Decorating cupcakes

Lately I have been having fun experimenting with decorating different types of designs on cupcakes.

Here are some that I have made so far:

1. Vanilla Cupcakes 

  
  
  
  
2. Vanilla and chocolate chip cupcakes 

  
  
  
3. Chocolate mud cupcakes 

  
I have also been experimenting with decorating cakes too: 

 

If you are interested in decorating cupcakes, I totally recommend buying Americolor food colouring, Wilton 1M and 2D piping tips and the disposable piping bags from Daiso are great. 

I have so much more to learn, so I am considering applying for a cake decorating class so I can be an awesome cake decorating expert like my friend Tina. 
What have you baked lately? 

Follow me on Instagram for more of my foodie adventures @dessertaddictsanonymous 

Knafeh Bakery

For a while now, I have been following Knafeh Bakery on Instagram and drooling over their delicious freshly baked knafeh. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to visit one of their pop up stalls because I’m busy with my baby, last week I found out they were going to be at Parra Lanes in Parramatta, so I finally decided to go.

  
On the Wednesday, I managed to finish work heaps early and I arrived at Knafeh Bakery’s pop up stall at 5pm. The gorgeous bearded bakers told the crowd that they wouldn’t be baking until around 5:20pm, so I placed my order and then went for a walk and came back later.

When I arrived back to pick up my order, all I could smell was the intoxicating scent of freshly baked delicious knafeh. Lucky for me, I was the first person to receive my order and I was so excited and couldn’t wait to eat my freshly baked knafeh.

  

The knafeh was basically a deliciously baked creamy cheese topped with a crunchy semolina crust, pistachios and drizzled with a sugar syrup. Eating this was like a million delicious sensations at once, the knafeh tasted essentially like a warm cheese pudding and it was amazing. The knafeh wasn’t too sweet and I loved the semolina crust. 

Unfortunately I rarely get time to visit them when they travel around Sydney, hopefully one day I get to eat one again. In the meantime my friend has given me her mother in law’s recipe, so watch this space. 

Information regarding Knafeh Bakery can be found on Facebook and Instagram @knafehbakery

Vanilla cake made with real strawberry filling

It seems that I tend to waste a lot of fruit and vegetables, I buy them and then I forget about them. Luckily we have a compost, so it doesn’t go to a complete waste. Nevertheless I feel like I am still wasting money, so this time I thought I would use up the left over strawberries and make a cake.

I didn’t really know how to add strawberries to the filling of a cake, I just thought it would be easy just to process the strawberries and then add it to the icing filling. Other recipes I saw involved cooking the strawberries in sugar and then adding it to the icing filling, I decided to do it my own way. 

Firstly I baked a cake using Sally’s baking blog’s recipe for her very vanilla cupcakes and made it into a cake. I then made the buttercream  icing filling by firstly crushed a few strawberries in the food processor and then adding the strawberries to my icing mixture. Once the cake had cooled down, I the used my Wilton 2A piping tip to pipe the icing in a circular motion on the cake. The filling shape ends up looking like a cinnamon scroll. Lastly I assembled the cake together and coated the entire cake with plain buttercream icing. 

 The cake looked so pretty on the edges with the strawberry buttercream oozing out slightly.

  
Unfortunately I forgot to take a proper photo of the cake when I finished icing it and when I took the cake to work it got eaten so quickly. Here is a photo of the remains of the cake.

 
The cake tasted so good, everyone at work loved it. The strawberry buttercream filling was so creamy and delicious. Many work colleagues said the cake was the best that I had ever made. 

I was so happy with the cake that i decided to share the recipe.

Vanilla cake made with real strawberry filling

1. Follow the directions of how to make the base of the two layered cake  on the bottom page of via http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/04/20/very-vanilla-cupcakes/ 

2. To make the filling add one table spoon of crushed strawberries to 130 grams of butter and two cups icing sugar. Mix together thoroughly and then with a piping tip in a piping bag, pipe the filling in a snail shape motion onto the cake. 

3. Place the other cake layer on top, ensuring the top harder side of the cake is placed face down.

4. Ice the cake using a mixer of the same recipe of the filling minus the strawberries plus milk. 

5. Leave to set and then serve.