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

"Cake is the New Black" new cross stitch kit!

Photo by: Babiche Martens, NZ Herald

Things have been so busy lately with Kraftbomb, cupcakes and art school but I did manage to design and put together some new Stitch'd Ink cross stitch kits. Winter is the perfect time to snuggle up at home and get crafting!

My favourite of the designs has to be 'Cake Is The New Black' which was featured in The NZ Herald's Viva on 22/04/09. They did a special on "The Art of Craft" and had a fab article featuring Toggle founders Esther and Shelley. Toggle is not only a proud sponsor of Kraftbomb, the craft show I run with my crafty friend Karla, but they also stock our products along with many other amazing Kiwi crafters.



The new designs include "Cake Is The New Black", "Ginger Is The New Black" and my new "Zombie Brains" design. These can all be viewed at my Etsy store www.citydown.etsy.com

vegan cupcakes, Kraftbomb and pugs!

Hey cupcake lovers

Thought I should share some pics of the vegan cupcakes that made an appearance at the last Kraftbomb.





I made the much loved vegan chocolate cupcakes but for something new I also whipped up a batch of tasty lemon vegan cupcakes too. And of course, the Red Bull and Perky Nana cupcakes were there too! We took 8 doz along and they were sold out in 1.5hrs!

Thank you so much to all my all loyal cupcake fans who keep coming back every month! Many of you seem to have figured out the best way to get your hands on your favourite flavours is to come early.

Don't forget the next Kraftbomb is on Sunday 31st May, 11am-2pm @ the Grey Lynn Community. I've decided to do a poll for your to vote on which flavours you'd like to see there since each month people are always disappointed their favourite flavour is missing!

And for those of you who love George the pug, here is a pic of my number one four legged cupcake fan with his fave cupcake toy!

Kraftbomb - Red Bull and Perky Nana cupcakes!

Perky Nana cupcake goodness!


Red Bull cupcakes


If you're an Aucklander, make sure you head along to Kraftbomb this Sunday 26th April. Its at the Grey Lynn Community Centre, from 11am to 2pm.

Lots of rad crafts, lovely crafters, the famous lemonade made by Fred and of course, NZCQ cupcakes!

I'm still finalising the flavours I'll be bringing along, but after the success of my new Red Bull cupcakes selling out at the last Kraftbomb, they will definitely be on the menu again along with Perky Nana flavour too!

NZCQ on All Things Cupcake's Vegan Week

Almost 2 months ago I made the decision to go vegan after being a vegetarian for a long time. Its a huge choice to make but in some ways it was very simple since it felt right for me as I was eating mostly vegan anyway.

The awesome and always interesting All Things Cupcake asked me to write a blog about vegan cupcakes and baking in New Zealand for their vegan week. Head to the link to find out more my switch to a vegan diet and what it means for my cupcakes!

What to Feed a Vegan Kiwi with City the NZ Cupcake Queen

Don't worry, I'm not a jerk and without my fans who buy cupcakes every Kraftbomb I wouldn't be the NZCQ. So for those who love my Mt Dew, Jaffa, Perky Nana and Red Bull cupcakes, they're not going anywhere :-)

Rise Against cupcakes - oh yeah!

Joe, City and Zach




City and Tim

Ok, so its time for a very overdue update! Firstly, thank you so much to everyone for the kind messages and emails I've been receiving since my last post. Its nice to know that so many of you have had similar experiences and that taking a break from baking has been the right choice to make, even though I miss it!!

I'm on my 2 week break from art school and enjoying a few sleep ins after some intense weeks of finishing assignments and not much sleep! But I have managed to do a bit of baking in the last month and it was for some very rad dudes who visited NZ recently.

Rise Against are one of my favourite bands and their gig in Auckland was amazing. Thanks to my lovely friend and fellow straight edge cupcake nerd Natalie from Bake & Destroy, we got to not only go to the show, we met the guys too! They were the most lovely friendly dudes ever who took the time to sign all our stuff, talk about vegan baking, black sand beaches in Auckland and swap cute dog pics.

I made a batch of my yummy chocolate vegan cupcakes for the guys and dropped them to them on their last night in Auckland. If you haven't listened to Rise Against, I strongly suggest you do!

Cupcake Queen not Super Woman

Hey my lovely blog readers!

This is a very hard post for me to write and one that I have been putting off for a while now. I have been living my life at a very fast pace and pushing my body and sanity to the limit. Not only do I make cupcakes for orders, I also run the Kraftbomb craft show with my friend Karla as well as my own craft business Stitch'd Ink selling cross stitch kits and finished pieces.

Add to that going back to Art School full time to do my BFA and you have one very busy lady with not a lot of time left for herself. I've spoken to my Hubby a few times about cutting back on the things I do and letting him help me more but we haven't really made a dent in freeing up time for me.

After weeks of juggling orders, school, sewing and Kraftbomb and a rather epic case of insomnia which left me surviving on not much sleep, my body has finally said enough and we had a rather scary and unhappy time involving an ambulance visit last night that has left me exhausted and unable to even attend all of Kraftbomb today.

So when you can't ignore your body's warning signs any longer you have to make a change. For me that has to be no longer taking cupcake orders for an indefinite period of time. I am really sorry for those of you hoping to get some of my sweet treats and I thank you all for your support, orders and love of my cupcakes.

I will continue to blog about any baking adventures I have (when I get the time to bake just for ME!) and if you're REALLY desperate to get your hands on some NZCQ cupcakes, I will still be selling them once a month at Kraftbomb.

For those of you who have been in touch with me, I will be honouring orders that have been already confirmed, but will be unable to take on any new ones.

Thanks for all the orders and cupcake love! Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere :-)

Love
City the NZCQ
xo

beautiful baby shower cupcakes

Kellie ordered these cute cupcakes for a workmates baby shower.

12 x light and fluffy vanilla cupcakes topped with either raspberry (pink), lime (green), coconut (blue) or lemon (yellow) frosting and a little baby hand or foot made from white fondant!

