I’ve been absent from blogging a little bit recently. Work is keeping me away from baking and I’ve had so many things to do recently. I apologise.
So today’s post won’t have a recipe, which is most unusual. Think of it as more of a catch up. Feel free to comment below and let me know what you’ve been doing this weekend. Continue reading “House warmings and Instagram spam”
I usually dislike change. I like adventures, but I am all for stability. Which is why moving has kind of thrown me off a little bit. Not having access to internet, for example, has resulted in very few posts recently. Not having access to a camera (I used to use my dad’s) means that even I do bake, I can’t show you. Not having an entirely set up kitchen yet means that my baking has slowed.
To top all of this off, the beautiful rustic table that I bought for our dining room didn’t fit through our door (insert crying face here), so we’re borrowing one from my brother’s generous girlfriend (who has been coming up lots recently!)
All of these things are different to what I am used to!!
What I do like about change though, is that it is a catalyst for experimentation. Lacking a cake tin, I opted to go back to my parent’s house and use their kitchen and camera. I was also equipped with their fabulous house warming present to the Boy and I, the Country Women’s Association Cook Book. Aren’t parents fantastic? Continue reading “Choc chip slice and change”
I’m a new convert to iced tea. I usually opt for piping hot tea, regardless of the temperature, but Pinterest has inspired me to be a little bit more adventurous. The ice teas that pop up on Pinterest are colourful, beautifully styled and no doubt taste fantastic. I wanted something like that!
So with a little trepidation, I left the oven off and stuck to fresh, revitalising ingredients for my iced tea. Everything about this drink screams Summer to me –it’s full of invigorating ingredients, super quick to throw together, it’s best over ice, and the colour is divine! Continue reading “Revitalising rooibos iced tea and Summer”
Hello dear readers!
If you saw my Facebook post yesterday and are wondering how you can get your hands on one of these magnificent teapots, wonder no longer! (If you don’t follow me on Facebook yet, why not try it out? Find me here, because you’ll need to like Baking With Gab on Facebook to enter this competition.
All you need to do to win one of the tea pots is email me. Continue reading “Teapots and giveaways!”
I know too many people who were born in the last three months of the year, October is particularly packed. Lots of people, including the Boy, must be celebrated in such proximity to one another that I decided to throw another unbirthday party. It’s not that I dislike birthdays (quite the opposite, actually), it’s just there are not enough days to celebrate people properly!
The last unbirthday party I threw was mainly for one person, whereas this one was aimed at three people. It is worth noting that anyone can claim an unbirthday – as long as their birthday doesn’t fall on the say that it is celebrated!
I feel as though I’m becoming a bit of an unbirthday expert…
Norman, meanwhile, is an expert unbirthday crasher. He’s got his puppy dog eyes look sorted!
Continue reading “Lime and raspberry cupcakes and unbirthdays”
My last post was about giving in to the gym. It’s day four of me signing up to the gym and I’ve been good so far. Except for the fact that I spend my entire life pinning, instagramming and Googling baked goods.
To say I’m obsessed is an understatement. I’m fairly sure I was dreaming about eating these cupcakes last night, because I was awoken by a sharp pain – I’d bitten the inside of my lip hard enough to draw blood!
These gorgeous little cupcakes came about by accident. I was actually trying to create cupcakes with bubblegum icing; the cupcake was supposed to be a platform to raise my glorious bubblegum icing to dizzying sugary heights.
But the icing never really made it. It didn’t taste as bubblegummy as I’ planned (don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, it just wasn’t bubblegum flavoured), but it didn’t matter, because the cupcake outshone it!!
The cupcake is light and airy. It’s delicately fruity and a little bit like eating a raspberry cloud. Or how I imagine that would taste. The icing is sweet and soft, the perfect complement to the raspberry cloud!
Raspberry cupcake cloudsMakes 24
Preheat your oven 180°C and grease a 12 capacity cupcake tin.
Cream your butter and sugar together until pale. Add in your raspberries and blend until smooth. This should take 1-2 minutes to eliminate all of the lumps and bumps. You can leave chunks of raspberry in if you’d like, but I prefer them all mixed in, it makes for a smoother batter.
Add in the teaspoon of vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time.
Scoop your flour into the mixture and mix well, ensuring no pockets of flour remain. Add in the milk and combine.
At this point, the raspberries will have added a slight tinge of pinky-purple to the mixture, so you don’t have to add colouring. If, like me, you can’t resist a pop of colour, add in some pink food colouring!
That’s it! These cupcakes are so simple, but the result is so impressive.
Spoon the mixture into your prepared cupcake tins and bake for 16-18 minutes.
Once the cupcakes are out of the oven, allow them to cool for ten minutes. While they cool, mix the butter and cream cheese together until there are no lumps and the mixture is pale. Add in the strawberry essence, orange blossom water and vanilla, followed by the icing sugar. Keep blending until all are combined and smooth.
Decorate using a piping bag, or just spoon it onto your cupcakes and smooth with a knife. I added little chewy lollies to the top of mine, but don’t worry if you don’t have any they’re sweet enough without them!
Serve with a strong black cuppa to balance out all of that sugar.
Enjoy!
I felt like it had been a while since I’d held a tea party, so I set about fixing that today. I had a beautiful table runner that I’ve been wanting to use, and I didn’t just want to use it in any old run-of-the-mill photo shoot. I received the runner from Ria from Zambella Gifts, and she’s so passionate about her beautiful linen that I couldn’t help but get excited about it too. The runner has the recipe of a chocolate cupcake on it written in a beautiful script, so it didn’t take much for me to be in love with it! (Ps. You can buy Ria’s linen here.)
Ria is currently offering my readers a free gift with purchase (I’m not sure what, it’s a surprise!) just enter “Baking with Gab”into the comments section when you checkout…get shopping!
This recipe is a cupcake version of the rich chocolate cake that I posted here – the sheer amount of cocoa and the addition of milk and coffee make it decadent and dense, but smooth at the same time. Continue reading “Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes and Tea Parties”
This week I received a little parcel from Bonne Maman. Not only did I get a few jars of jam to play with, they were lovely enough to include some mini jam jars for my readers! The FIVE raspberry jams that I have to give away are in 30g jars, and they’re so cute I actually want to just frame them. To win, all I ask is that you share this post on Facebook to go in the running*. Unfortunately for my overseas readers, I’ll only be able to post Australia-wide…I think customs would wonder why I was trying to send teensy jam jars out of the country. Continue reading “Jam doughnut cupcakes and more giveaways”
This punch doesn’t need much explanation because it is so simple. You can adjust it to suit your needs as well. I made this punch alcohol-free (although Pimms was added to it as the tea party wore on!), so it would be perfect for a child’s or an adult’s party. The Mint and berries add a vibrant splash of colour, but they also give it a great flavour.
I hinted last week that there was a friend’s birthday coming up soon. It was on Tuesday. So on Wednesday we threw an unbirthday party. She’s not a fan of birthdays (crazy, I know), but she loves Alice in Wonderland – how could I resist an unbirthday/Mad Hatter’s themed party?!
Recipes in this blog have all been posted before, click the name to get the recipe!
