 

Lucky for me i had Jan over, i got her to do the drawing. She being the smart Jan that i always know used bowls to outline the perfect waistline for the corset! What a brilliant idea! (pats on Jan's shoulder) I wouldn't in a million years thought about that :P

Saved by Jan! We manage to get a perfect corset shape for tracing.  One big fear down! 

Next fear was the how am i going to transfer such a long cake (which has a seperation in the middle and covered with meringue buttercream) to the cake board without it falling apart and destroying the spread????

Cake bases!!!!

Yes, i used a really large 12" round cake base, chopped off the sides to fit the corset and TA-DAH! problem solved. I must take credit for the brilliant idea *giggles*

All fear down!! Lastly was the decorations. I must say that it went rather smoothly,  after all i am a part time cake decorator righttt?? :p

Here's my final product! ( Special thanks to helper Jan again)

*Please excuse my bad photography, i haven't been having much luck with camera lighting recently.

I call this a black and white beauty. The color reminds me very much of elegance and posh.

This cake and design took me and JN (my little Santa's helper) a good couple of hours trying to put the 3D flowers together. Our first batch of flowers failed miserably but luckily our 2nd attempt sustained. :P

Thanks to JN's delicate fingers , we manage to put the petals together without them falling apart. Every time i touch it, it just goes "YIKES!" I just had no luck with them. 

Coming next will be a corset cake  so wish me luck!

Cake design adapted from (real simple)

The design of this cake was a sample picture provided by my client and she wanted something really grand for her son's christening. She also picked the colors white and gold to match the grand feel to it. T also requested for the toppers on top. I was more than delightful to hear that i was going to make more baby booties, rattle and dummies! They are just too cute!