Lovely little cupcakes that are perfect for a gender neutral baby shower :-)

Red Bull cupcakes for Chris' birthday

Yes, you read that right! I made Red Bull cupcakes and I have a bad feeling that these are going to become pretty popular with our friends and maybe even my customers!

Anybody who knows my hubby Chris will know that he LOVES Red Bull. What kind of cupcake do you make for someone who is married to the NZCQ and has tried every flavour I've come up with so far? Red Bull cupcakes of course!! So for his birthday I made him a surprise batch of these cupcakes.

After a bit of a mission I found some of the dodgy fake Red Bull concentrate you can buy at Chinese food stores. I'm glad I did, I think it gave them a bit more of a red bull taste, especially in the frosting!

Using that and a can of Red Bull I whipped up these babies and everyone has been loving them so far. I've had lots of requests for the recipe already so I will try and find some time to type it up and post it. I kinda made alot of it up as I went along so I'll see if I can put it into a recipe that makes sense!

candy cane cupcakes (in February) for the boys

Inspired by all my American cupcake baking friends making candy cane cupcakes over Christmas I made some myself for the Christmas Kraftbomb. They were such a hit I saved some candy canes so I could make them again after Christmas.

This lot were inhaled by Dan, Ayden, Paulie and Chris. My most loyal cupcake tasters and critics :-)

Eva's girlie pink sparkly cupcakes

I had an order come in for a lovely young miss who was having a birthday party. Her Mum ordered her a dozen pink sparkly girlie cupcakes. I made 6 vanilla and 6 jaffa.

I met Eva, her brother and Mum back in December at Kraftbomb, she was one of the kiddies who were in awe of the gingerbread house and really wanted to touch it! Her Mum thought it would be cool to get her some cupcakes for her birthday and I think the lovely birthday girl was stoked :-)

Kraftbomb - Sun 25th Jan!!

Its time for another Kraftbomb. They seem to roll around pretty quick these days! Come along for amazing crafts, tasty treats, friendly crafters and great music provided by the talented Karen Hunter.

Oh and I'll be there with an assortment of tasty cupcakes!

Since Valentines Day is just around the corner, why not treat your sweetie to a handmade treat this year rather than wasting money on impersonal commercial stuff that will be soon be flooding our malls!

Not a fan of Valentines Day? Who can blame you, it all gets a bit much with lovely dovey overload! Treat yourself to a special gift just for YOU or pick up an anti Valentines Day treat. There is something for everyone and the best bit is it's all handmade by talented crafters right here in Auckland!

And if cupcakes, crafts and good music still isn't enough to get you along, check out this rad little video about Kraftbomb, made by Pixelati!

Karla and I hope to see you there! Come and say hi :-)

Flossie.com - new Getting Crafty blog!

Head along to Flossie.com to check out Karla's and my latest blog for January. This one is all about beating holiday boredom, and that goes for the big kids as well our kiddies!

It might not be cupcakes, but we still got our bake on for yummy iced spiced biscuits, I recipe I've been making since I was a little kid and after all these years still tastes pretty damn good!

Monster Energy Drink cupcakes

I'm a huge fan of Mt Dew cupcakes. I tried making them for the first time last year and couldn't believe what I was tasting. I got hooked and made lots, passing them on to most of our friends and along the way garnering a reputation almost like a cupcake drug dealer because people get so hooked on these intense tasting cupcake and the sugar high they bring.

I will often make cupcakes for friends birthdays and if they have a favourite flavour I'll make that. When my friend Paul, who I've known for yeaaaaaaaaaars, was turning 30 on New Years Eve I asked him what flavour he'd like.

He's a huge fan of energy drinks and his request was to make them Monster Chaos flavour. It seemed a simple enough challenge so I gave it my best shot.

The resulting cupcake was light and tasty, not as strong as the Mt Dew cupcakes, but you could definitely pick up the Monster drink in the frosting. The birthday boy was happy and thats main thing :-)

cupcakes made for ME!!!

I bake ALOT. I bake for orders, I bake for craft shows, I bake for friends and family, I bake for gifts and I usually bake when we go to bbqs or potlucks. When everyone is deciding who will bring what to these events, I'm hardly ever asked to bring salad (mine are kinda sucky) but dessert usually has everyone looking longingly at me to bring some baked goodies along. And more often than not its cupcakes :-)

Now don't get me wrong, I love baking, especially for my friends. I wouldn't do it if I hated it (thats why you won't get me whipping up 3 gourmet course meals). But I do get tired of eating my own baking. New recipes are exciting, but I don't often eat my own baking these days because I'd get horribly bored after my 100th Mt Dew cupcake!

But when someone else goes to the effort of baking and especially when that baking is just for me, it makes my freaking day! So I was really stoked when Moniique popped by Chris' work one night and dropped off a special batch of cupcakes and some cookies she'd made for me just before Christmas. She and I have never met, but she reads my blog and is a fan of cupcakes!



my fave cookie was a teeny little piggie!


They were delicious, moist and very cute! A big thanks to Moniique for being such a sweetheart and baking me a treat. Now I know how all my friends feel when they get special baked treats from me made specially for them :-)

Gingerbread house destruction and Kraftbomb

As many of you know, I run a craft show with my good friend Karla called Kraftbomb. Many people head along to Kraftbomb to snag some of my cupcakes (be warned, get in early to avoid missing out!)



For the December event I decided to make Christmas themed cupcakes and went with the Choc Christmas Puds that had been proving popular. But I wanted to give something new a try so I made some Candy Cane Peppermint cupcakes. These are big in the USA and after seeing so many of my favourite cupcake bloggers whipping some up I decided I had to have a go! They were amazing and I made a few more batches for family and friends over the holidays. I'm sure Chris and I ate far too many!

Unfortunately because I was so frazzled with cupcake orders, sewing stock for the show and running Kraftbomb, I didn't take any proper photos so I've only got the ones taken on the day! I know, I suck.

