School holidays are so exhausting!!!!

3 days in, the house is a complete mess and I am exhausted! The children seem to have endless energy from dawn til dusk and I cannot keep up. It seems to be a never ending cycle of feeding and watering with snacks in between! Baking has gone out of the window. There are just not enough hours in the day, although I did manage a sneaky batch of 12 vanilla cupcakes this morning! These have been devoured already so I have promised myself a proper 'bake up' tomorrow. I guess full on school holidays are to be expected with 4 children and despite my overwhelming tiredness, messy house and empty food cupboards, I wouldn't have it any other way!!

Exciting news!

I now have 3 Farmer's markets secured! First one on Sat (eek!) Hope the weather warms up, it's freezing today. I am busily sourcing and buying supplies, my house is rapidly filling up with cake boxes and bags! I'm hoping that my family don't notice ;) Sacha (puppy) is enjoying playing with the empty boxes bless her.

I made these little fellas yesterday.....

 Cheeky Choccy Monkeys!

Modelled on my children of course!

My sweet Valentine!

My hubby and I are celebrating our 27th Valentine's Day together! We met at 13 and have been married nearly 20 years! :) 4 kids and a mortgage later neither of us has the desire to go out for a 'special' Valentine's meal. We are gonna just 'cosy' up on the sofa with a movie and enjoy an eve without the internet! Don't get me wrong I Love the internet, my businesses all run from there. But it is sooooo hard to turn it off and in doing so switch off and relax for the evening. I drive myself and everyone else in the house nuts by only ever having my Macbook a maximum of about 3 feet away from me! Well tonight is the night! I am gonna take the plunge and turn it off until (bright and early) tom morning! I am going to give my lovely hubby the undivided attention that he deserves.

Valentine's Day needn't be about an astronomically priced bouquet of flowers, a garish card brought in a rush and some naff chocs........ours is going to be filled with some good food, good wine, good company and lots of love! I truly love my hubby and I tell him every day so for us today is just another day!
Happy Valentines Day to you all x x 

Spring is in the air!

Along with the mass of Valentines cakes I have baked and decorated this weekend I have started work on my spring and Mother's Day designs. As always my children have been my tasters and critics with Maxwell as chief taster! He always manages to get to the biggest cake first! The more buttercream and decorations the better for my boy! Tomorrow will be spent baking and delivering my Valentine orders and then I will be getting ready (and slightly panicking) for my first Farmer's Market on Sat! How many cupcakes to make? What flavours? What packaging? how to decorate my stall? How much? All of this is keeping me awake at night so hopefully as the week goes on these things will become clearer and I will relax!

The fruits of my labour this weekend....

Let the baking commence!

Today I start a marathon bake-up for this Valentines weekend! I have lots of lovely orders to work through and I'm looking forward to creating some beautiful edible treats! I have been busy with the sugarpaste again making roses, posies, hearts and butterflies all in a passionate red! I will post some piccies later , no harm in looking, the calories don't count! :)

Hearts, Roses and Butterflies...........

After an afternoon spent making decorations for my Valentines orders, I am now up to my ears in Hearts, Roses and Butterflies! All in a gorgeous shade of ravishing red! My hands took a while to return to their normal colour, but it was worth it, the decorations are lovely and I'm really pleased with them! 

I also made a couple of monsters today one of which my youngest son polished off almost as soon as it was finished. I only just managed to get a pic!

A cookie monster!

Sharing the love!!

Here is an absolutely, gorgeously, moist, indulgent chocolate cupcake recipe!

You will need 24 muffin cases and a muffin tin. Fairy cake cases will be too small.

Ingredients:
3 medium eggs
175g caster sugar
115g self-raising flour
6tbsp good quality cocoa powder e.g Green & Blacks Organic
1.5tsp baking powder
1tsp natural vanilla extract
175g slightly salted butter

I try to buy the best quality ingredients possible especially the cocoa and vanilla in this recipe. It really does make a difference to the finished cakes.

Pre-heat the oven to 170C/338F Gas 3-4
Place baking cases in the muffin tin.

If using a processor, put the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in and blitz on full power for 2-3 minutes.
Or using a hand whisk ( I prefer this method) these ingredients and mix well.

Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa, gradually add to wet mix.

Spoon the mixture into the cases and place in the centre of the oven for 16-18 mins. This may vary according to your oven.
The cakes are cooked when a skewer comes out clean or the tops spring back when lightly touched.

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

At this point they will smell and look divine and it's hard not to snuffle one!
STOP!!! Try to resist these naked little lovelies..... you can make your little cakes look even more beautiful with a little more effort by topping them with luxurious chocolate buttercream.

Pure Indulgence
175g sifted icing sugar
50g sifted good quality cocoa powder
3tbsp cold water
115g softened unsalted butter

Add cocoa to icing sugar.
Beat the butter to a cream in a processor or with a handheld whisk.
Add the sugar-cocoa mix gradually with the water beating with each addition.

The buttercream is now ready to top your cupcakes, stop dipping your finger in and get decorating! The sky is the limit with these cakes! You can add marshmallows, sweets, sprinkles, grated chocolate, sugarcraft decorations whatever takes your fancy!

Good Luck and be warned these are wickedly addictive little fellas!!

Chocolate Heaven!

Clouds of icing sugar have been wafting around my kitchen today as I made up a batch of double chocolate cupcakes! Using Green and Blacks organic cocoa I whipped up these little lovelies and the kids are making their way through them at a great rate of knots! I haven't even tasted one! I have created lots of Valentine designs and I am now working on Mother's Day cupcakes! :)

Naughty but nice!!

What a priviledge!

Yesterday I baked up an order of cupcakes for a lady's 90th Birthday! I felt really priviledged to be asked to create some cakes for this lady and I hope they were well received! No cupcakes today, just bread and sticky rice krispie bars!

These are the 90th Birthday cupcakes!

Phew made it!!

Well I have finally set my blog up and here I go! I have had a really exciting week! My business The Cupcake Kitchen has finally got off the ground after many months of planning and deliberation! I have finally taken the plunge and wish I had done it sooner!
I have had a great week with lots of positive feedback and comments and most importantly ....orders! Starting up just over a week before Valentines day has seen me jump straight in at the deep end with orders coming thick and fast. Long may it continue.
Tomorrow is another exciting day as I'm off to visit a potential Farmer's Market who have a Cupcake-sized stall available!
I also put the finishing touches to my website today so a busy week all round :)
You can visit me at: http://www.olneycupcakes.co.uk there is a guestbook so please leave a comment.


A selection of my Valentines designs.......

Mimi x