Cake, cake, and cupcakes!

I wanted to end this week's posts with something sweet to get you through your Friday.  Yesterday, I had three orders...for two cakes and a dozen cupcakes.  The two cakes were for my sister-in-law's work's open day.  I made chocolate and banoffee.  It's been long since I made my chocolate cakes with buttercream.  I usually make ganache for the filling and frosting.  This time I made it with chocolate buttercream and boy was it delicious!!  I didn't want it to be too sweet, so added a bit more cocoa powder than usual just to get the perfect balance.

It was also my first time to make a banoffee cake (kind of...the very first attempt was for a cupcake I made for my brother's 30th birthday here).  I've been experimenting on it on and off for a little while now, but I think I've come to something pretty amazing (if I should say so myself, lol).

And, do you remember my friend Mia?  Well, after our touch game on Wednesday night, she was really craving for some red velvet, so here's a batch I made for her.

I really wanted to taste-test the banoffee cake, so last night I made a batch of cupcakes for me to try out (oh, and my family, too...hehe).  I wanted the perfect balance of caramel and buttercream against the banana cake, so did about three different ones for hubs to test out.  After a couple of cupcakes, I think we found THE ONE.  Let's just say it is now my hubby's new favourite!!  I donated a box for my son's school gala's cake stall (which is on today, so come on down to Summerland Primary if you're not doing anything).  I couldn't resist and had one for breakfast...hehe...sooo gooood!

Wow, talk about sugar rush on a Friday!!  I hope you enjoyed today's post!  Come back next week for more Christmas decor ideas and sweets.  Remember, if you're in the neighbourhood, jam down to Summerland Primary gala from 4pm today.  Lotsa fun in store for you and the kids!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!  Blessings!!

xo,
Jackie

I've been featured!!

Wow, I'm sooo excited to tell YOU that I've been FEATURED!!  One of my favourite daily reads is Better After, by the lovely Lindsey all the way from Arizona.  She loves showcasing what she considers the best part of any design project or makeover - which of course are the before and afters.  I actually didn't know about this, until I read her blog today and saw my ironing board...LOL.  It was pretty cool.  Like I-feel-famous kinda cool, hehe.  If you would like to see it, then click on over here.

This is actually the second time I've been featured.  The first time was for my cakes.  I can't believe I haven't shared this with you yet!!  Anyway, better late than never, right?  So, Nikki from Style Twigs in the UK stumbled upon my blog and fell in love with my home-made creations.  She wrote me a lovely message, letting me know that she blogged about me.  Wow!!  Was all I could say.  How awesome is that, huh?  If you would like to see what she wrote, then click on over here.  I think it's amazing that there are people out there who acknowledge those who have inspired them in some way.  I'm so honoured and blessed to have met these wonderful people from all over the world.  I am still very amazed at the endless possibilities of what can be achieved with today's technology - just pure awesomeness!

xo

August in a glimpse...

Good morning everyone!  Hope you had a great Fathers' Day weekend!  My hubby sure was spoilt with love, laughter, and cake!  Will share more of that tomorrow, so be sure to come back.

Today I am delighted to 'begin' a monthly summary, where I'll be posting little glimpses of what I shared with you each month.  Not sure why I didn't think of this sooner.  Enjoy!

CUTEST

I started August off with sweet cake pops, which I renamed PARTY POPS!  A sweet treat made from left over cake scraps and covered in sprinkles!  Yum-oh!

COOLEST

Then we shuffled the streets of London with dancer Kimberley from Vibe One, who asked for a special cake delivery for her bf in Auckland!  How sweet!

MOST PINTEREST-ING

Of course goes to the Pinterest Challenge we did with Katie, Sherry, Lana and Emily.  Everyone shared amazing work!  Good stuff guys!

OLD SCHOOL

...goes to our trip down  memory lane where we visited my life as a dancer in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! Good times!

RANDOM-EST

...has to go to the 'deer' action we had on our street.  Random and cool!

FASTEST

...goes to the little quickie action in the car with a cake!  There's gotta be a first for everything, right?

BEST MUSIC

...goes to DJ Kiwa who rocked the house!

BEST DANCE

...goes to this awesome dancing!!

BEST ROMANCE

...goes to the 'Love' cake I made for my hubby xo

MOST CHALLENGING

...undoubtedly goes to the MJ tip-toe shoes cake.  I can still remember the sleep deprivation, lol!

MOST SIGNIFICANT

...goes to the colourful confetti cupcakes made for my eldest son for making significant progress in his reading.  Well done! :-)

MOST THOUGHTFUL

...goes out to the bake sale held at Delish Cupcakes where I, along with so many other volunteers, baked lots of goodies to raise funds for those affected by the Christchurch earthquake.

MOST FASHIONABLE

...goes to Fashion Friday, where I shared some of the latest fashion trends I'm diggin'.

MILLENNIUM AWARD

...goes out to my Uncle who turned 50!  Made him a vanilla bean cake to celebrate via skype.  Love technology!  

MOST COMMITTED

...goes to the first wedding cake I made!  This is the first of many more wedding cakes to come, I'm sure.  :-)

and last but not least we have...

MOST CARING

...goes to the SPCA Cupcake Day!  

Well, there you have it!  August in a glimpse!  I can't believe it's now September!  Yay, my favourite month ('cause it's my birthday month, hehe, and it's SPRING).  See you all again soon for more cool cakin' and creatin'!

xo

This is dedicated to the one I love...

The title is from a song btw...  Anyway, to get our Wednesday started, here is a cute image I found on one of my favourite daily reads.  Since our subject today  has something to do with both Love and Chocolate, I thought this image is perfect!

Image source: Atypical Type A

Today I have something special to share with you all.  It's a cake I whipped up this morning for my dear husband, Lui.  Recently we've been witnessing blessings in our lives for which we are truly grateful for.  My hubby has been working very hard at his job, and sometimes it may go unnoticed by some, but his bosses and I know the amount of dedication he's been investing in his role that has and is making a huge impact in their company.  He's the go-to guy for anything - Lui this, Lui that.  Very similar to my current role as a stay-at-home-Mum - Mum this, Mum that...hehehe.  Lui very rarely wants a piece of my cakes, maybe because I make them too often it's lost its special factor about it, I don't know, but when he asked me on Monday if I could bake him a cake 'just 'cause' I thought 'wow, this is strange'.  So today I made a simple but rich-in-chocolate-and-deliciousness cake for him.  If he is reading my post today then there won't be a big surprise reveal when he gets home later, but that's okay, we can all still enjoy eating it as a family after dinner.  :-)

Of course, when I say simple, I meant about the decoration of the cake.  The frosting is not perfectly finished, but I think the handmade look gives it a nice touch.  I couldn't help my self from adding some embellishments to the finish, in this case making some frilly border to surround the bottom of the cake, and some Maltesers shaped in a heart to go on top.  I have to admit I couldn't resist eating a couple of those Maltesers in the process, lol.  But I didn't eat any until I saw what resembled a heart shape, hehe.

Before I reveal the cake, here's a scanned pic of something I found inside my (yummy) cereal box (Hubbard's Light & Right Berry Uplift).  I cut it out and placed it on our fridge, just as a reminder of how blessed we truly are.  Hopefully you can appreciate this, too.

Click below for the cake reveal...