The other thing I made for Kraftbomb was a gingerbread house. I make one every year for my family along with a few that get purchased by customers. The gingerbread house was a hit with all the kids passing through, although we did have to watch curious little fingers from poking it!

I decided that if nobody wanted to buy the gingerbread house that I'd keep it for a treat for Chris, Karla, Alex, Ben and I after a long day. We got the gingerbread house home and then sat around like naughty kids not wanting to bed the first to start to destroy it. I got the honours and as hard as it was to destroy something I'd worked so hard to make, it was incredibly fun!

Heres the photo evidence of the destruction!

oh so girlie birthday cupcakes!

I had SO much fun creating these ultimate girlie girl cupcakes for a customer's daughter was turning 8. She was having a girl nail party for her special day and it was all about pink pink PINK!

I created a number 8 cake made from cupcakes - a mix of Jaffa with orange frosting and Vanilla with raspberry frosting - and an assortment of mini vanilla cupcakes.

Lots of pink, sprinkles and flowers!

Here's some more pics (be warned, its a pink, sprinkles and flowers overload!)

Happy New Year (19 days late)

OK so I'm about 19 days late with that little greeting but I'm back! And for those of you SICK of seeing Christmas pud cupcakes every time you check my blog, its time for some new photos and new cupcakes!

Here are a few more orders I got around Christmas time for your viewing pleasure:

Jaffa cupcakes topped with orange flavoured buttercream frosting and topped with a single Jaffa



These cuties were plain vanilla topped with either orange, lime or raspberry frosting

Christmas Pud cupcakes

These little babies have been keeping me so busy and out of mischief lately! They've been flying out the door and seem to be the popular choice with quite a few companies this Christmas for client gifts and morning teas! Plus a few people have ordered them as gifts for family and friends!

Chocolate chip cupcakes topped with butter rum frosting and edible holly sprigs made from candy! Yum!

PLEASE NOTE
If you're keen to order some of these cupcakes yourself before Christmas, please please get in touch with me ASAP. The next 2 weeks are chocka with orders and some days I just can't squeeze any more in so book now to avoid disappointment!

80s rock and heavy metal party cupcakes!

This order was for a heavy metal 80s rock themed double birthday party for Jacqui and Gavin!

12 Pineapple Lump:


12 Cookies Cream:


12 Vanilla with Raspberry frosting:


The cupcakes were all topped off with custom choccies in the shape of skulls, guitars, bats, hand throwing up the metal horns, lightning bolts and even a few pot leaves.

Rock on!

Black and White Wedding Cupcakes

These simple but pretty cupcakes were made for the lovely Andrea for her picnic wedding with all their friends and family.

I pinched this pic off her Flickr because I thought it was just so sweet:


24 vanilla cupcakes and 24 chocolate, all topped with vanilla frosting and a black fondant heart.

I had such a great time making these and I think the happy couple and their guests had a great time eating them!

Worlds worst blogger!

Its true! I am officially the worlds worst cupcake blogger! I haven't posted anything on my blog since November 6th and I'm pretty sure plenty of you have given up waiting for me to ever post something new. But that time has come people and boy do I wish I'd posted earlier because I have SO much updating to do now.

So you see, the last month has been pretty fully on. I had my 30th birthday and celebrated my first wedding anniversary and to top it all off we moved house and then had the November Kraftbomb all in the space of a fortnight. We are suckers for punishment and sleep deprivation!

Here I am minutes away from midnight and turning 30, I don't look too terrified at all ;)



Chris organised a birthday dinner at one of my favourite vegetarian places and gathered my crazy bunch of close friends. What I didn't know is that they'd all chipped in some money to help me finish tattooing my sleeve on my right arm. I was blown away!

Here is the latest work done on my arm. Thank you so much for all of you who added to the tattoo fund, I can't thank you enough!



My 30th also marked the 1st wedding anniversary of me and the mister:



So after moving I feel as if I've been living out of boxes for the last month, and in actual fact thats kind of true! The last thing to get packed up was our kitchen as I was still baking for orders up until 2 days before we shifted. And upon arriving at our new abode, the kitchen was unpacked first and I was straight back into the baking! Dedication I tell you! But the rest of the house has been a half unpacked mess!

Poor Chris has been paitently waiting for me to help finish off the lounge and dining room so that he can get stuck into the serious task of putting up all our rare posters and band memorabilia!

But enough boring moving stuff, you're here for the cupcakes so without further ado, I shall start posting what I've been up to while I've been neglecting my blog!

Wheres Spot Cupcakes

I was thrilled to receive an order for some cupcakes for a Where's Spot? themed 1st birthday party. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed doing all the kids birthday orders I've had in the past, but I was really excited at the challenge of doing something different and I grew up with the Where's Spot books so it was something close to my heart.

The birthday girl's Mum had done an awesome job of making a Spot cake to go with the cupcakes and when I arrived to drop them off I was greeted with balloons and Spot signs at the top of the driveway.

They were so much fun to make I almost hope I get an order for some more!!

I Got the "E for Excellent" Award!!!

It totally made my day when Cassie aka How To Eat A Cupcake picked me as one of her 5 favourite bloggers to receive the "E for Excellent" award. Its the first award my little blog has ever been given so I am feeling very proud right now!!

The best bit is that not only am I in very good company with the other lovely bloggers she gave the award to, we each now get to pick 5 blogs we love to pass the award on to! How excellent is that (I almost feel like breaking into a little bit of Bill & Ted's "Party time! Excellent!" just to show my age!)

The rules of receiving the award are as follows: Please find 5 blogs of any kind that you love to read. Write a post about the blogs you picked, linking back to them. Make sure you let them know you gave them an award.

Drum roll please............my five picks are:

Just Desserts
Tara's blogs are always an entertaining read and I miss them when she doesn't have time to update! Plus she's passionate about cupcakes and vegan recipes!!

