Chocolate Wildflowers 60th Cupcakes

The brief for this 60th Birthday cake was pretty specific, the birthday girl loves chocolate, loves strong colours and loves native flowers and was happy to oblige.

Cutting cake - Classic Chocolate cake torted with dark chocolate
glaze, and finished with the same glaze. Styled with freestyle chocolate Australian Wildflowers, gum leaves and just a touch of green edible glitter

Cupcakes - Classic Chocolate & Vanilla, topped with dark chocolate glaze, styled with
freestyle chocolate Australian Wildflowers, gum leaves and just a touch of green edible glitter.

Men don't do pretty . . . cakes

Men don't do pretty . . . cakes, so when I was asked to create a 60th Birthday Cake for a friends Dad and the brief was marbled chocolate cake, the logical answer to me was to create this cake.

And also I wanted to have 60 candles but without burning the house down. I love how this one turned out.

Two tiers of Classic Marbled Chocolate and Vanilla Cake, torted with Oreo Biscuits and Cream, covered in dark chocolate ganache. Styled with 60 handmade dark and white chocolate transfer candles and a two toned chocolate 60. All edible, all good. Serves 35 - 50 depending on your slice size.

Superhero & Villain Cupcakes

Choose your cupcake, are you a Superhero or a Villain?

This is the ideal setup for a Superhero vs. Villain Fancy Dress Party, the birthday girls dressed up as the Villains Medusa and Bonnie (from Bonnie & Clyde) maybe Villains are sexier?

I created a series of mini cupcake toppers using the chocolate transfer method:

Superheros included: Superman, Sheriff, Robin Hood, Batman, Flash Gordon

Villains included: Medusa, Bonnie, Scream, Joker, Green Lantern, the Devil, Dracula

In hind sight there were so many more I could have added and this setup / design is adaptable to many different formats.

The cupcakes themselves were 50/50 vanilla and chocolate, with 50/50 vanilla and chocolate frosting.

A great suggest that was made later was halo transfers on angle food cupcakes and the devils on devils food cupcakes.

Holy Cow, Batman!

Scummy chocolate cake torted with yellow vanilla buttercream and crushed Violet Crumble, styled with yellow vanilla buttercream and Black Chocolate Fondant Batman logo, edged with dark grey chocolate fondant dusted with silver.

It was such a fun cake to create, I had assistence from my hubby who is more up to speed on the ins and outs of Batman, he hovered most helpfully, created and sculpted the boarder and even got out the playdoh to help with the bat!

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY GEORGE

Mater Cake

Chocolate cake torted with raspberry jam, yellow vanilla buttercream and chocolate sultanas. Styled with yellow vanilla buttercream, crushed Maltessers, Violet Crumble and Choc Sultanas. Birthday boy's own Mater.

And yes, many of you have seen this cake before, the Birthday boy wanted a mater cake and his Mum thought that this would be perfect.

None too Shabby Hen's Night Cupcakes

The perfect cupcake to end a delicious meal, celebrating a brides Hen's Night. Unmentionable decorations were suggested but I went with delicate and pretty, it also gave me an excuse to make some overly feminine cupcakes for a change. A delicious cupcake, very light and moist, topped with Vanilla Italian Buttercream, styled with handmade pink roses, green balls and green & gold glitter.

The chocolate cupcake recipe is from Chockylit, who created this super light mud cake, it literally melts in your mouth. Some type of mousse like topping would have been ideal if they didn't have to be transported.

Never Bake on Friday 13th

Cake Flour vs. Plain Flour

Last month Cake Flour hit the supermarkets in Australia, many Australian bakers are over the moon about this and I had to give it a try. But Both cupcakes tasted to me like sawdust, but the Blue was coaser in texture, whilst the Purple was very dense.

They were baked on Friday the 13th. Mental note 'Never bake on Friday the 13th'. I blame the day. Will try again when I get time.

Blue cupcake - Cake Flour Purple cupcake - Plain Flour

What are your experiences with different types of flour?