White chocolate & berry blondies

This was my first time making blondies and there are definitely no regrets..

At first bite, this kept me going like 'Woah this is like a cookie/brownie and the white chocolate mmmhmm'. Quite similar to that scene in Ratatouille when Remy combines cheese and strawberries together and his mind explodes with fireworks (my childish obsession with Disney is evident), perhaps he's somewhat hallucinating.

They reminiscently taste like butterscotch..And the white chocolate chunks make it taste more caramel-ly and the berries add a sourness and slight sweetness. The texture in the middle is gooey, and the outside crust is nice and crisp.

I used Divine's white chocolate.. I love their chocolate range! Tasty and fair trade.

Would I add this to my repertoire? Absolutely.

Berry & white chocolate blondies 
Ingredients
.112 g butter, melted
.220 g light brown sugar
.1 large egg
.1 tsp vanilla extract
.125 g plain flour
.1 tsp baking powder
.100 g white chocolate chips/chunks
.150 g mixed berries (I used frozen blueberries & raspberries, no need to thaw)
.Icing sugar, to serve

Method:
1. Line a 20 x 30 cm brownie pan (I used an 8 inch by 8 inch pan) with non-stick baking paper (parchment paper). Mix melted butter with brown sugar and beat until smooth.
2.Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3.Stir in flour & baking powder. Mix in white chocolate chips/chunks and add the berries, stir very gently.
4.Pour into prepare pan. Bake at 180 C (350 F) for 30-40 minutes, or until set in the middle. Cool to room temperature before cutting them.

Adapted from Spicy ice cream

Apple brownies

You may be a tad confused about the title. And also why I'm referring to 'autumn' or 'fall' right now. Apple brownies? Where's the chocolate? Autumn? Isn't it spring?

First of all, let me clarify something. I live in Australia, which is in the Southern hemisphere. The way the seasons work here, compared to the Northern  hemisphere (a majority of places), is the complete opposite! So, while you guys are having a fun summer, with extremely long vacations and the best produce of fruit, I'm stuck with cold weather, and missing the strawberries and mangoes. While you guys have winter during Christmas, we're having summer. Yeah, we have a 'hot' summer, or 'Christmas in the sand' (reference to Colbie Caillat). If only Australia was in the northern hemisphere. I've always dreamed of a snowy white Christmas...

Apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies

This combines all of my favourite things into one cookie; hearty oats, cinnamon, apples, walnuts and raisins. All hail, the oatmeal cookie!

  Crisp around the edges, and chewy in the middle. The apple comes out soft and tender, the crunch of the walnuts, along with brown sugar and cinnamon; these are especially best eaten when warm.

Shortbread cookies

This is honestly the most wonderful time of the year. I'm getting real festive! So guess what I've been doing? BAKING HOLIDAY COOKIES!

Shortbread is a classic. This recipe is so simple, but it's simplicity at its best. It's the perfect, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth kind of cookie, and you can do almost anything you want with it. Cut it with a gingerbread man, love heart cookie cutters; well, anything you desire.  But what makes it even cuter, is if you cut a smaller part in the middle, and sandwich it and put the filling with some jam or buttercream.

These make excellent holiday gifts, and the decorations are always the fun bit. What I like to do, is I like to melt some dark chocolate, and then dip my shortbread and sprinkle it with some chopped up pistachios. Feel free to sub in any nuts, or even sprinkles or candy! But I like how the saltiness of the pistachios cuts through with the dark chocolate, and then there you have your shortbread. I made these with dark chocolate last week, but this week, I ran out of dark chocolate, so I only had milk chocolate. 

Happy holidays!

Shortbread cookies 

Adapted from Joy of baking

Ingredients
2 cups (260 g) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners' or icing) sugar
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, whisk the flour with the salt.
2. In an electric mixer (I did it manually), beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar, and beat until smooth and well combined. Put the vanilla extract, and then pour in the flour mixture, just until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a ball, and wrap it in plastic wrap and chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour, or until firm.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Line two baking sheets with baking paper.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into 1/4 inch (.6 cm) thick circle. Cut into rounds, or other shapes with different cookie cutters. Place on the prepared baking sheets, and place in the refrigerate for another 15 minutes. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cookies are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

* I rolled the dough out into quite big shapes, so it took a lot longer to bake. Just be caution not to over-bake them. They should have a bit of browning, but not too much!