Bake & Destroy
There is every chance that Natalie has already received this award, but even so, I'm giving it to her! She is one hell of a lady - a writer, Mommy, badass baker, blogger and she's straight edge to top it all off! Plus shes a pretty cool long distance/international friend!

Cupcake Goggles
We share a passion for shoes and all things cupcake related, plus she seems to be able to find the best YouTube videos that make me laugh!

Candy Yum Yum
Patti is a fellow candy-oholic. Her blog is always a great read and she's got her finger on the pulse of new candy finds. Plus, this lady GETS why I was so devastated when we lost an old time favourite Snifters in NZ

Cakespy
Jessie knows cakes and has a nose for hunting out the best sweet treats and sharing them with the world on her blog. Plus she was the first person to ever interview me back when I was a newbie Cupcake Queen :-)

Now its your turn to spread the love blogging ladies :-)

Severed Finger Cupcakes and the Booo-tiful Halloween Contest

I was determined to make some Halloween cupcakes for the Halloween themed Kraftbomb we had on 26th October. I felt in the mood to have a go at some chocolate moulds so I got some severed fingers and pumpkins and got busy.

The Halloween pumpkins turned out really cute and looked rad sitting atop my Jaffa cupcakes. I didn't get a chance to take any photos of the cupcakes with their chocolates, but here are some of the little pumpkin chocolates waiting to grace the top of a cupcake:



I also popped some pumpkins and severed fingers into little gift bags for people to buy separately (apparently not everyone loves cupcakes as much as I do haha):



But the real winners were the severed finger cupcakes!

I made my long time favourite Jaffa cupcakes and topped them with orange buttercream frosting. Then I popped a chocolate severed goulish finger in each cupcake and put plenty of runny red frosting around for blood.

They turned out awesome and were the fastest selling cupcake at Kraftbomb. I never got to have one but I hear from all the people who were fast enough to snap one up, they were scary AND yummy :-)

The lovely Cassie from How To Eat A Cupcake reminded me today that she is co-hosting the Booo-tiful Halloween Cupcake Contest with Clara over at I Heart Cuppycakes!

So I got off my butt and am entering my Severed Finger cupcakes! Wish me luck. They have some super rad prizes up for grabs but unfortunately they are only for people in the USA. But I'm entering anyway for the fame and glory of being up against some other awesome cupcake bakers :-)



You can check out more about the Booo-tiful Halloween Cupcake Contest at either Cassie's blog or Clara's blog

Another Kraftbomb been and gone!

Yet another Kraftbomb has been and gone. They seem to roll around quicker each month! Our Halloween extravaganza was a hit and even though it rained, so many awesome people still made it along to support our wonderful vendors.

This Kraftbomb saw us move into the bigger hall at the Grey Lynn Community Centre and it was great having so much more room for both shoppers and vendors. We had the wonderful Chris Knox perform for us and wow the crowd, plus Edward Waka who warmed up the crowd before Chris and did a fantastic set!

For more photos of all the stalls and the rad goodies for sale head to my Kraftbomb Flickr set!

Kraftbomb tomorrow - Sun 26th October!!!

Come along, its going to be a Halloween extravaganza! Lots of rad crafts, awesome people and yummy treats to eat and drink. Face painting for the kids, fenced playground and lots of space to hang out and enjoy the day.

11am - 2pm
Grey Lynn Community Centre
Main Hall
510 Richmond Road
Grey Lynn (Grey Lynn shops end)

Be there or be square!

Slipknot + Cupcakes = badass times!

Its no secret that I'm married to the biggest fanboy in NZ. Chris has met so many bands it's not funny and he even has a MySpace page that he runs with his friend Raggles which showcases all their photos and band memorabilia, plus photos from fanboys around the world. These guys love heavy metal and they love meeting the bands that make that music! I've taken to tagging along on their missions and in doing so http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhave met bands I love like Rage Against the Machine, Antiflag, Bleeding Through and Dillinger Escape Plan.

Slipknot and Machinehead were heading to Auckland for a gig and Chris and I desperately wanted to go. But we've been kinda broke after trips to Wellington and our wee dog George hurting his back and costing a fortune in vet bills. It was the day before the gig and we still didn't have tickets.

With some stealth skills and help from a fellow cupcake queen, we got to meet 5 of the Slipknot guys, have some photos with them and they signed some stuff. Which was freaking awesome! Best bit though was Chris offering them an order of NZCQ cupcakes which Shawn (aka Clown) took him up on and then offered us some tickets to the show.







So we got to go and it was awesome. Machinehead and Slipknot both put on a pretty amazing performance and we got to get our head bang on. I never got to personally deliver the cupcakes to them, so who knows if they even got them or were eaten by hotel staff, but it makes for a nice story of things working out when you think you've missed out!

We also got to meet the lovely guys from Machinehead who were so friendly and chilled out. I gave Dave the details of my art project "The Cupcake Project" so who knows, one day he might just submit his very own cupcake.





Badass :-)

Kraftbomb September - belated post

OK so this is just how slack I've been with updating my blog. I just realised I haven't even put pics up from the September Kraftbomb.

I made so many cupcakes it was insane. 10 dozen with 4 different flavours: Mountain Dew, Vegan Chocolate, Peanut Butter Chocolate and Cookies & Cream. We had a few left over at the end and they were donated to very hungry stallholders. Plus the boys at our local Burger Fuel scored a few and we got some free spud fries. Sah-weet!

It was a pretty busy day, not as crazy as the first one, more a steady flow of people. We had amazing weather and it was great to see people chilling outside in the sunshine and enjoying the goodies.

Fred was back with his lemonade stand, plus we had Green Smoothies, candy floss and of course cupcakes galore along with a whole bake sale table with all the proceeds going to funding more poster runs for Kraftbomb around Central Auckland.

