As promised, I’m back to tell you more about how I put together all of the dessert bar food!

Chocolate Balls

These originated from a recipe by my Mum, from a friend, from her Mum, from a website. It has morphed and changed over the “passing down” but are really tasty! It reminds me of that spinach and sour cream dip with the bread that you can’t stop eating, that makes you sick when you eat too much, but you keep going back for more. The actual recipe is for rum balls, but we decided to leave the rum out and now I think they are even yummier.

Ingredients

• 250g milk arrowroot biscuits
• 1 cup desicated coconut
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 x 400g can sweetened condensed milk

Method

1. Crush biscuits finely (no chunks! if you have a food processor use that).
2. Add the coconut and cocoa and mix through.
3. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk.
4. Form into slightly larger than “bite-size” balls. You can then either roll them in more coconut, cocoa or sprinkles to finish them off!

They are almost like truffles except a little lighter on the chocolate and the cream. I suppose though condensed milk wouldn’t balance it out though, would it?

Just a quick note to let you know that as of today I’ve finished my fundamentals work so you should expect more Patisserie related posts from Monday onwards!

For those of you who follow my pursuits and projects beyond this blog, you will know that I put together a High Tea for charity as part of the Highway Apprentice competition. The twist with the High Tea was that it featured… A dessert bar!

The dessert bar included:

Cupcakes (Four flavours – red velvet, vegan vanilla, coffee kahlua and double choc)
Jelly Slice (Recipe is on this website! But no one makes it better than my Step-Mum)
Meringues, marshmallows, licorice allsorts, wafers and FruChocs
Caramel Slice
Chocolate Balls
Macarons in four flavours by Pastille Petite Desserts (Even though I can make them, I left them to someone else for this event)
Chocolate Dessert Shooters
Cheesecake Tarts

and this centrepiece show cake:

Stay tuned over the next few days for:

- The recipes for the chocolate balls and cheesecake tarts (they are easier than you think)
- DIY tips on running your own dessert bar
- Hints and tips on how to make your own cake just like this one!

In the last… eight weeks, I have not had much time for anything else except for just trucking along with life. I moved house not once, but twice – luckily I had not set up all my stuff after the first move, but it was still very tiring. I will move again later this year too!

Besides the moving stress, I have quietly been working on a number of projects and changes:
- I have changed my business card design, and ordered some new ones, plus a banner for any stall appearances!
- We’ve ordered some new cupcake boxes and changed our labels for packaging
- Cupcake Treats is bringing cupcake decorating parties to Adelaide, starting in July
- I was invited to another ladies night (next Friday) and am very excited to give it all another go
- Amidst the moving chaos, I took an order for 100 mini cupcakes for the Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation with great success

Here’s two photos I am very proud of, one is the WCH Foundation order, and the other was a 21st birthday that was this weekend just been. I will be posting with some recipe updates and a brand new one soon

Have you seen this lately on TV?

If you’re a regular reader or a friend of mine, I am sure that when you saw this you wondered if I had done of these.

Yeah, I do. Hahahahahaha.

I think one of my favourite things about loving all this cupcake gear and baking is that whenever someone sees something worth buying or something amazing, I get a link or someone says they have thought of me. It isn’t just people I know, it’s people on my Twitter I rarely ever speak to!

So I saw this on TV one night but then for a week or so afterwards I was linked to it repeatedly by many wonderful people. Things went quiet, and then about a month later the links started again but it was a link to a version that was on sale!

As you may know, I made a big deal when I finally bought Wilton’s Giant Cupcake Tin so  I was a little upset when this came out straight afterwards

Well, I bought the Big Top Cupcake set. It comes in three parts, there is a seperate bottom and top part (as you see in the picture) and then there is this…

It appears to be where the cake rises around for a “filling” part. But what happens if you have a rising cake? Does the cake explode out of the holes? Even I thought that the demo pictures had a lot of cake batter in them, so I can’t be too sure what the deal is.

I decided that when I was baking the Oreo order a few weeks ago that I would try this out first. I was keen to do it, and wondered what the baking time difference would be considering that there is a big temperature difference to the hard cast tin that Wilton does.

Well, either I stuffed it up or it doesn’t work properly. First of all I didn’t use my Miracle Chocolate Cake recipe, I used my cupcake recipe. I’m not sure why, but I *think* I was pretty tired, so had to make the whole thing again anyway. It didn’t rise high enough, there wasn’t enough batter and it didn’t cook through right. It was a bit odd. :/ Also, it stuck to the sides of the tin.

Decided to leave the silicon tin aside and instead went back to trusty Giant Cupcake Tin friend of mine and made a spectacular cake.

So after all of this, here’s my tips:

• If your recipe has SR flour or baking soda/rising agent in it, you will need to fill to half or higher to get enough of a cake for it to look right and not like a cupcake that didn’t get as tall as the rest of them. Don’t fill over 3/4 – or if you do for some reason, put it on an oven tray so it can catch the cupcake explosion over the sides.
• If you’re thinking of buying this, I really really really recommend you put the extra money in to get the Wilton tin. There are places you can get it cheaper than others, it’s just a case of hunting around for the best price. Also, check out eBay. If you want to know where you can buy one in your area please let me know and I’ll find a supplier for you!
• I can understand if you’re buying this as a bit of fun you might use once or twice, but if you’re serious about your cupcakery, get the Wilton one.
• Let it cool for ten minutes before you even try and remove it from the silicon, or it will stick to the sides and not come out properly. Same thing will happen if it’s not cooked properly either. A very very light spray with some oil may help, even though I know you don’t need to oil silicon normally, it just helps with the slidey factor.
• 5 minutes before the appointed baking time for your recipe is up, check it with a skewer – diagonally, not straight down. For example, go from one corner of the cake right down into the other. If it even comes back with a hint of batter on it, you need to check again in another 5-10 minutes. As soon as it is clean though and the top looks stable, get it out of the oven.

