happy birthday to me

Having come across this gorgeous four-layered vanilla cake on the Raspberri Cupcakes blog, I chose my birthday as the perfect excuse to make it. With just one cake tin, it was a little time consuming baking four separate cakes but after seeing the finished layered product, it was definitely time well spent! The cake itself was slightly dense, but still delicious especially in combination with the vanilla buttercream. Things got extremely messy when it came to decorating the cake with sprinkles, so be prepared to clean up afterwards! I also made some mini bunting to sit on top which I think added a lovely final touch to the cake.

very vanilla

With so many flavoured cupcakes available these days, vanilla cupcakes seem to sometimes get forgotten. I personally love the flavour of vanilla, so vanilla cupcakes remain one of my favourite types of cupcake. Whilst I’ve sworn on this vanilla cupcake recipe for years now, I thought it was time to find a new one bursting with even more vanilla flavour.

I spent a lot of time searching the internet and came across this recipe, which is a result of a fellow baker and food blogger who was on her own quest to find the ulimate vanilla cupcake recipe. And wow, it is an amazing one! The cupcake is light, fluffy and very, very vanilla-y! I decided to keep it simple and team the cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream. It was heaven. I also decorated the cupcakes with handmade fondant glitter butterflies, which were quite time-consuming to make, but ended up looking really pretty.

For those wanting to make a vanilla buttercream, here’s my approximate recipe: 1) beat 250g of softened butter in a bowl until pale, 2) gradually beat in about 3 cups of icing sugar, tasting occasionally and adding more according to taste, and 3) finish off with a teaspoon of vanilla essence. The more you beat the ingredients together, the more fluffy the buttercream becomes, and the more amazing it is to bite through when eating the cupcake. You can also find a delicious vanilla swiss meringue buttercream frosting here.

new shanghai

Deep fried chicken with special garlic and chilli sauce.

Pan fried pork dumplings containing broth.

Rainbow beef - deep fried shredded beef tossed with sweet and sour sauce and sesame sauce.

Pork belly braised overnight in sweet soy sauce.

Steamed mini pork buns.

Whenever I visit Brisbane I find myself continuously eating, thus I’m always inadvertently searching for new and exciting restaurants to dine in. New Shanghai, located in Queens Plaza on the mall, is definitely my most favourite new find. Their menu is extensive and packed full of delicious dishes. The dumplings we ordered were by far the best dumplings I have ever eaten, and the rainbow beef stood out as my favourite main dish. Be sure to accompany your meal with the lime chiller drink – both lusciously light and refreshingly flavoursome. Overall, beautiful food, cooked to perfection and served in no time at all.

raspberry friands

I’m so used to making cupcakes and then having to whip up accompanying frosting that I had completely forgotten how easy and quick something is to bake when you don't have to worry about more than one component! These raspberry friands are the perfect example. They are super quick to make, beautifully moist and most of all, really scrumptious (the batch I made barely lasted a day). Find the recipe here.

lime and coconut cupcakes

The beautiful combination of lime and coconut flavours creates this easy peasy, light and super delicious cupcake. I added in some lime juice as I thought the lime rind itself didn’t quite give enough lime flavour to the cupcake, and I also topped the cupcakes with some shredded coconut. This recipe was taken from a cupcake book I got given for my birthday last year.

Lime coconut cupcakes

250g butter, softened

2 teaspoons coconut essence

1 tablespoon finely grated lime rind

1 1/3 cups (290g) caster sugar

4 eggs

2/3 cup (160mL) milk

1 1/2 cups (120g) desiccated coconut

2 1/2 cups (375g) self-raising flour

Coconut cream cheese frosting

60g butter, softened

160g cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons coconut essence

3 cups (480g) icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan forced. Line two 12-hole standard muffin pans with paper cases.

2. Beat butter, essence, rind, sugar and eggs in large bowl with electric mixer until combined.

3. Stir in milk and coconut, then sifted flour. Divide mixture among cases, smooth surface.

4. Bake cupcakes for about 25 minutes. Turn onto wire rack to cool.

5. Make frosting by beating butter, cream cheese and essence, then gradually beat in sifted icing sugar.

6. Spread (or pipe) cupcakes with frosting and decorate.

xx

butterscotch pots de crème

So in love with this dessert! I can’t quite describe it too well other than it being a custard-like creamy pudding with an amazing butterscotch flavour that is seriously delicious. Top it with some whipped cream and chocolate pieces, and you’ve got yourself a perfect end to a dinner party or a sneaky sweet treat for yourself.

xx

the shades of love cake

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, I set out to find a sweet treat to celebrate this love-, rose- and chocolate-filled day and came across this gorgeous creation by Ross Sveback. I absolutely love layered cakes and the different shades of pink in this one make it the perfect cake for Valentine’s Day.

The cake itself was very straightforward to make and whilst just a basic vanilla cake, it’s definitely one of the best I’ve tasted! On the other hand, the icing was one of the most complicated and time-consuming frostings I have ever made. There were just so many steps involved and whilst it created a delicious icing, I’m pretty sure there are much simpler recipes that create just about the same thing. And even though I was successful in making it, at the very last moment my icing changed consistency due to the food colouring I added, which then meant I was unable to pipe rosettes all over the cake like initially planned. So instead, I smoothed out the different coloured frostings until they looked like they were gradually blending into each other.

You can find the original recipe for the cake here and the icing here, but if you’re after a bit more guidance, you can find a slightly altered recipe here with more step-to-step instructions. I used the original recipes, but found the latter link super useful when colouring the cake and icing, as well as when assembling the cake.

Thil

xx