* For a chocolate dipped shortbread variation, melt some chocolate (any) in a heatproof bowl, and then drizzle or dip the shortbread with the chocolate and place on baking paper. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes, or when the chocolate is set.

What are your favourite holiday cookies? 

Super extra fudgy brownie

This brownie is jam packed, full of intense chocolate flavour and fudginess. Cake-like brownie lovers, this is not the brownie for you. This brownie is perfect for those who love eating extra fudgy brownies with a bowl of ice cream. 

I wasn't able to get good shots because I was not successful in cutting them neatly, and became a little too lazy. It was literally just SO fudgy. I was even able to get the crackly tissue-paper like top in a typical brownie that has a load of sugar (typically 1 and a half cups of sugar or more), but there's actually only 3/4 cup in this recipe. It's because the amount of flour is very, very, very low. It was a bit sticky, but it tasted really great! The best with walnuts.

This recipe is a keeper for those who like fudgy brownies, but in all honesty, I still think the Baked recipe is my favourite brownie recipe. But despite that favouritism, I still really do like this recipe. 

Remember to use good chocolate! I used Cadbury's old gold 70% cocoa and also a bit of Lindt's 70%. 

Adapted from David Lebovitz's book, The Sweet life in Paris (via Canella Vita)

Ingredients

6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for the pan
226 grams (8 ounces) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature.
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 cup walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts or pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

* 1 teaspoon of espresso (optional)
This recipe works well with add-ins, so feel free to throw in whatever you like.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius)
2. Line an 8-inch (20 cm) square baking dish with 2 sheets aluminium foil (I used baking paper/parchment paper), positioning the sheets perpendicular to each other and allowing the excess to extend beyond the edges of the pan. Lightly grease the foil with non-stick cooking spray.
4. In a saucepan, melt butter, add the chocolate, stirring constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat. Add in eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla,, then the flour and nuts or add-ins if using.
5. Bake for 30 minutes (don't over-bake!). Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes

 I've only made cheesecake bars and mini cheesecakes. Not an actual real big cheesecake. #projectforsummer 



These are perfect to bring for parties, and so much fun to make! What makes it real fun the bottom of the cupcake, which is a whole Oreo, which acts like a base. I'd normally put an Oreo crust, by actually crushing the Oreos with some butter and digestive biscuits, but this time I decided to put an Oreo instead.

I just can't get enough of Oreos!

Have you met anyone who does not like Oreo cheesecake? I sure haven't. The weird thing is, my dad will not eat any other cheesecake besides my mum's Oreo cheesecake. What is your favourite cheesecake? 

These are so easy to make, the hardest part is waiting for it to sit in the refrigerator for 4 hours. What helps, is when you bake at night! Bake at night, wait for it to cool, refrigerate and go to bed. 

Oreo Cheesecake cupcakes 
Recipe from Martha Stewart via Handle the heat 

*Makes 30 (I only made half) 

Ingredients

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds (4 8-oz packages) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 275°F (135 degrees Celsius). Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

*I mixed by hand. I've become a little bit lazy to take out the mixer. 

Chocolate cupcakes with Nutella cloud frosting

I'm a chocoholic. I love chocolate on chocolate. So how does a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting on top appeal to you?

I don't know about you, but chocolate on chocolate cupcakes just grabs my attention. Move over vanilla, I need my chocolate dose! 

Btw are these images too big? Should I reduce them to the normal size I normally do?

These chocolate cupcakes came out really moist with a really good flavour of chocolate. I mean, reaaaaally good flavour. Though, with this frosting, next time, I'd probably increase the amount of cocoa to make it a bit more rich. The frosting is quite nice, but I think there's a little bit too much Nutella for my liking. I'd probably go from 100 grams of Nutella to probably like even about a tablespoon? You can omit it if you like.

But this frosting pipes out beautifully. Probably one of the best chocolate frostings I've ever made! I made rose swirls with my favourite icing nozzle, Wilton 1M. 

Chocolate cupcakes with Nutella cloud frosting
Adapted from Sweetapolita

For the cupcakes:
3/4 (95 g) cup all purpose flour *
3/4 (150 g) cup white sugar
1/4 (30 g) cup dark cocoa powder *
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk *
1/4 cup brewed coffee or espresso, hot
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1-1/2  teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* I used self-raising flour instead of all purpose with the baking soda and baking powder.
* For the cocoa, I only had Van Houten, so I just did about 1/2 cup instead.
* Buttermilk can be substituted by putting a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon into one cup of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes, until it curdles.
*  I also didn't need to use the mixer. I just used a large bowl to mix all the ingredients.

