Playing Card Cupcakes

So this morning I woke up in an awful mood. Last night our window had been smashed in by some horrible drunk people and I'd woken up at 4am to my housemate weeing just outside my door, yes weeing! And the only way to cure a mood like this is to bake and decorate.

So, tonight we are going out as playing cards for Kat and Stefan's birthdays so I decided to make some playing card cupcakes. They took me ages to cut out each individual club, heart etc and I got food colouring absolutely EVERYWHERE. But I've had a nice relaxing and enjoyable afternoon. And I am rather pleased with the result. Still haven't quite perfected the amount of mixture to put in each casing, or how runny the icing should be but I'm getting there!

Lesson number 4: Liquid AND powder food colouring is messy!

My Birthday Cake

I just found this beauty of a picture! This is George and Mem who made a chocolate cake for me on my first birthday at university. These two live in the flat opposite and are the main culprits when it comes to eating the things I bake (I reckon they can smell it from across the hall!). This was so lovely of them and they really worked hard on it! Unfortunately I never got to eat any as there were so many people in the kitchen at the time but I don't mind, I just loved that they made a cake for me!!

Ben's Reward

So Sunday afternoon my flatmates and I had a massive roast (mainly to cure our hangovers!) which resulted in an insane amount of washing up. By 9 o'clock and 2 dvds later we had not washed up and we really did not want to. So I posted on our House 7 Facebook page that I was willing to bake anything for anyone who was willing to come and tackle our mountain of washing up. The rush-on in our kitchen was crazy! So many people were willing to clean for cookies! Therefore these cookies were a reward to the lovely Ben, who got there first and washed up expertly. They are triple chocolate and the first batch were slightly burnt (I got distracted reading heat) but the second were just divine. Or so I've heard, I have given up chocolate for lent!

Lesson number 3: anyone will do the washing up for some cookies!

(And yes, this is the photo from the book! I forgot to take a picture before they were all eaten up, but I assure you this is what they looked like!)

The Cake Stand!

As I'm still getting used to this whole blog thing, I thought I'd have some fun getting some posts in and show you my new cupcake stand! I have actually had it since Christmas but I have only used it once. Sad times! I decided not to bring it to uni as most of my stuff gets used and misused by various members of House 7. For example, the last item which I got excited about was my mini christmas tree which ended up covered in ketchup when my flatmate came back from a night out. I couldn't bear it if my cupcake stand got broken or something happened to it. Therefore I occasionally look at this photo. And I cannot WAIT to use it over the summer!!

Lesson number 2: Do not take anything you like THIS much to university, everything you own is at risk of never being the same again!

Dad's Birthday Cupcakes

These were the cakes I made last summer for my Dad's birthday. I saw them on the front of a card in WHSmith and bought it for some inspiration. I then ended up copying the cakes in the picture which took me absolutely aaaaaaages! But I'll admit, they were a little rushed as I managed to leave them until the night before his birthday. I do not cope well with having to do something this creative under pressure! However they were so much fun to make and I miss having the utensils, the time and the patience to make these living in halls at university.

Lesson number 1: Don't make cakes the night before you need them, it stresses you out!