Its Been A Long Time

I think I last posted at the very beginning of July.... so it's been, to put it mildly, a while.

July was spent drinking my sorrows. Nothing to brag about, but the honest truth was that is what I was doing. February 2011 we (my family) lost someone very dear to our hearts. He should have turned 27 in July. It's hard. I think it always will be, and I can't say that every February and July will rush by in a haze of alcohol, nor can I say that that really means I'm coping, but there you go, my absence for July.

August should have brought on the fun times, with celebrating both my husbands and my own birthdays. Instead we found out we are expecting (due early next year), my husband ended up off work with a back injury and has only just been given the all clear. The baby news is exciting, but everything just came down to timing and it all kind of fell apart.

September, there were no reasons for anything to go wrong, but they say things come in three's. I was fired from my job for complaining about being underpaid. I was then diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia will be with me forever, and has already been with me for quite sometime, although, recently it has been debilitating. I feel relieved to finally have a diagnosis, but it leaves me in limbo at the moment, having to consider every little thing that I do as it could mean I end up unable to get up the next day.

All this brings me to October, which I hope will mean the end of all the bad luck and the beginning of something new. I've decided to take my being fired as a mostly positive thing, I have sought legal action in regards to it, and now with my diagnosis, having time off means I can focus on me.... and my food.

I hope that with the end of this year coming up and the start of a new one, to be able to announce an exciting collaboration with another talented cake decorator/imposter pastry chef. Together we will be able to offer a wider range of treats, look at regularly having market stalls throughout Canberra, and bringing delight to the residents of Canberra :)

I just want to thank you all for hanging round, I'll be updating some more in the next couple of days, with some recipes I've tried out, and more news on market stalls.

<3

Red Velvet Macarons

Nom nom nom. That is probably the best way to describe these. They. Are. So. Good. (hmm... just felt like Christian Grey... awkward) Anyway. These were experimental macarons. I had an idea, executed said idea, and resulted in beautiful, pillowy, deliciousness.

I guess I can blame my husband for the invention of these. He gets orders from his work mates for my cooking, and for this particular week, he'd been telling me cake pops were what the boys wanted. Until Thursday night when I was confirming it and he was just like no, macarons. Damn husbands. But it did result in these! Red Velvet macarons will definitely be on the menu when I'm all sorted. They are to die for. :)

Caramel Popcorn Cupcakes

I love how many different types of cupcake cases there are now. The options are endless as to what you can do with them. I made these caramel popcorn cupcakes. I adjusted a basic butter cake recipe and added caramel to it. Once cooked they got another dollop of caramel, followed by a variation of Zumbo's popcorn macaron filling and then finally topped with white mini marshmallows and yellow caster sugar.

Baby Shower Cake Pops and Pink & Purple Cupcakes

There's not much of a story here, I was asked by a gorgeous friend if I could help out with some sweets for a baby shower. I made 24 "baby" cake pops, complete with little bonnets and dummies, and, since it was a pink and purple themed baby shower, and I was trying out some new paper Eskimo cups, sent her off with 9 choc raspberry cupcakes as well :)

THE MACARON

At work I was asked if I could make a giant macaron. I accepted that challenge. The above macaron is about 6inches, both are vanilla buttercream with caramel drizzle. The bottom was my second attempt, and as you can see I've added more filling to give it some more height. Changed the colour a little as well, so it was a bit warmer. It also ended up being closer to 8inches.

They really weren't that hard to make. If you can make normal macarons, then you can make these. Its exactly the same piping process, just pipe the one circle for longer :)

Painted Cookies

Was feeling creative the other week. I'd always admired these from afar, certain that they would be much too complicated for me to attempt.

Not so!! Although time consuming, it was delightfully therapeutic to sit there and paint royal icing flowers. Plus they look absolutely stunning. Our Paper Eskimo rep gave us some of their straws to try, so I colour matched my cookies to the straws. Will definitely be doing these again :)

All Things Giant

Seems that the time is here for giant things. I'm enjoying making giant cupcakes and out did myself with giant macarons! My first attempt at giant cupcakes is the above, its a raspberry cake with a blue candy shell and vanilla buttercream. Ended up being my mums birthday cake.

The second cupcake (below) was for fun. It is very, very, very rich. A dense, moist chocolate mud cake wrapped in raspberry buttercream, placed in a dark chocolate case. OMG. The husband took this to work as we just wouldn't have been able to eat it all!