Cupcake-Fest: November 2011

Indian Summer - part two

So... I offered to make wedding cupcakes as a present for my friend having the utterly fabulous anglo-indian wedding. After much consultation we decided to go with 5 flavours with some influences from the wedding.

The flavours were: Rose (bright pink to go with the flowers), Lime (bright green to go with the flowers), Vanilla, Masala Chai (Indian), and Chocolate (everyone's favourite!!).

Bagged up and ready to go!

On the tables with me re-arranging a couple to get the balance of colours right!

Out with the old and in with the new!

Ok - it's the week before I make cupcakes for the wedding of my friend and my trusty Moulinex food processor - that I have had somewhere in the region of 10 years service from - develops a crack right down the mixing bowl. I had already thrown some cash at it this year for a new dough hook (then discovering I already had one...) and replacing the lid of the mixing bowl as that met an untimely end too, and so it was decided that rather than spend the fifty odd quid on buying a new mixing bowl that the money would be better spent on a new mixer... also influenced by the fact I did a food hygiene certificate earlier in the year and was PARANOID about residual germs and general hygiene issues with the crack! (and not at all that I really wanted a Kenwood Chef...)...

So I ~~chose the shiniest model I could find~~ did my research and replaced it with a very fabulous Kenwood Chef - swit swoo!

Indian Summer - part 1

As well as the very lovely wedding we went to earlier in the summer - where we drove halfway down the country with all of our camping gear and a car full of cupcakes, we were invited to another very exciting wedding. Wedding number 2 was to be an anglo-indian wedding where the morning part was to be Hindu and in Indian dress (as far as possible) and the afternoon would be a traditional Catholic wedding in the local Catholic church.

I wanted to go glammed up and I wanted to wear a Sari (as both the bride and groom were keen for as many people as possible to wear traditional dress). Now, Saris are not uncommon in certain parts of the city where we are, but certainly not usual. However, nothing in life is simple and these would turn out to be the wrong sort of Sari... So a few telephone calls later and a neighbouring Indian arts group had arranged for me to loan a Sari from a lovely Indian lady to wear for the event. I was in a quandry - what to take as a thank you gift for someone loaning me a beautiful Sari?... after much consideration (taking all sorts of cultural and dietary considerations into account) I decided to take cake!

and so I made Masala Chai cupcakes! I put them in one of those nice cupcake boxes with a cellophane window so that it looked nice, and I topped them with a star anise.

Brown sugar meringues and Maman Blanc apple tart

The brown sugar meringues were adapted from a recipe in my fabulous new Yottam Ottolenghi cookbook that I bought as a result of all of the delicious salads and food that formed the feast at the wedding we were at earlier in the summer.

The apple tart is a favourite recipe after watching the very lovely Raymond Blanc making it on his tv programme.

Birthday cake for my Uncle

I saw this cake as a wedding cake in a picture on someone else's photostream on Facebook and decided to have a go at making it... I thought it turned out pretty well - although I didn't do the 100 matching cupcakes to go with it!

Guest spot - someone else's cake!

This isn't my cake. It was cake at a party we were lucky enough to be invited to... but I think it is fabulous in all of it's rainbowy gloriousness and I wanted to share it with you!

A card for the cupcakes - an accolade!

I was sent this by my husbands aunt following the wedding - for services to cupcakes! I think it's really sweet!

Secret Cake Project I - the Summer Wedding!

I offered to make a wedding cake for a relative as a wedding present - the wedding was to be very home-made and out of doors, with camping and all sorts of help and contributions from friends and family which all became part of the celebrations!
However, I offered and the bride to be knew exactly what she wanted... which was this:

with apologies to whoever's photoshoot this is from - I was emailed it and I don't have the details and I don't know enough about fashion to know which designer it is... I will be happy to add credits if someone gives me the information!

So... never one to be phased I got to work and did some planning and calculating! I'll spare you the test shots, and just got to the main event...

I even felt inspired to make bride and groom ginger people!