Sandra's 50 lemon cupcakes

So my boss Sandra recently commissioned me to make
50 cupcakes for her 50th birthday!

She's a big fan of my vanilla sponge with lemon buttercream cupcakes.

Because I piped the icing I had to make more than usual and
managed to get through 1.5kg of icing sugar.

But I used half-fat creme fraiche, so that evened things out.

It being a big birthday, I thought edible gold

glitter and stars were in order... which fitted in
well with the general children's party atmosphere.

I think Sandra ate her way through one box of cakes,
while the rest of the office devoured the other...

...pretty quickly.

Best of all, Sandra gamely posed with a lovely pair of cupcakes.

Big thanks to Catrin Cullen for the photos.

Chocolate chilli cupcakes

I made these for Lindsey's surprise 30th birthday party.

Mini chocolate brownie cupcakes with a big hit of hot chilli powder.

I added the red sparkles for extra dramatic effect.

As you can see, Catrin was so taken aback (and loaded with Prosecco),

that the camera shook a little when the box was opened.

Pinglewood biscuits

Old phone pic no. 5

Here are some little shortbread biscuits made with my awesome 101 cookie cutter kit.

They were soon eaten by a nasty faceless blogger man.

Espresso coffee cake

Old phone pic no. 4

This was an Espresso coffee cake I made for my dad's birthday cake last year.

It's a marble vanilla/coffee liqueur marble cake
covered with espresso coffee icing and chocolate covered coffee beans.

Glossy double choc cupcakes

Old phone pic no. 3

These were some double choc cupcakes I made for
Joey and Andrew's joint birthday a few years ago...

I think they were choc fudge cakes with a glossy dark chocolate ganache icing.

WARNING: Though silver balls look cool, they can take a tooth out.

Mini coffee walnut cakes

Old phone pic no.2

These were individual mini coffee walnut sponge cakes from a recipe in You magazine.


Kind of impossible to eat, but really cute and very tasty.

Scarlet fever cakes

I've just found loads of old photos on my phone,
so thought I'd share them on here.

Old phone pic no. 1

First up, some cakes I made for my boss Sandra
on her return to work after a nasty bout of scarlet fever...

...Nope, I didn't think anyone could catch scarlet fever any more either.