Kraftbomb turns 2 (what better excuse for cupcakes!!!)

Wow a whole 7mths have gone by with NO posts from me. Slack? Yes! But that's just life sometimes and this year has so far been a really hard one for myself and my family.

But I think we're turning the corner now and its just in time for Kraftbomb's big 2nd Birthday!!

Yes, your favourite quirky Auckland craft market turns 2 this Sunday 29th August 2010

Join us 11am - 2pm @ the Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Road, Grey Lynn

There'll be fantastic crafts, yummy cupcakes, Fred's world famous (in Auckland) lemonade, awesome raffles to be won

Plus we debut our new Kraftbomb Kash - eftpos cash out facility!!

see you there

Love
NZCQ xx

Happy New Year. I'm back!!!

Mr George the pug at Baylys Beach, NZ


Hello cupcake lovers

Just a quick update to say I'm still alive and kicking and to apologise for the terrible lack of updates on my website!

Sometimes life just gets in the way and I've been going through some big changes in mine in the last few months. But things are looking up and its a brand new year.

The cupcakes are still being baked and I am please to say my vegan cupcakes are available at the SAFE Cruelty Free Shop in St Kevins Arcade, K Road, Auckland. A fresh batch is delivered every Friday so get in quick to snap some up!

And don't forget you can check out the amazing crafts and grab some of my cupcakes at the Kraftbomb craft show on the last Sunday of every month at the Grey Lynn Community Centre, 11am - 2pm. We're taking a break for summer but Kraftbomb will be back in Feb!


I'll be updating the site a bit more regularly now, and I still have photos to add from my amazing USA trip. My pics with the fantastic Natalie from Bake & Destroy still haven't made it on here which is TERRIBLE!!!

Stay tuned!

Namaste,

City
The NZ Cupcake Queen

Day 7 - Downtown San Fran and Vegan fine dining!

One happy vegan!!


We stayed in a hotel on the edge of Chinatown last night and spent our day exploring more of downtown San Fran today. We made our way to the Metreon Farmers Market and tried to find Souley Vegan who are known for their all vegan southern food. Unfortunately they're only there certain days so tomorrow we'll try again.

We ended up heading to Wholefoods again where I grabbed another amazing vanilla vegan donut and some potato salad made with Veganaise - yum! We cruised around the shops for a bit and checked out all the stores we don't have back home like Old Navy and Urban Outfitters.

But the highlight of the day had to be our dinner at Mellennium, a vegan fine dining restaurant on Geary Street. Even though we're on a super tight budget and this place cost what we'd budgeted for food for two days, it was worth every cent! We definitely recommend trying Mellennium if you ever make it to San Fran, you don't need to be a vegan to enjoy this amazing experience.

The meal was perfection, the flavours intense and the service and atmosphere just made the whole night out one we'll always remember. We went for the 3 course set menu and had an entree, main and dessert. The meals were all a decent size which isn't always the case with fine dining experiences. The meals were made of fresh, locally grown produce from farmers markets and so much care had been put into planning the menu and combinations of flavours.

Unfortunately I didn't take notes on what each of our meals were and the photos aren't all that great but who has time for photoshop touchups while on holiday!


City's entree: Tempura Zuchinni


Chris' entree: soup


City's dessert: dark chocolate cheesecake with vanilla gelato


Chris' dessert: almond shortcake with berries


I apologise for the lack of cupcake related stuff on the blog at the moment. We've been pretty slack at taking photos and I actually haven't eaten many vegan cupcakes on the trip! Hopefully that'll change when we hit Chicago!

Day 6 - fun slides and vegan japanese

City The NZCQ and Melisser The Urban Housewife


Chris and I have been loving the fact that in San Fran everyone walks everywhere. In LA we walked everywhere and people thought we were crazy. Turns out in the USA its a known fact hat nobody walks in LA and we've been told numerous times there was even a song written called "Nobody Walks in LA".

We took another long walk and headed into the Castro district to take in the amazing gay & lesbian culture around there. We found a cute dog store and picked up a hoodie for George the pug with a tattoo heart with Mommy inside. We also found crazy Care Bears street art with a twist and some amazing artwork on the side of the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy.




Then we headed to the Seward Street slides which is the most random and amazing little treasure hidden in the suburbs of San Fran. Years ago the 2 concrete slides were built into the side of a hill in a neighbourhood park. You climb up to the top and then hop on a piece of cardboard or sacking and slide down. Its a crazy ride and so fun!




We also checked out Haight Street and Ashbury Streets and all the amazing shops and colourful characters hanging out there.