But enough talk, I'll let the photos do the talking :-)











For more pics of all the stalls and crafty goodies, head along to the Kraftbomb blog!

perfect pink raspberry cupcakes

This dainty vanilla cupcakes with raspberry frosting were ordered for a girls birthday by her friend who knew she was nuts about cupcakes.

girly flower cupcakes

A really nice guy and some friends of his ordered these lovely and very girly cupcakes for his girlfriends birthday! I loved making them, the colours were awesome!

NZCQ & Geek Freeks go to Welly

Sometimes I'm a very slack blogger and sometimes I'm probably a bit too blog post happy! I've been a bit quite on my blog this past month, but things have by no means been quite!

I headed down to Wellington with Chris and my crafty partner in crime Miss Karla and her hubby Alex. Chris and I went down early to catch up with rellies down there and we met up with the others on the Friday.

Sat 11th October was Craft2.0 at the New Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt. It was good to have a change and go to a different craft event and meet fellow crafters.



We met some great people, bought some amazing goodies and got to show off our wares the Wellingtonians that visited.

Of course, since I wasn't in my hood and didn't want to tread on any other cupcake queens toes, I didn't sell any cupcakes. But I did take all my cross stitches and my Stitch'd Ink kits and most people seemed to like them.



Karla and Alex did well with their Geek Freeks, the biggest hit of the day seemed to be their new "Ones and Twos" (poos and wees) plushies, which sold out!! You can see them on the right of this pic:



Other highlights (and lowlights) included the Stormtrooper we saw on a night out:


Karla and Alex getting hives (WTF?)

Catching up with Chris' Mum and his wee Granny:


and this awesome sign at the airport (I am the biggest baking nerd to find this so funny?):

Quadrant Hotel cupcakes for cancer kids

As part of Air New Zealand Fashion Week here in Auckland, the Quadrant Hotel put on a special event for cancer kids to attend and have some fun. They ordered 2 dozen cupcakes for the kids in Perky Nana flavour topped with banana frosting and Jaffa flavour topped with orange frosting.

All the frosting was purple to match their company colours and each cupcake had a chocolate Q on top!

catching up yet again

Time seems to be flying by so fast this year. I can't believe we're already into October which means that in a couple of days I'm flying down to Wellington with Chris, Karla and Alex to attend Craft2.0.

Then hot on the heels of that comes the October Kraftbomb. I can't believe we're onto our third show already and this one is extra special because we're moving into the big hall at the Grey Lynn Community Centre! We're celebrating with a big Halloween themed crafty extravaganza!!

I've had plenty of cupcake orders to keep me busy, although I've barely had time to blog about them and many orders I haven't even taken photos of!!! Bad, bad blogger that I am. I somehow managed to fit a new tattoo into this crazy schedule I've had going lately. My full sleeve is well on its way to being finished.



I'm attempting a small catch up today, bare with me!!

Mr & Mrs NZCQ and their crazy pets

Its not often that I post pics of us on my blog so I thought I'd give you some updated photos of the NZCQ family.

City the NZCQ - has been rocking the rockabilly quiff:


Mr NZCQ - got some new glasses:


George the pug aka "hater dog" - had to wear the cone of shame:


Minerva aka the "blue poo" - well she just looks concerned, as always:

NZCQ & Geek Freeks are heading to Craft 2.0

Watch out, the JAFFAS are coming. Mr & Mrs NZCQ and Mr & Mrs Geek Freek are heading to Wellington! We're making our first appearance at Craft2.0 on Saturday 11th October.



As we're flying down from Auckland for the event, I won't be selling cupcakes, but I'll be there with NZ Cupcake Queen framed cross stitches and my Stitch'd Ink cross stitch kits. We'll be sharing a table with Karla and Alex with their Geek Freeks plushies.

We're looking forward to meeting all the Wellington crafters and Sue who runs Craft2.0. If you're in Wellington, come along and say hi and feel free to give us tips on good cupcakes, coffee and vegetarian/vegan food!

Kraftbomb is back!!

Kraftbomb, the new monthly craft show that I put on with my crafty partner in crime Karla, is back again for September.



Sunday 28th September
1-4pm
Grey Lynn Community Centre - Garden Room
510 Richmond Road, Grey Lynn

Come along and check out our amazingly talented vendors selling badass crafts with a rock'n'roll twist. Karla and Alex will be there with their Geek Freeks stall and yours truly, the NZCQ will be there with cupcakes and cross stitch.

Be warned! Last Kraftbomb my 4 dozen cupcakes sold out in 45mins and so many people missed out. This time I'm bringing extra, but be there early to avoid disappointment!!

And don't forget, due to demand we've outgrown our space in the Garden Room so from October onwards we'll be moving to the larger hall at the Grey Lynn Community Centre. The October Kraftbomb is looking to be an exciting craft extravaganza, so write it in your diary now - Sunday 26th October!

cupcakes for Distburbed, P.O.D., Alter Bridge and Redline

Our rad friend Raggles aka Craig plays guitar for Redline (an awesome NZ band for those of you overseas!)

Redline opened for all the NZ shows Disturbed, P.O.D. and Alter Bridge just did. Raggles and the Redline boys ordered cupcakes for each of the bands for opening night in Auckland.

Each band got 6 Jaffa and 6 Mountain Dew cupcakes!

Raggles was having too much fun partying like a rockstar with the bands to take photos, but official word is that the NZCQ cupcakes went down a treat with the band boys. Even badass, heavy metal bogans love their sweet treats :-)

cupcake order - dinosaurs!!

This was an order for a Dinosaur themed 3rd birthday party. Dinosaur cupcakes was a new challenge for me but these little guys came out pretty cute.

Jaffa cupcakes with orange flavoured frosting.

cupcake order - jungle cupcakes part 2!

This was an order for a jungle themed 1st birthday party. Apparently the birthday boy's nickname is "their little tiger" so they're quite fitting :-)

Perky Nana cupcakes with banana flavoured frosting, decorated as tigers and monkeys

cupcake order - presentation cupcakes

These cupcakes were ordered by Marie for a presentation she was doing.

