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