We also got our nerd on and had photos by the houses made famous in the opening credits of the 80's tv show Full House.

Dinner that night was vegan Japanese at Cha Ya and it blew my mind. Its not often I get to go to dinner and I can have ANYTHING off the menu. It was almost too much with so many choices. Unfortunately we were so busy eating, there were no photos!

We headed home for an awesome dessert of sundaes with Cinnamon Caramel and Peanut Butter Palooka ice cream, complete with butterscotch chips, choc, caramel and hazelnut caramel sauce and brownie and choc chip cookie sprinkles. Yummy overload!!!

Day 5 - 4th of July vegan style!!

The Golden Gate Bridge in all its glory


Always keen to throw up the westside


We had a nice lazy start to the day with a well deserved sleep in! Then we walked down to look across the bay and take some pics of the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked through town where the Jazz Festival was on and the streets were packed.



Melisser whipped up some awesome vegan cookies and brownies for the 4th of July dinner that evening and before everyone started turning up Chris and I had a snack of our first sandwich made with veganaise, tofurky slices and soy cheese slices - I am HOOKED!! The 4th of July cookout was great with 4 or 5 different types of vegan sausages, kick ass quinoa salad finished off with the cookies, brownies and lemon slice. So much awesome food, we were stuffed!


Sadly this is just a small portion of the food, we were too busy eating to take photos!

We were joined by Melisser and Ryan's rad vegan friends and special guest Molly the pug/boxer who stole the show with her snaggletooth!


Molly

Day 4 - LA to San Francisco and then vegan ICE CREAM SUNDAES!!

Beamish, Scurvy and Strummer all get friendly with our luggage


So we headed to San Fran on the 3rd July. Was an interesting experience going through the domestic airport security! Nothing like being pulled over into the "special" security area to be double checked, scanned and patted down. Even my under wire bra was checked!! Chris managed to cruise through no worries.

The awesome Melisser and her wee dog Strummer picked us up from the airport and took us straight to Maggie Mudd's for vegan ice cream sundaes. It was a freaking awesome way to arrive in San Francisco and after surviving on Mexican food and cereal with soy milk in LA, we were ready for some good vegan eats! I tried Mudslide and Froot Loops flavours and they were served in a waffle bowl topped with chocolate sauce and vegan whipped "cream".



We then headed to the amazing Rainbow Grocery Wholefoods Co-op on Folsom Street which just blew our minds. I wish I'd remembered to take photos but I was too busy oohing and aahing over aisle after aisle of great vegetarian and vegan food. It was 5 x t he size of Huckleberry Farms in Greenlane back home.

They had an aisle of their bulk foods full of nut butters you could buy in bulk!

Then we headed to Wholefoods to grab some white corn for the 4th of July feast we were having the next day where we also scored our first vegan donuts!! Chris grabbed chocolate and I got vanilla. They were sweet, cakey and soft, soooooo good.



After stocking up on vegan treats we don't have in NZ we headed back to Melisser and Ryans to give them the vegan goodies we'd brought over from NZ. We got to meet their huge cats Scurvy and Beamish who were both about the size of George! Dinner was vegan pizza with Teese cheese from Amitris Pizza. It has to be the BEST pizza I've ever eaten, even in my old cheese eating days.

USA day 3 - Hollywood

We hopped a train today and headed to Hollywood Boulevard to do some touristy stuff and check out the Walk of Fame.

We fought our way through the massive crowds, barricades, flowers and memorials to check out Michael Jackson's star. Since his death it is constantly crowded with people and has its own security guard to keep people moving!



I was stoked to find William Shatners star and Chris had photos with the Eddie Murphy, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix and Richard Pryor stars.

We walked and walked and walked around LA and found Amoeba Records which Chris had been dying to visit. Its like Real Groovy and JB Hifi merged together and on steriods.

We entertained by plenty of crazies around Hollywood, but our favourite was the guy on the train who was singing and dancing loudly to his ipod telling us we'd all be singing and dancing too if we were listening to his stuff. Awesome!

Its a boring update today because we are POOOOOOPED and ready for bed! Off to San Francisco tomorrow to finally meet up with Melisser aka The Urban Housewife!! Can't wait to have lots of vegan baking nerdy talks with her not to mention eat some great vegan food and take in the sights. And since I'm missing George the pug, I'm looking forward to some Strummer snuggles to tide me over!