Based on the companies orange logo, she went with chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting, topped with brown m&ms.

To cater for a person on a wheat free diet, I also did some vanilla wheat free cupcakes with chocolate frosting, topped with orange m&ms.

cupcake order - birthday vanilla cupcakes

This order of birthday cupcakes for a lady was ordered by her very lovely workmates.

12 vanilla cupcakes, 6 topped with raspberry frosting and 6 topped with lemon.

about time I posted something!

Yes, I am still alive! I just haven't been a very good blogger lately and have got behind on posting regularly on NZCQ.

Its all been a bit crazy since the Sunday Star Times article came out and then hot on the heels of that was the very first Kraftbomb, the new craft show started by Karla and myself.

The first Kraftbomb was a huge hit! We could never have hoped for the amazing turnout that we had on the day. For a complete run down on the day, check out the post on our Kraftbomb blog!



In cupcake news, I wasn't really sure how many cupcakes to take along to the first Kraftbomb. So I took along 4 dozen which sold out in the first 45mins and left with me with 2hrs of having to apologise for running out! If you were one of the people who missed out on an NZCQ cupcake, make sure you come along to the next Kraftbomb on Sunday 28th September. I will have PLENTY this time :-)

Sunday Star Times - Sunday mag interview

...and then after the Alt TV interview, that Sunday the interview Karla and I did for the Sunday Star Times came out. I haven't had a chance to scan the mag properly so for now its these kinda crappy photos:







We were stoked with how it turned out and it was a great showcase for the crafting revolution going on in NZ (and around the world) and great promotion for the upcoming Kraftbomb, not to mention Toggle, Trixie Delicious, Nut & Bee, Geek Freeks and the NZ Cupcake Queen.



Thanks to everyone who emailed and txt us both congratulating us on our appearance and thanks to Esther and Shelley from Toggle for promoting the featured artists on their website.

Alt TV interview!

It was a busy weekend for the NZCQ and Karla from Geek Freeks. Kraftbomb, the new craft show that we started together, is on this coming Sunday, so we had quite a few promotional things coming up.

Hot on the heels of our appearance in the Auckland City Harbour News, we had an interview on Alt TV on Saturday with the super rad Laura and Jess who host the Think! show.

Karla ended up having to work, tattooing at the Erotica show, so she couldn't make it. Which meant it was just the NZCQ representing the Kraftbomb girls solo. But I took Chris and George the pug along and George made his tv debut and was so well behaved on camera. I had a great time on the show, I gave away one of my "Eat Cake, Worship Satan" cross stitches and everyone, including the crew, got stuck into the cupcakes I brought along.

So for those of you who were watching and had to wait an extra hour because we told you the wrong time (oops) we are so sorry! But thanks for tuning in and supporting us. Raggle's Dad kindly dvd recorded the interview so hopefully I can figure a way to get it on YouTube for you to all have a giggle at ("mull-lions" was not my finest moment of having a kiwi accent!)

IronCupcake:Earth - Challenge 1 - CHILI PEPPER

As many of you know, I bravely signed up for the first ever Iron Cupcake Earth challenge. I am always in awe of the amazing cupcakes created during the now famous Iron Cupcake challenges started by Sandy the Milwaukee Cupcake Queen who has the rad blog No One Puts Cupcake In A Corner

So the first challenge ingredient was announced and it was Chili Pepper. Eek! I'm not a big chili person, so I struggle with getting it right when I use it in normal cooking dishes. Cupcakes and chili was going to be an interesting challenge for this baker!

So after an initial mini panic, I had a think about what I could do and of course, chili and chocolate cupcakes came to mind. But I figured this combo would prove to be popular and I needed to step up and meet the Iron Cupcake Earth challenge head on.

So I decided to do a fruit based cupcake. As random as this may seem, my inspiration came from the chili and lime flavour corn chips that Chris and I sometimes buy. These are incredibly tasty, so why not transfer all that yumminess to cupcakes.

I figured I'd need something else to help mellow out the chili, especially for wussy people like myself when it comes to hot stuff. So I decided to pop some chopped up tinned mango in, figuring it would make a great contrast to the chili and lime. Then to top it all off, creamy, delicious cream cheese and lime frosting, to help those tingling tastebuds calm down!

I must say, these cupcakes are quite exciting to eat and even a chili wussy like myself enjoyed them. You bite in and there is an awesome mixture in your mouth of creamy frosting, with that little lime zing to it, and then the cupcake with its mouth warming chili flavour, along with smooth, chunks of mango. Its a party for your mouth!

I'm currently typing up the recipe so I can officially enter my cupcake in the Iron Cupcake Earth Challenge. When its done, if any of you would like it, let me know and I can post it on here for you to try yourselves! If there is one thing I'd change next time, it'd be reducing the chili powder from 2 teaspoons to 1, however, that may just be me and my wussy mouth. My hubby Chris loves them and doesnt think they've very hot at all!

Here are a few pics of my adventure. Unfortunately I was so busy getting my bake on at the beginning there are no photos of mixing the ingredients before they went into the oven!

Two crucial ingredients:


Fresh out of the oven (spot the half eaten one I couldn't resist sampling!):


Lots of lime cream cheese frosting left over:


Icing them all:


A cross section of cupcake that shows the mango chunks:


George the pug with the final creation. It was killing him to not eat some!!



* Voting will begin on Sunday, August 31st at 12 noon at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER and will be open through Thursday, September 4 at 12 noon. So make sure you pop by and vote for me!!

* Winner will be posted the night of August 4th, before 11:59 p.m.

* The next ingredient will be posted on Friday, September 5th.

* Visit IronCupcake:Earth to become a part of the excitement and join for the next challenge!

Prizes for Iron Cupcake Earth - Challenge 001 are awesome! I would love to finally get my hands on a Jessie Steele apron (and if I don't win I'm going to keep dropping hints to everyone for my big 30th birthday coming up in Nov!).

