Summertime, and the living is dairy-free

I've gone dairy-free for a month (trying to solve the problem of having asthma), which means a month of no cupcakes for me: boo.

In the meantime, it being summer and all that, I'm eating lots of fruit which is healthy, and lots of home made ice 'cream', which is not quite so healthy, loaded as it is with coconut milk and sugar and mmmmm, yum!


Summer in a breakfast bowl: homemade granola, nectarines, banana and home-grown strawberries.


Home-grown peas: Super-tasty, but we're only getting about this many a day. More of a taster than a proper portion.


One day's crop of strawberries...


...and the next (we're getting a bowl-full like this each day, and we can't eat them fast enough!)


With all those strawberries, I made some dairy-free ice cream:

Strawberries, coconut milk, sugar and a dash of balsamic vinegar.

It's really tasty, but a bit icy. I need an ice cream maker! Remembering to whip it by hand every 30minutes is ok, but doesn't give very smooth results.


Much more successful is the mango ice cream:

Our fruit bowl which was looking very exotic with a mango, some limes and some coconuts (left over from the school fair's coconut shy), so I decided that the only way to use all of these fruits up was to make ice 'cream'.

The coconuts weren't the best, so I used the mango, a tin of sweetened Alphonso mango pulp, some brown sugar, lime juice and 2 tins of coconut milk.

YUM! I could have drunk the whole mixture as a smoothie, it was so delicious. The ice cream is delicious too though, and even though I still used the stir-it-by-hand-every-30-m​inutes method, it wasn't half as icy as the strawberry ice cream.

It's my birthday (cake)!

My best birthday present was some Ninjabreadmen cookie cutters. Can't wait get baking with them!
(just a cupcake order to get out of the way first though)




And I couldn't post about the Ninjabreadmen cutters without following it with a couple of pictures of my birthday cake.

It's June, so it has to be strawberries and cream, sandwiched between some lovely light sponge cake. Yum.

Thanks to Sam, who baked the cake, while I was busily assembling 48 cakes for a Christening.
x

Social Eatia

Simon from PushON ordered 48 social media-themed cakes for their networking event on Monday.
I made 24 chocolate and 24 vanilla cakes and then decorated them in 5 different designs, with 5 different buttercream flavours.

PushON's own logo was kind of fiddly to cut out, but nothing matched the adventures I had with the printed cupcake toppers- from having them printed as a last-minute rush job, to drying them very gently in the oven so that they would deem to be removed from their backing paper!
However, the QR code did work when scanned, so I guess all the fiddly work was worth it.

Hope everyone enjoyed their party and the cakes on Monday night.


48 cakes: 2 cake flavours, 5 icing flavours and 5 designs, ready to be boxed up and transported to the party!


PushON's logo.


...applied to chocolate or vanilla cakes, with vanilla choc-chip buttercream.


Twitter logo


...applied to chocolate or vanilla cakes, with vanilla seed buttercream.


Feed logo


...applied to chocolate or vanilla cakes, with chocolate buttercream.


Facebook logo


...applied to chocolate or vanilla cakes, with coloured vanilla buttercream.


QR code printed onto edible cupcake toppers - it works, if you feel like scanning it...


...applied to chocolate or vanilla cakes, with strawberry buttercream.


Cakes in situ. (Thanks for the photo, Simon)

Cupcakes in flight!

I normally don't post photos of cakes before the recipient has received them, but this little lot are flying to Northern Ireland tomorrow (courtesy of my sister, the cakes mule), and I'm not 100% sure what condition they'll be in when they arrive.

My cousin ordered 24 cakes because he finally has the opportunity to taste them! He ordered 12 chocolate cakes with vanilla icing in Cookie Monster and Elmo designs, and 12 vanilla cakes with strawberry buttercream. I made some little strawberry characters out of fondant icing, and sprinkled them with some edible glitter too.

So, Andy, thanks for your order. I hope they arrive looking as good as they do here, and tasting even better! (And good luck transporting them, Bob!)


Vanilla cakes, strawberry buttercream, edible glitter, and a friendly strawberry smiling at you.



All boxed up and getting ready to fly (Just need the clingfilm and extra reinforcing cardboard)


Sesame Street? No, we're off to Northern Ireland!


I wouldn't dare bore anyone with another photo of my Cookie Monster cakes, but Elmo's still a work in progress, so I feel i still have something to say about these cakes.
This one is the best Elmo yet, though now I think his mouth is too big.


Fasten your seatbelts, Elmo and Cookie!

Cocktail Hour

Caramelising lime slices in a sugar syrup.



The cakes were brushed with some of the lime-flavoured syrup (from making the caramelised limes)


Vanilla cakes, brushed with lime syrup and topped with 'Margarita' buttercream: flavoured with lime juice and a pinch of salt.
Edged with crunchy, coloured sugar and topped with a twist of caramelised lime.



Vanilla cakes with a Strawberry 'Daiquiri' topping: brushed with lime syrup and iced with strawberry buttercream.
Decorated with a fondant cocktail glass, silver balls and a maraschino cherry.



The ubiquitous cocktail umbrella


Chin chin!

Kristina (who was the recipient of the fashion-themed cakes last month), must have been happy with her cakes, as she ordered 6 cocktail cakes for her friend's birthday.
I made 3 'margarita' and 3 'strawberry daiquiri' cakes. However, no alcohol was involved in the making of these cakes (sorry)