Coconut and Lemon Cupcakes

My wife asked me to make some lemon curd (lemon butter) for her one day.  After making it, I was trying to think of a cupcake related use for some of the delicious, tarty lemon butter.  I came up with these Coconut and Lemon cupcakes, a gluten free vanilla/coconut flavoured cake with a scoop taken out, filled with fresh lemon butter and dusted with icing sugar.  They were amazing!

Vegan Tiramisu Cupcakes

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World have an amazing recipe for Tiramisu Cupcakes.  I adapted it to make gluten free (replacing 2/3 of the flour with gluten free plain flour, and 1/3 lupin flour).  The cream cheese filling is a vegan cream cheese, it's flavoured with Kahlua and has a roasted coffee bean on top of each one, and a light dusting of cocoa powder.  Yum!

Rosewater & Pistachio Cupcakes

There's not a lot I'm going to write about this cupcake.  The recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which I adapted to be gluten free.  One of the things I love about the vegan cupcakes is that they are already dairy free, so I don't need to worry about lactose.  And they are amazingly creative.

This is a gorgeous cake with chopped pistachios throughout, and a delicate rosewater frosting on top.  It's probably my favourite cupcake from the book so far, and that's saying something.  Although it's one of the most recent ones I've made, and I often think the latest cupcake is the best, so we'll see how long it stays my favourite.

Green Tea Cupcakes

Here's another set of cupcakes made from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World book.

This time they're Green Tea flavoured, with matcha powder in both the cake and the frosting.  Light and fluffy, and gently flavoured.  I made a batch of these for a picnic in little cupcake wrappers, most people managed to scoff down 3 or 4.

 

Will's 2nd Birthday Party

I have a nephew in Melbourne, his name is Will and he is currently 2 years old.  He's now closer to 3, as his birthday is in March, and towards the end of March he'll also become a big brother to my newest nephew.  March is going to be an exciting month in that household!

Here's some photos from Will's 2nd birthday party.  I can't claim credit for any of these cakes, I'm the interstate aunt who gets to jet in, stick around for the party, give lots of presents and cuddles and then fly back home.  I'm looking forward to moving back to Melbourne so I can be around the kids a bit more, but until then, photos (and Skype) will have to suffice.

The Elmo cake was made by Will's mum (my sister-in-law) and the cupcakes were made and decorated by Will's nanna (my mum).

Vegan Pie in the Sky!

Thanks to one of my lovely twitter followers and fellow HR person, @charlie_elise, I discovered that Isa Chandra Moskowitz (author of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) has a new book - Vegan Pie in the Sky!

A copy is now on it's way to me, thanks to Book Depository having it at a great price.

Look out for some awesome pies in the near future.

HR Cupcakes Guest Bloggers

This is an open invitation for guest bloggers to post on HR Cupcakes.  The HR Cupcakes concept started as a twitter hashtag, bringing together a community of HR professionals who bake cupcakes.  In the spirit of this, I'd like to encourage other HR professionals to submit posts to be published on this blog.

Guidelines

• Please include at least one photograph of your creation!
• You can choose whether you want to share your recipe, bearing in mind that if you have taken it straight from a book it will probably be under copyright to the author and shouldn't be reproduced.  If you have photographs or instructions of the steps you've taken, or if you've created something unique, you may wish to share the process.
• Tell a story! Why did you decide to make these cupcakes/cake/cookies/etc.? Who were they for? What was the reaction to them? Did they turn out as expected? What went well/badly/unexpected? Is there an interesting story or history behind the recipe? This can be as long or brief as you like.
• Provide a bio and/or link to your online presence (if you desire).  This could be a twitter or facebook account, or your own blog.  Let me know if you're happy to attach your profile picture to your post.
• Email your post and details to hrcupcakesblog@gmail.com

Instant Birthday Cake

What do you do when you plan a Birthday Party more than a month in advance, and end up working interstate that week?  My flight home from Sydney landed half an hour before the caterer arrived, and only 90 minutes before my guests were due to turn up.  No time to make myself a fabulous cake or cupcake display, so I got creative.

2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, a couple of punnets of fresh strawberries, a bag of freckles and a heap of candles.  Happy Birthday to me!  Not that I could eat this, being gluten intolerant and all.