The prizes are kindly donated by one of my favourite ETSY artists, CAKESPY



and the 3 corporate sponsors:

JESSIE STEELE APRONS



CUPCAKE COURIER



and TASTE OF HOME

Melinda's wedding cupcakes

Melinda and her hubby to be, Duncan, are in Fiji as I write this, preparing for their wedding. These cupcakes were a going away pre wedding gift for the couple and for Melinda to share with her workmates.

Delicate vanilla mini cupcakes, topped with lemon frosting and silver cachous of various sizes. I also made 2 heart shaped cupcakes that are a bit larger than the standard size, and really are like mini cakes!

Congratulations Melinda and Duncan!

cupcake order - birthday cookies & cream

An order of Cookies & Cream cupcakes for a customers flatmate! The smell of these cupcakes was amazing while I was in the car delivering the order.

just for fun

In case you were all getting sick of cupcakes and craft shows, here's some fun stuff:

Cake Wrecks

If you haven't visited this site yet, do yourself a favour and visit RIGHT NOW! It makes me chuckle every time and hope that I never, ever make it on there. How could so many, so called professional cake decorators get so many cakes, so wrong!

My personal favourite is this beauty - the anti sexual harassment cake!



Face Your Manga

This site seems to be sweeping through Flickr so of course I gave in and had to Manga'ize myself and Chris. I think we turned out pretty good as Manga characters:

Kraftbomb is nearly here

Our article about Kraftbomb came out this Wednesday in the Auckland City Harbour News. I didn't actually know what day it was coming out, so it was thanks to a Flickr friend for the headsup!

You can read the online version here!

Keep an eye out for the Sunday Star Times "Sunday" magazine on the 24th August too

Kraftbomb is on Sunday 31st August, 1-4pm at the Grey Lynn Community Centre

cupcake order - Jungle cupcakes for Laith

Hot on the heels of Craftwerk came an order on Friday from an Australian lady who was visiting NZ to see family and her nephews birthday!

It was a last minute crazy rush, but I managed to bake and decorate the cupcakes on the Friday afternoon, hoon to town to meet my girlfriends for a much needed catch up dinner (with cupcakes in tow) and then a late night dash out to Papakura to drop off the cupcakes for the early morning party the next day. Phew!

But it was so worth it! We decided on Perky Nana cupcakes with banana flavoured frosting for Laith's jungle themed birthday. I decorated half as tigers and half as monkeys!




And according to Susan (who is quite the cupcake connoisseur back home in Sydney) they were delicious and rated very high on the cupcake Richter scale!!

Thanks and happy birthday to Laith :-)

Another Craftwerk has been and gone!

Craftwerk was back at its usual home of St Kevins Arcade on the 14th August and boy was it a busy night. Soooo many people! The place was buzzing with talk and music. I took along 4 dozen cupcakes and they all sold out in a couple of hours. Phew. We had a great night, although it was a bit loud at times and I tend to get overwhelmed in really busy, noisy situations!




The plan was to make 6 dozen cupcakes, but I got an order for the Kate Sylvester store opening in Newmarket also on Thursday night, so that limited my baking time a bit. But the Craftwerk cupcakes were still a hit - 2 dozen jaffa (some with the always popular choccie skull and crossbones) and 2 dozen Mt Dew topped with Nerds (those badass babies will always be thanks to Natalie) plus the 48 minis for the order.

Unfortunately we were so busy, I forgot to take photos of the Mt Dew cupcakes for Craftwerk and the store opening cupcake order too (although I'm working on getting some from the lovely Nicola who placed the order). I even forgot to take a photo of our stall all set up, complete with our new pink and white polka dot table cloth - just like my business cards!!

So instead, here is a photo of the NZCQ with one of my Craftwerk purchases, a super cute "Happy Aorta" plushie by Geek Freeks.



I also purchased a very cute Nut and Bee notepad and got to catch up with lots of lovely Craftwerk regulars like Alida, Sharon and Kimberlee. I hardly got to get out from behind our table because it was so packed, so I missed on visiting alot of my favourite stalls and didn't get to buy many goodies or chat much.

cupcake order - Mountain Dew cupcakes

I was contacted by Kate who wanted some cupcakes for her friends birthday. She went with Mountain Dew and they turned out great!




Thanks Kate :-)

The Cupcake Project in the Sunday Star Times

As well as my cupcake baking, I also run a small art project called The Cupcake Project.

I was so excited when my dear friend Adria texted me last weekend to let me know that my wee art project had been featured in the Sunday Star Times' Sunday magazine. Woohoo!

Apparently The Cupcake Project is "Going Up" baby!

cupcake queens take holidays...

...and when they do, they bake cakes! I've been baking ALOT lately, lots of orders coming in plus we had Craftwerk and Kraftbomb is coming up in 2 weeks.

So I took a little baking holiday and made a banana cake! I've been making this one since I was a kid and its so easy and dare I say, idiot proof hehe. Chris and I kept half and the other half went to my parents.

Lily's birthday cupcakes

Lily is the cute as a button daughter of my friend Natalie, aka Sugar Lemon Sweetheart.

For her recent birthday I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes with cookies and cream frosting, topped with edible animals. Unfortunately I was rushing that day so I didn't take many photos, but here they are:

cupcake tattoo on Pink Ink

Many of you know that I have a super sweet cupcakhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gife tattooed on my back, done by my good friend and super rad tattooist !

I was stoked that Pink Ink featured my cupcake tattoo

Kraftbomb is coming!!!

For those of you hanging out to buy some NZ Cupcake Queen cupcakes, now is your chance!

I've teamed up with the kickass Karla (aka the lady behind my amazing cupcake tattoo!) to put on a new craft show for the peeps in Auckland.

The first Kraftbomb will be on Sunday 31st August, 1-4pm at the Grey Lynn Community Centre (Garden Room) at 510 Richmond Road, Grey Lynn.