Then its off to Chicago to meet Natalie aka Bake & Destroy and Tara aka Just Desserts

USA day 2 - Disneyland, Vegan Gumbo

We headed to Disneyland on our second day in LA. I'd been when I was a kid but Chris had never been. Although he said he didn't want to see Disneyland cos it was kinda stupid with long waits for rides, I made sure he went because it's a place you have to see to believe and understand.

I think he ended up quite enjoying the experience.

Of course Disneyland had cupcakes (sadly not vegan) and we spotted some heavily branded ones at a food stall there. They were quite pretty with the sprinkles made in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears.



The other highlight of the day was getting to try Vegan Gumbo!! The lovely Melisser aka The Urban Housewife put us onto it and sent me this link about the gumbo. We were not disappointed and it was the best meal we had all day (since we seemed to survive on french fries, sorbets and trail mix).



And the best bit was finally getting a pair of Minnie Mouse ears! When I was 7 and went to Disneyland for the first time, I ended up getting a sailor hat with my name embroidered on. I always wished I had mouse ears and now I finally do! Sparkly sequined ones no less!!!

USA day 1 - Chris gets his first Twinkie

For weeks leading up to our trip Chris has repeatedly told me the first thing he wants to do when we arrive in the USA is finally try a Twinkie. He even shared this with a USA Customs Official who didn't seem to know what to make of this excited confession. So after 3 hours sleep, 12 hours on a plane, a hot and sweaty shuttle trip from the airport we finally checked into our motel and went on a mission to find a 7 Eleven to make this happen.

He got his Twinkie and he was super excited!

This treat was followed by Coconut flavour m&m's, Hostess Cupcakes and some Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme.

Hostess Cupcakes


Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme

Me? I got to try an amazing Cali Style Lemon Cheescake by Earth Cafe. This baby was raw and vegan, so tasty I think its even better than normal cheesecakes.


Cali Style Lemon raw vegan cheesecake

We're heading to Disneyland tomorrow where we'll be seeking out Vegan Gumbo as recommended by Melisser :-)

Stay tuned!!

NZCQ visits USA

Hello blog readers!!

Mr NZCQ and I are currently in Los Angeles. We arrived today and even though we've had hardly any sleep, we've already spent the day wandering around taking in the sights, eating great Mexican food (lunch AND dinner) and indulging all Chris' food cravings.

After this, we're heading to San Francisco to meet up with the lovely Melisser aka The Urban Housewife and her hubby. There shall be lots of cupcake nerdy conversations, vegan goodies and hopefully cupcakes eaten! Fingers crossed we'll get to squeeze in a visit with Leigh Poindexter too!

We then head to Chicago to meet up with the one and only Natalie aka Bake and Destroy and Tara aka Just Desserts. I can't tell you how excited I am to do some baking with Natalie and roam Chicago eating ourselves silly. We're all getting together for a cookout on the weekend with Tara and Natalie's families and I'm sure I"m going to go home fatter!

I have lots of yummy NZ candy and chocolate treats to share with my American baking friends and I'm pretty sure we're going to be bringing home some goodies for our friends back home.

We're going to try to update the blog as much as we can while we're away, internet access permitting! So stay tuned to for our adventures! Vegan cupcakes and donuts, here I come!!!!

180 cupcakes, Kraftbomb and the Vegan Worldwide Bakesale

The Vegan Cupcakes:





The Non-vegan Cupcakes:






Well another Kraftbomb has been and gone. I've been very very bad at updating my blog lately and I do apologise. Art school has been even more full on leading up to our mid year portfolio reviews, which I'm happy to say went well and are now out of the way!

I'm on holiday for 4 weeks and its an exciting, action packed, vegan and cupcake filled holiday for me. More in the next post!

The amazing Alice Leonard from Angel Food got in touch with Karla and I a few months back to see if we would be keen to help her host a vegan bakesale at the June Kraftbomb as part of the Worldwide Vegan Bakesale.

As we're both vegans we were super excited to be a part of the event and we were not disappointed. There was an incredible amount of food at the Angel Food / S.A.F.E. stall made by some talented vegan bakers and cooks! Money raised will be donated to S.A.F.E. to help them with their amazing work.

Chris and I devoured quite a few vegan smores and vegan vegie tarts. Both amazing and so good we ate them before we got any photos!!

Karla made her sinfully rich vegan chocolate cheesecake and Mr NZCQ whipped up a batch of his vegan chocolate fudge (with avocado as its magic secret ingredient!)

I spent around 8 hours in the kitchen on Saturday baking my ass off with the help of Chris who is my chief dishwasher on baking days.

I churned out 15 dozen/180 cupcakes and 6 flavours.