For the Nutella Cloud frosting:
1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, softened but cool
1 and 1/2 cup (190 g) icing sugar (confectioners'), sifted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (125 g) premium bittersweet chocolate. Chopped, melted and slightly cooled.
1/3 cup (100 g) Nutella *
1 tablespoon milk
Pinch of salt

* I would use probably only about a tablespoon or 2 of Nutella next time

For the cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 degrees Celsius) and line a muffin/cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
2. In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch and salt.
3. In a medium bowl or measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, coffee, oil, egg and vanilla.
4. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed. Divide batter evenly among the liners. The batter will be quite liquid-y.
5. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until toothpick or skewer comes out with a few crumbs. Try not to over-bake. Remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack until completely cool.

For the frosting
1. In a bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine the icing sugar and butter and beat on low speed for about 1 minute.
2. Add vanilla, and beat on low speed until well combined. Add the melted and slightly cooled chocolate and beat on medium speed until smooth for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the Nutella, milk and a pinch of salt, and beat on med-high speed for another minute.
4. Frost onto cupcakes with a spatula or fitted nozzle

Chocolate chunk cookies

I don't know if it's just me, but I have always preferred chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips in my cookies. I think this may be because of what Aunty Soo Suang said. Aunty Soo Suang makes the most incredible double chocolate cookies, her baking and her cooking is really good. I can recall too many occasions where she has brought so many delicious things (like mango pudding and chicken cacciatore).

I shaped these balls quite small because I put a tad too much baking soda. 

Anyway, she told me that the packaged chocolate chips isn't exactly 'real deal', well most definitely not as real as the normal chocolate bars because chocolate chips are meant to retain their shape while baking. Which means that they contain less cocoa butter. And really, I just love the oozey chocolate chunks in cookies, rather than in bits. Though, it's not to say that I hate a good old cookie with chocolate chips.

Fresh out of the oven

These cookies are crisp on the outside, and chewy in the middle. The best kind of cookies. Buttery, melty chocolate. These remind me of Subway cookies. Pretty much a replica actually. I have been a fan of Subway cookies for years. Apparently they just buy the dough from somewhere, rather than make it themselves. But their cookies (my favourite is double chocolate) are crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. So delicious. 

I wonder how cooks like Giada De laurentiis can stay so skinny. I try to refrain myself from eating all of my baked goods as much as possible, BUT IT'S TOO HARD. Maybe I shouldn't even take a bite and just give it all away. But it's worth the calories, I mean, once in a while you know? Food is a girl's best friend. 

How is this possible? 

 I really need to go on a refined-sugar cleanse pronto.

These are like giving you a hug. Please do make them, they really are so, so, so good. Let me know how your results turn out. 

Chocolate chunk cookies

Adapted from Our Kitchen

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt *
1/2 tsp baking soda
170 g unsalted butter, melted and allowed to cool a little
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed (I reduced to 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of chocolate chunks (dark, white, milk, whatever you like. I used dark and milk.), roughly chopped to give large irregular chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 165 degrees Celsius on Fan bake and arrange the oven shelves so they are spaced evenly at about 1/2 and 2/3 down the cavity and the hot air can circulate freely around them. Lightly grease or line two baking trays.
2. Sieve the flour, salt and baking soda into a medium sized bowl.
3. Combine the melted butter and sugars in a large bowl. Add the eggs, extra egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
4. Add the flour and chocolate chunks and stir until just combined.
5. Divide the dough evenly into twenty pieces and roll into balls. Space them evenly on the oven trays, allowing plenty of room for them to spread. Bake for between 15-20 minutes until light brown.The darker the cookies, the crisper they will be.

* P.S, I never ever put salt in my baking goods because I don't feel like there is the need for extra sodium.
I also had to refrigerate the dough for a while because my mixture was too sticky. Also, a great tip is to freeze your cookie dough. You can stash it in there, take it out whenever and bake the cookies! Just let the cookie dough defrost and come to room temperature though.

Oreo cupcakes

As you can tell by now, I love Oreos. I have some Oreo truffle balls to share soon. Mmm.

