I love Cupcakes

I'm not so much a fan of eating them as I am making them. I love it - I don't really care if anyone eats them, they must just be displayed - well the good ones at least :) 

I have two flatmates, who have always been keen to be my guinea pigs, so at least I didn't have to try any of them. These are obviously super amateur, but I am proud of them and have posted a few below to share with you.

O by the way, sometimes cupcakes are way more fun, depends on the mood. They just take long!

I'm starting at the very beginning. This Barbie cake was for my friend, Anina's bachelorette two years ago. I don't think anybody ever ate this cake, but we enjoyed looking at it. This was a first attempt and came out better than predicted. It was however challenging as my hand was cramping for weeks after attempting this. I also used my mothers lazy susan as I don't have a rotating thing.. 

Next up was a cake for my flatmate's Island birthday party (yes... I live with grown-ups) - I thought this one was quite a success and made up of all the toys I could find around the apartment. I am still to find a cake recipe that doesn't look like it's been squashed between two pans... 

Now this one didn't come out exactly as planned. I felt VERY creative, but obviously slightly hungover and not as I envisioned it to be. Nevertheless, this was for my friend Eugene's birthday. It didn't really have a theme, I just made one up - It's meant to be Eugene in a life raft with a treasure chest... 

I had a pirate birthday (I LOVE themes!) for my 27th birthday and made my very first fondant cake. I actually loved the look of this cake - cannot for the life of me remember the taste though. I do remember the crappy taste of rum in my mouth the next morning and crying when my friend asked me to breakfast. 

Well, ok yes, it's not completely covered in fondant. I don't think I'll ever be able to do that, but will off course keep trying. Then it was Halloween and I started playing around with smaller fondant figures and cupcakes :) :) 

The one with the white thing on is meant to be a blade with blood everywhere.. This was before I discovered Tylose powder, so as soon as the fondant was out of the fridge it got soft and ended up looking like a 'vrot' flower.

Frikkie had a birthday again the following year (as you do...) and this time the theme was Mexican. Again, the cake didn't come out exactly as planned, with the chilli's looking like carrots etc. However the cool thing is that this is a 7 minute microwave cake that had smarties inside - like a piñata! That at least was a cool surprise. 

Moving along swiftly - I realise this is getting boring. Long story short, I started experimenting with Sugarveil, butter cookies, more cupcakes and a dessert:

These are moustache's, not lips.

This is sugarveil. Expensive and hard to come by, I've only played with this once. It also take WEEKS to dry :( 

Halloween again ... The little 'spokie' makes me very happy!

Cheesecakes should not be decorated... However, this one made it all the way on the plane to Johannesburg

This, I call the berry Star pie - it's basically berries with stars and was for Christmas. It looks much nicer than what it was... 

Guess what... It was Frikkie's birthday again - this time Tight and Bright (yes... he also loves themes!) I got awesome neon food colouring at my local baking store which I love working with!

Something simple for my Gran's 80th

And red velvet with fondant roses for my boss' birthday

Lastly, this weekend I made cupcakes for the Christmas in July party at Cafe Caprice. I made little snowmen, reindeer and random white cupcakes with snowflakes. It was quite a mission to find and make white icing, but it worked our really well and didn't taste too bad :) 

All the cupcakes were devoured by drunk people :) 

Iced, sealed and delivered. Good night :)

PS: #cupcakes #xmas #cafecaprice #barbie #baking #hashtag 

Weekend Adventures

As promised I will tell you about my weekend adventures.

It didn't go as planned as such (does it ever really?!), but I did make a really good soup from my new Indonesian cookbook that I feel I have to share :)

Chicken and Chive soup is really easy to make and the perfect weapon against a vicious cold.

All you need is:
- Chicken
- Chives
- Fresh Garlic
- Fresh Ginger
- Bamboo Shoots
- Water
- Chicken Stock
- Mushrooms
- White pepper

Sauté the garlic and ginger in a little bit of oil. Add the stock and water and bring to a vigorous boil. Add the chicken (really small cubes) and boil for about 5 minutes. Bring down the heat, add the mushrooms and shoots and chives and simmer for another 3 minutes. Add the pepper and voila!

My food photography obviously needs some work, but you get the just of it. It was delicious!

How do you add hashtags to a blogpost? #chicken #soup

Anyways, I also flew up to Johannesburg and took a few of our Australian guests to Marataba Safari Lodge up in the Waterberg area. The lodge is located in the Marakele Game Reserve.

As Africans, we are very fortunate to have some of the worlds most amazing animals right on our doorstep. Luckily all of the Big Five (Elephant, Rhino, Leopard, Buffalo and Lion) can still be found in the wild - although not for long.

It is just amazing showing these animals to guests from around the world. Most of these guys have never been to Africa and have never even dreamt of seeing these animals in real life. Looking at someone seeing an Elephant for the first time is pretty spectacular.

The game viewing at Marataba was incredible - we saw a month old baby elephant, a leopard with three cubs feeding in a tree, hippo, wildebeest, giraffe, lion, warthogs and thousands of antelope.

#BigFive #Elephant #Marataba

Off to find more exciting things to tell you about x

How? What? Where?

Its embarrassing how quickly life passes you by. When was the last time you saw your best friends? When was the last time you did something crazy? When was the last time you saw your extended family? 

It's been over a year since my last blog post, where did the time go? I'm obviously not very good at blogging or keeping in touch. That being said I'd like to tell you about my past year. As so many times mentioned before, I'm not really sure if anyone reads this, if not, feel free to call it a lame journal. 

Since my last post I've had quite a few adventures, many 'lows', met amazing new people and spent a lot of hours working. I'm still single. I love my job. 

I've been very fortunate to have travelled a lot. I've seen a bit of Africa in the past year, I've been back to Australia, I've ventured into Bali and booked tickets to Russia today. I will be visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg in September. 

I lost one of my best friends last year to cancer and three family members.  One of my other best friends had a really cute baby. I still miss all the boys I've loved before. On this Friday night at home, I miss all my friends that live abroad. 

Life is good, I have a hand full of friends that really go the extra mile, I am healthy, so is my family. I have a roof over my head, a set of wheels, a little bit of food in the fridge and even less money in my bank account. I don't have a five year plan, but I still dream big and still plan to live in a foreign city and see the world. 

Change isn't something I'm very good at although I try really hard. They say it's as good as a holiday, just cheaper. I'm not so sure just yet, but I know it brings great adventures. Sometimes. I like adventures. 

It's funny how all your friends end up with their other halves and have babies and here I am alone at home on a Friday. It's also funny because I've waited for this moment the whole week. I was so excited to get home, switch on the tv and eat popcorn in silence. Now that I've cleaned my room and came across a few old treasures, I am bored. I did watch a movie and ate popcorn, but it didn't keep me busy long enough.

I've given up on this day, and will now start making plans for tomorrow. I will call a family member, catch up with an old friend and try and do something crazy. And if I remember, I'll tell you about my adventures in less than a year :) 

Night x