Well, happy baking! And remember if you ever have any questions to ask about anything I write, you can write and get a response on my Contact page – if your question is  good to share I will post it so everyone can learn.

Happy baking!

xx Monnie

Last night I decided to finally go ahead and try the giant cupcake. Here’s some things I learned:

• Even though they make it look flawless, no cake is going to rise perfectly flat for this cupcake. Trimming may be required.
• You need to put more than you think in the base part. A mix with a lot of batter (even if there’s some left over) is better than not enough.
• Don’t expect it to be perfect – and icing can fix most issues afterwards.

I baked it late last night and after trimming, it’s been in my cake stand today until I can ice tonight. Unfortunately I would have done it already because I like to do it all in the same day, but it has been 38 degrees and as it is I am sticking to my computer chair.

Here’s a bad comparison picture of size from my phone last night! I will be decorating tonight and will post up the finished pictures before we destroy it

For people who might have been wondering (at this stage you’re telling me “No! I wasn’t!”) how many cupcake things I actually own, I thought I’d do a bit of a feature post and show you all the things mainly near me that are cupcake related.

This week I have spent a lot of money at my supplier getting some things I needed and wanted for Cupcake Treats, and I’m feeling pretty optimistic about it all with a few orders on the horizon. I’m leaving my job (well, the regular roster) at the end of this month to focus on my business and also to work with my partner on his business!

The first picture above is the ceramic cupcake set that I got last year – I got another set the following year, oops But that’s alright – I actually wanted more of them!

This is a jewellery / random keepsake holder I found in Harbourside, Sydney. I keep my earrings and jewellery in there on my desk.

I got this as a present! Amie painted this for me and mailed it to me with a cupcake comic. It is hanging on my wall next to my cupcake calendar!

Another ceramic cupcake but this is a giant one! It’s twice as big as the others. This one also came with lollies

These are all my cupcake and baking books at the moment (I think.. except for one cake decorating book). I actually want to buy more cupcake ones.

Random assortment of baking tools. Got the little cupcake purse from a shop in 2009 for $2!

I got these yesterday! They are blank greeting cards, with a picture of a cupcake on the front and a recipe on the back! I’ll be using these soon so keep an eye out

Cupcake lights, which I’d never seen before until the other day and bought them on the spot. I may never use these, I have a vision that I’ll use them when I open my shop and until then they may just stay in their cute box.

Finally…

Argh it’s me But look what I’m holding! IT’S THE GIANT CUPCAKE TIN! I have wanted one of these ever since I started baking. I actually got this about $20 cheaper than I normally would have thanks to wholesale pricing and my ABN of course. The Wilton stuff is very expensive if you don’t have the right contacts and suppliers. I’ll be making my first giant cupcake tomorrow!

I applied for a Patisserie course this semester but unfortunately I didn’t get in as I changed my selection too late! Hopefully I’ll make it into the mid-year entry. Until then, I am going to enrol in some short courses working with chocolate and cake decorating so I’ll be updating way more often as I have more time to experiment

I hope you’ve all been well and thanks for all your comments recently and help with the red velvet recipe – I have a few ideas I’m going to try and will report back and let you know!

[EDIT] I almost forgot to mention! I’ll be opening a little side shop soon, either here on Monniecakes or Cupcake Treats for people interstate and overseas soon with cupcake extras – that is, cupcake cases, wrappers and toppers in kits and on their own for special occasions. They’ll all be very affordable as I’ve seen some really expensive ones! I’ll keep you posted.

I have been promising this recipe for a long time, and I just wanted to share with you the reason why it hasn’t yet made it here.

When you look through all the red velvet recipes on the internet, what do you see? A dark red, moist looking cake base. Unfortunately I’m missing the “dark red” part. In the beginning, I used your regular store-bought Queens food colouring and got a very bright fluorescent pinky red. That was alright with me, but I started wanting that really dark red. I’ve since changed to Wilton paste colours but unfortunately still have the same problem.

Here’s the suggestions I’m yet to try:

- Use cochineal colour as part or a complete replacement
- Add a teaspoon of cocoa (I have actually already done this, but it doesn’t help yet)
- Mix the red colouring with the cocoa to create a smooth, dark red paste and add as normal
- Mix the cochineal colouring with the cocoa as above
- A bit of everything

I’m going to try the last one.

I think it’s more of a case that I don’t want to add too much colour (I get the impression I’d need to add quite a bit :S), and because I know that red food colouring can make some people a bit crazy temporarily I don’t want to induce too much of that either. Although, I think the sugar in them does enough of a job on its own, really.

They still taste delicious, but it’s all about presentation for me as well, and I need to see at least some kind of darker, more prominent red, rather than halfway there. The ones below which are the latest creation, they are slightly red. I am almost now starting to think that a real red will also put some people off – my partner mentioned to me that he was a bit unsure of eating a red cake!

When I finally nut out this recipe, you’ll all be the first to know.

Adelaide is suffering a late Spring heatwave (with temperatures hovering between 35-40 all week!) so I haven’t baked anything new and exciting It’s just too hot to operate the oven in this weather.

Because I haven’t got any photos of the delicious sticky maple ones I made on Friday (they were all eaten pretty quickly!) here’s a picture of the masterpiece from Friday night. It was my housemate’s birthday and we decided to bake him some cupcakes and a delicious chocolate cake with strawberries and a chocolate fence. A day later and the fence would have collapsed on itself – we had problems even putting it together and it wasn’t very hot!