Baking cupcakes are always so much fun! Especially frosting. I obviously still have some work to do on my frosting skills (I've only recently started using icing nozzles. I used to just spread frosting on a cupcake like there was no tomorrow.).

This is my all time favourite vanilla cupcake recipe. You can't go wrong with this recipe. It's not too sweet, even my dad likes it (without the frosting)! It also has a distinct taste of vanilla. It uses vanilla bean paste, instead of the normal vanilla extract. Vanilla bean paste just enhances the vanilla flavour, and tastes so great! I chose an Oreo cream cheese recipe, as I'd happily pick cream cheese over buttercream for cupcakes.

Vanilla cupcakes

Adapted from Taste

*Makes 24 cupcakes

200 g butter, softened

1 3/4 cups (370 g) caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract) 

4 eggs

2 3/4 cups (405 g) self-raising flour

1 cup (250 ml) milk

  

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350 F). Line 24 1/3 cup (80ml) muffin pans with patty cases
2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla bean paste with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined. Add the flour and milk in alternate batches and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.
3.  Spoon mixture evenly among the patty cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Once cooled completely, frost with an icing bag attached with a nozzle (I used Wilton 1M) or spread with a spatula or knife.

Oreo cream cheese frosting

Adapted from the Cupcake project

8 oz package cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 cup butter (57 grams), room temperature

3-4 cups powdered sugar (use more or less depending on how stiff you want the frosting to be) *

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3/4 cup crushed Oreos 

1. Whip cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.

2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.

3. Add vanilla extract.

4. Gently stir in crushed Oreos.

* For the powdered sugar, I only used 2 cups. 

* I did about 1 cup and a bit more of oreos. Though, I will still consider putting even more so that you can taste more of the oreo flavour.

Cookies and cream cookies

This is not your average, typical cookie. It's a cookie, IN A COOKIE. 

 Cookies and cream; one of my favourite ice cream flavours. I am also obsessed with anything cookies and cream flavoured. I love my oreos alright! 

 These cookies give off the best aroma. Every bite is full of oreo chunks; perfect for any oreo lover. 

I adapted this recipe from Kirbie cravings 

*I made this with about 1 and 1/4 cup sugar, but next time I'll reduce it under 1 cup, but not too much, otherwise there could be a drastic change in the texture.

Cookies and cream cookies
Yields: 2 dozen

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar *see note
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
14 oreos (or more. I put about 18) 

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 degrees Celsius with parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients until dough is formed. Add oreos directly into batter and beat on medium high speed until oreos are crushed and blended into dough, Roll dough into balls about 1 inch to 1/12 inch (2.5 cm to 4 cm) in diameter and place onto ungreased cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake about 11-12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden around the edges. Cookies will be initially puffy when taken out from oven, but will flatten after they cool

Macaron madness

Sometimes, I wonder why I eat so much and it's not necessarily always healthy. Take for instance, one day I might just have a really bad craving. The next thing you know, I'm rummaging the pantry looking for some milk chocolate. And then finishing the whole block.). It's actually quite scary if you ask me.

You should even see me during breakfast time. I basically eat breakfast like a queen.

I made some quiche with my mum for dinner and I ate so much AND one of my mum's lemonade scones. Her scones are literally the best scones I've ever tasted. Of course, filled with whipped cream and jam! What is a scone without whipped cream and jam?

This was taken last year. I can't be bothered taking pictures now.

The other day, my second sister brought home some macarons from my favourite macaron shop, La belle miette! They are absolutely the most perfect macarons. I obviously couldn't eat the whole tube (though I'd like to) because my sister bought it for my whole family but I ate a raspberry one and a blueberry one. I loved the blueberry one. There was a sudden burst of blueberry jam in the middle.

They have the cutest boxes!

C'est parfait.

Macarons aren't exactly the cheapest baked goods you can buy, pricing typically at $2.50 AUD per macaron. So I am always so appreciative of my sisters.

  So, remember how a few months ago (REFER), I said that I wish I could master the macaron? Well I'm not exactly a master at macarons, BUT I can make decent ones!! Turns out, they are not impossible to bake.  Now I have sort-of-successfully made them twice! One was green tea and I just recently did pistachio ones.But they're just not that pretty.

Hello Ugly Macaron that tasted delicious. 