Vegan Cookies and Cream
Vegan Vanilla and Passionfruit
Vegan Chocolate and Peanut Butter

plus I had to make some of the non vegan favourites for my loyal regulars!

Red Bull
Mt Dew
Perky Nana

A big thanks to everyone who came along and supported Kraftbomb and the Vegan Bakesale. Its also been awesome to meet more and more vegans coming out of the woodwork to sample some vegan cupcakes and say hi! And to all those cupcake fans who have started doing BYO tupperware containers to take them home - you guys rock and are being very environmentally friendly!

Leave a comment and let me know which flavours are your favourites and which you'd like to see at the next Kraftbomb.

Paulie's leaving cupcakes - Choc Mars Bar & Caramel

Our lovely flatmate Paulie is following in my footsteps and leaving his job to return to university to study! We are super happy for him to follow his passion.

In the craziness leading up to the June Kraftbomb, Paulie had his last day at work and ordered some cupcakes to share with his work mates. I managed to fit them in before the massive pre Kraftbomb baking and they turned out great.

Paulie has become quite the cupcake connoisseur since moving in with us and has almost tried as many flavours as Mr NZCQ! His flavour choice for his leaving cupcakes was vegan chocolate (much better than normal chocolate cupcakes) with chopped up Mars bars inside (sadly not vegan) and topped with vegan caramel frosting.

They smelt amazing and according to Paulie and Mr NZCQ who were on hand to quality control, they tasted just as good!

Good luck with your study Paulie, we're super proud of you dude!!!

Vegan Vanilla with Passionfruit Frosting = YUM!

I had a craving the other day for vanilla cupcakes with passionfruit frosting. About 6 years ago you used to be able to buy them from New World and for supermarket made cupcakes even though they weren't the prettiest they tasted incredible! They don't seem to make them any more and I couldn't have them anyway now I'm vegan.

So I decided to recreate them myself and I have to say they tasted even better than the ones I remembered eating. Passionfruit and vanilla are one of my favourite cupcake flavour combos. The light airy cupcake topped with delicate sweet fruity passionfruit frosting is unbelievably yummy!!

These babies are going into heavy rotation in my baking schedule!

May Kraftbomb time!!!

If you're looking for something fun to do with your Sunday, head along tomorrow (Sunday 31st May) to Kraftbomb! Lots of amazing crafts, friendly people and yummy food (check out our new vendor Jimmy who'll be selling tarts!)

11am-2pm
Grey Lynn Community Centre
510 Richmond Road
Grey Lynn

If you're after some cupcakes, I suggest you head along early as they keep selling out fast! For Kraftbomb I've been baking away frantically today and have Red Bull, Jaffa (making a return after months!), Cookies & Cream (vegan friendly) and Chocolate & Raspberry (vegan friendly)

Come along and say hi!!

NZCQ x

more carrot cake cuppies & a pug party!

Chris with a handful of pugs (from left) Dexter, Frankie and George





After the success of Dan's birthday carrot cake cupcakes, I made another batch of carrot cake cupcakes (this time topped off with cream cheese frosting and candy carrots) to take to our impromptu birthday celebration for George!

Yes, George the pug turned 2 on Monday and to celebrate we headed to the dog park the day before and met up with his buddy Dexter and his owners Stef and Paul! Jeeves and his little girl Frankie also showed up so it was a pug party with the 3 of them going nuts.

cupcakes for my birthday boys

2008 and 2009 have seen my group of friends from high school all hitting our 30th birthdays! Dan and Dave were the last ones, both with May birthdays.

They celebrated with a joint birthday dinner and I took cupcakes along for my favourite birthday boys! You may remember the end of last year I made Monster energy drink cupcakes for Paul's 30th.

I made Dan yummy, moist carrot cake cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting and walnuts. For Dave it was rich chocolate Moro bar cupcakes!

We've pretty much been all been friends for 17 years and these boys are like brothers to me. Logan, Paul, Dan and Dave - I love ya boys :-)

cute skull birthday cupcakes

These cupcakes were a special order for Gabi from her boyfriend Hadley who I think scores bonus points for getting her yummy birthday treats!

He asked for chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting, topped off with handmade chocolate skull and crossbones and lightning bolts!

NZCQ hearts Coup de Main Magazine

I got a last minute cupcake baking request a couple of weekends ago for some pretty cupcakes to feature in a photo shoot. The people behind Coup de Main are awesome and have a real passion for what they do, so of course I had to help out!

Their winter look book is now online and you can check out the amazing photos, gorgeous clothes and spot my cupcakes :-)

Coup de Main Magazine - Boy Meets Girl Lookbook