Eva and Nick, the Seven Year Hitch

So here are some lemon and vanilla cupcakes I made for
Eva and Nick's wedding yesterday.

I made lemon buttercream icing and lime green fondant hearts
to match the cream roses and green chrysanthemum wedding flowers.

Here's the beautiful happy couple after the ceremony!

Back at the reception, here are my cupcakes next to
the amazing wedding cake made by Eva's mum.

And here are Eva and Nick cutting the cake!

Flu cakes™ for Sandra

It was Sandra's birthday last week but unfortunately she
was off sick with flu...

As she is one of Alice the baker's most valued customers
I knew I couldn't get away with not making something.

So I made her favourite - lemon - but with a *hilarious* twist...
Edible rice paper crumpled up to look like used tissues.

I stopped short of adding a snot substitute
and was duly reprimanded by my highbrow colleagues.

Here is Sandra showcasing the attractive tupperware
box I transported the flu cakes™ in...

And here she is, delicately sampling a flu cake™.

I think she ate approximately five that day,
the highlight being the one she stuffed whole as she left the office.

Lemon squares

You make a shortbread-style base and bake that first, then
mix up a really sharp lemon curd and pour it on top.

After baking it again, let it cool, dust with icing sugar
and top with thin slices of fig. Though I think
strawberry or blackberry could also work well.

I love the way the lemon curd filling almost oozes out of the sides.

Au revoir Libby and Andre

Elizabeth Rose Bankford and Andre CMS-Rickerby are both off to bigger

and better things, so had a joint leaving do at work.

I made them my customary au revoir gateaux...

Never one to make things easy for myself, I made 3 different types:

Rocky Road cupcakes

Lavender cupcakes

Lemon buttercream whip cupcakes

The rocky road cakes were made from chocolate-rich sponge

with big chunks of white and dark chocolate and mini marsmallows

both in the sponge and on top... as well as gooey chocolate ganache icing.

The lavender cupcakes were made by whizzing up the dried flowers

with caster suger in a blender, and using that to flavour the sponge.

For added lavender flavour, I also added some more ground flowers

to the icing sugar and dropped in some violet food colouring.

And to finish... a giant Parma violet!

And nothing new, but always a favourite: lemon buttercream.

However, this time I added lemon zest to the sponge rather than

vanilla essence (thanks Julie Australian Masterchef!),

and it worked really well.

Then you add more zest and juice for that zingy, buttery icing.

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.