Tips

- The stiff peaks of the egg whites. You whip the egg whites until you have glossy, stiff peaks. To make sure, you hold the bowl upside down, and nothing should move.

- Leaving the macarons for about half an hour to harden their shells. I cannot stress how important that step is. The first two times, I didn't leave my macarons out to harden their shells long enough, and it completely failed!

I got the recipe off Tartelette. Helen from Tartelette is known as the 'Queen of macarons'. I've used her recipe twice, and her method and tips are excellent!

I know these macarons don't look pretty, BUT LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING! I haven't got the technique just right, but I'm on the path.

UGLAY. Compare it to La belle miette... 

Pistachio macaron recipe but I used chocolate ganache instead of whipping up the buttercream. Chocolate ganache is seriously so easy to do!

And for heaven's sake, IT'S A MACARON NOT A MACAROON. I saw a Women's weekly recipe book at a bookstore that had the title "Macaroons and biscuits." #facepalm

The Baked brownie

I don't bake brownies often because I've always had the trouble with getting the texture that I like. I've either ended up with way-too-cakey brownies or a hot fudge mess.

I've been eyeing on this recipe for months. I haven't been able to do so because

1. I always run out of good quality chocolate.... My family eats them up.
2. The recipe is very rich and indulgent, not to be made regularly (unless if you have an extremely high metabolism but I would still probably not recommend it hehe)! This recipe calls for five eggs. *here comes the bad type of cholesterol, aka LDL * 

But enough about how this recipe is not so good for health, let's talk about how your tastebuds will feel.

Apparently Baked is superb, renowned for their cookies, granola and of course brownies. According to Oprah, it is one of her favourite brownies, and when something gets Oprah-fied, that something becomes real famous (companies that sponsor her giveaways, Dr.Phil, Rachael Ray, Dr Oz etc).

Baking

The Salzburg post is the last post of Europe '10. The next day, we went back to Munich, then flew to Dubai. Our flight from Dubai back to Malaysia was at 2 AM, I actually fell asleep. My dad had to start hitting me lol! I'd really like to actually visit Dubai one day. The things I've heard sound amazing, especially the pictures. Looks like an extremely modern city with uber awesome places.

But Europe in 2010, was seriously an amazing trip. I never thought I'd be able to visit Europe until a few years time, and to just see those places, which you pretty much don't normally see on your first visit to Europe (Paris, London are those kind of stereotype places you go to on your first visit to Europe) and experience those countries which used to be part of Yugoslavia. I loved the balance of the scenery change in that trip, from the alps to the Dalmatian coast. Um well except for the cathedrals, I kind of got sick of them.

My favourite country that I visited in Europe? Croatia! Dubrovnik and Split are such lovely coastal places. I would definitely recommend anyone who visits Croatia to at least go to Dubrovnik. The  buildings and the colour are pretty vibrant, not to be missed!

I also hope that sometime soon, I will be able to go to the U.S. I really want to visit, because 

1. The food.

2. The shopping. 

3. Scenery.

4. It's the U.S.

5. I want to take lots of pictures. There's this photo competition I want to enter hehe.

6. OOHH I want to see my little nephews in San Fran :) 

But really, I love travelling to anywhere in the world. It's just something I can see through my eyes and learn about the roots, the history and the beauty. The thing about travelling is that you usually experience the unexpected, see how a culture differentiates with yours and taste different flavours. Sometimes, you see things that really make you appreciate for what you have. 

So anyway, I may be just doing a bit of random posts like Japan, Thailand, Gold Coast. Not really a follow up, unlike Turkey, U.S.A and Europe. Expect a post about Thailand soon!

I also baked some cupcakes for my friend's birthday, Tina. She's my cute, tall and somehow eats like a pig, yet stays so skinny (high metabolism) Korean friend,and I decided to bake her rainbow cupcakes. Don't worry. It's not sickening sweet. It's just a vanilla cupcake with added colouring. And with cream cheese icing. The next time I make cupcakes, I want to use this piping flower tip my mum has which I think would look incredibly cool.

Oh if only you could see the layers and explosions of colours when you ate the cupcakes... But I couldn't, since I brought them to school!

I don't know what is with me, but I love baking for people. I love that feeling when you create something spectacular, or something so simple yet tasty, and it brings smiles. Put it this way, baking is like a science experiment. You have your different variables, your method, and even just one alteration can change the whole thing. 

Oh and did I ever mention that I love science?