Here's some other pics from the party.  It was a Day of the Dead theme, we had an altar, candles, flowers, a pinata, a punchbowl of Mojito and a 20 litre water dispenser of Sangria.  Not to mention the paella, cooked fresh in my backyard by the Paella Guru.  We had a vegetarian one and a chicken/seafood paella.  So delicious, especially the leftovers which I ate all week.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Before I continue any further, it's time to introduce my favourite cupcake recipe book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

I'm not vegan, and currently not even vegetarian, although I was a vegetarian for most of the years between age 13 and 26.  This doesn't stop me adoring all of the recipes in this book, they are so well planned, tasty and gorgeous looking.

Many of the cupcakes I post on this blog will originate from this book.  Out of copyright respect I won't be posting the recipes, but I would highly recommend you purchase a copy of the book if you like cupcakes which are more than just vanilla sponge with buttercream icing (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

There's also a companion book of cookies, called Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  I have a copy of this too, but I don't adore cookies the same way I do cupcakes.  Still, I'm sure you'll see some cookie posts as I get going with the blog.

If you're not sure about buying the books just yet, you can read the Vegan Cupcakes blog for free - http://vegancupcakes.wordpress.com/

Lime & Coconut Cupcakes

Lime and Coconut.  What a classic, refreshing, summery combination.
These are from my favourite cookbook, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  If you're ambivalent about coconut they aren't for you, they contain coconut milk, coconut oil, dessicated coconut and shredded coconut, plus a handful of limes and some other ingredients.

Instead of a recipe I'm just going to tease you with pictures.  As these are a firm favourite in my household and amongst my friends I've made quite a few batches.  The black and white polka dot ones were for a wedding, the others have been for picnics and other gatherings.

Nutella Cupcakes

This post was originally written in February 2011, but I have moved it from my tumblr as World Nutella Day 2012 is coming up soon, on February 5th.


I found out recently that there is something called “World Nutella Day”, which is celebrating it’s 5th anniversary on February 5. This inspired me to bake Nutella cupcakes this weekend.

I decided to use a variation on the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. I have adapted this recipe to make it gluten free, and added lupin flour as it’s high in protein and gives the cupcakes a nice golden yellow colour.

Here goes…

Golden Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup Lupin flour
• 3/4 cup gluten free plain flour
• 2 tblsp cornstarch
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp hazelnut extract

Directions

• Preheat oven to 180C and line muffin pan with cupcake liners (I use little ones, so get around 48 cupcakes per batch, but if you use regular sized liners you’ll get between 12 - 18 cupcakes).
• Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a bowl and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.
• Add oil, sugar, vanilla and hazelnut extracts to the soy milk mixture and beat together. Sift in the flours, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix until no large lumps remain.
• Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 12 minutes (small liners) or 22 minutes (regular size) until done. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.

Nutella Butter Frosting

• 3 cups icing sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup Nutella
• 1/4 cup soy milk

• Soften the butter, beat the icing sugar into the butter and slowly add milk until you are happy with the consistency (you may not need all the milk).
• Soften the Nutella in the microwave and mix into the icing.
• Pipe onto cupcakes.

Anatomy of a Cupcake

Here's a cute infographic on The Anatomy of a Cupcake, by Flowing Data.  As a data analyst and a cupcake lover this pushes a few of my buttons.

Dolly Varden cake

Last year I discovered that AWW had reprinted their classic Children's Birthday Cake Book, which my mum had a copy of when my brothers and I were growing up.  I have fond memories of birthday cakes, from the pool with green jelly, a guitar, train, Castle Greyskull (modelled on the princess castle with grey frosting), a caterpillar, countless numbers and others.  I wonder if I have any old photographs in my childhood albums?

When I found this book at the store I had to get a copy, despite the overflowing shelves I already have of cookbooks and cake books.  This one's a classic!

When my friend Rob's birthday was looming last year, I offered to make him any cake from the book.  Being a bit of a princess he chose the Dolly Varden cake, here's my attempt.

The birthday boy loved his cake, as did all the lovely ladies at the Bingo hall we went to for his birthday celebration.  While carrying in the cake I had many a person come up to me and tell me that they made this cake for their daughter 30+ years ago.  Even the Bingo announcer made a comment over the PA system about our cake.

Ninjabread Men

In December 2010 I was in Melbourne, visiting my family for Christmas.  I spent quite a bit of time browsing gift shops, ostensibly shopping for Christmas presents but really looking for cool things to take home for myself.  One of the fun things I found was this cute set of gingerbread man cutters in the shape of Ninjas, or as they are known, Ninjabread Men (by Fred)!

I can't claim that mine turned out quite as polished as the advertising ones above, but I gave it a pretty good go.  My recipe was a basic gingerbread one I found online, adapted to make gluten free, using a mix of gluten free plain flour and lupin flour.

Unfortunately one of my Ninjabread men didn't survive...