Its looking to be an awesome day with lots of rad vendors selling the best in quirky crafts with a modern twist. We'll have crafts and cupcakes for sale, acoustic music by the lovely Anna Kaye, a raffle with goodies supplied by the vendors, craft table to keep the kids (and the big kids too) occupied plus a huge fenced playground outside. Plus the awesome folks at Toggle have teamed up with us to sponsor the event!

Come along and enjoy the explosion of crafty goodness of Kraftbomb!!

Ella turns the big ONE!

Ella stole my heart a year ago when she was born and is the cutest little cupcake fan I have. I am lucky to be really good friends with her lovely Mum Karen, who I used to work with. I got the honour of throwing her a baby shower before she had Ella and I went all out with the biggest pink fest ever. Here are a few photos from the baby shower:




Ella had her first birthday party on the weekend and Chris and I had an awesome time hanging out with the one year olds. I made Ella a batch of mini jaffa cupcakes, decorated pink and girly.





Karen and Craig's friend made the most amazing birthday cake based on Ella's favourite doll, the character Upsy Daisy from the kids show "In The Night Garden". The worst bit came when it was time to cut the cake, nobody wanted to be the meanie who cut off one of Upsy's feet.



Here is the birthday girl herself and her lovely cake!

Iron Cupcake Earth

How excited was I to get an email from fellow cupcake queen, Sandy the Milwaukee Cupcake Queen who runs the awesome blog No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner inviting me to join Iron Cupcake EARTH!

I couldn't hit the reply button fast enough to tell her I'm in! I can't wait to join in the fun of these cupcake baking challenges along with the rest of the worldwide cupcake blogging community! I've watched with interest the previous ingredient choices and cupcake submissions for Iron Cupcake Challenges and always wished I lived in Milwaukee and could join in the fun.

Now I can! I can't wait to hear what the first challenge ingredient is. Fingers crossed its vegetarian friendly, but I'll roll with whatever comes up!

You can read all about the fun at the Iron Cupcake Earth blog. And if you're a fellow cupcake baker looking for a challenge, join in the fun :-)

Heavy Metal baking!!

I had an order from a really rad chick called Victoria who wanted to surprise her partner with a gingerbread house for his birthday. But since they were both lovers of heavy metal, this could be no ordinary gingerbread house, it was a heavy metal themed one!

I'm really stoked with how it turned out and I really hope the birthday boy Mike K. enjoyed his birthday surprise! I decorated it with all the classic gingerbread house goodies, lots of yummy candy such as licorice all sorts, jellybeans, candy buttons. But I also made some chocolate guitars, bats, skull and crossbones and popped a couple of lightening bolts in there too made from gingerbread and iced with yellow frosting!







That same weekend was our friend Raggles (aka Craig) birthday. I promised him a batch of cupcakes for his birthday dinner and he chose jaffa for the flavour. It was a no brainer that I make his cupcakes heavy metal themed too! He plays guitar in Redline, worships Avenged Sevenfold and is a bad ass heavy metaler!

So I made a couple of gingerbread guitars and iced them and made a very special chocolate batskull like Avenged Sevenfolds logo. Raggles was stoked! Happy Birthday Raggles, we love ya buddy xx



I took kinda rushed photos before his dinner so they aren't the best but you can see his AX7 batskull here

Red Velvet cupcakes for Chris

Chris has been hinting for ages for me to make red velvet cupcakes, so I finally gave in the other day and made him some as a surprise. He was stoked, along with Raggles (aka Craig) who scored some as well to share with his workmates.

I think I could have made them a bit more red inside, but they still tasted delicious, especially with cream cheese frosting! I topped them with tiny candy coated chocolate chips that Chris says taste like teeny Herseys Kisses.

om nom nom nom....

anniversary cupcakes!

I had an order from a really nice lady who wanted cupcakes to celebrate 3 years together with her partner.

She requested organic vanilla with raspberry frosting and lots of romantic pink decorations.





Happy Anniversary to you both :-)

cupcake catchup - the big baking weekend!

I'm a bit late posting this but here are some photos from my MEGA baking weekend. We had 4 friends having birthday celebrations the fist weekend in July. We could only attend 2 parties but I managed to do baking for 3 people. I managed to do big batches so I had enough for everyones birthday cupcakes

First up was Shane who is a member of the rifle club I attend. It was his 21st and I said he could choose his favourite flavour. It came down to a tie between Rocky Road cupcakes and Mountain Dew cupcakes. I managed to do him 6 of each :-)



here they are naked before all the frosting goodness:


and topped with frosting, gummi candy and mini marshmallows before the melted choc:


Next birthday boy was Graeme, one of Chris' oldest friends. It was his big 30th and he's a fan of my cupcakes so I gave him a dozen Mountain Dew ones just for him. Although I'm very sure his partner Veronica and their 2 cute girls helped him out.



And last but not least, my longtime friend Adria was having her birthday too, so I made her a big batch of mini Mountain Dew cupcakes with a couple of standard size ones in there too for the birthday girl, complete with candles so she could blow them out and make a wish :-) Sadly, my slack ass didn't take photos of her batch!! But I'm sure you can use your imagination or just look at my other Mountain Dew cupcake photos haha

excuse me while I do a post about ME!

Well I was quite surprised and flattered when I was a tagged for a Meme by THE Kitchen Vixen aka Sweet Stilettos

I've read a few other peoples blogs when they've been tagged and always enjoy learning random facts about favourite bloggers. I'm stoked I get to do one myself, I just hope I make for an interesting read!

__________

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
__________


OK people, here we go, 6 random things about me, the NZ Cupcake Queen:

1. My lucky number is 13, which was also my Dad's lucky number. To make things even more interesting, my late father was born on 13th March and my husband shares the same birthday as him.

2. I have a bizarre phobia involving my bellybutton. I don't like it to be touched, can barely put my own finger inside it and get totally grossed out to the point of feeling queasy and breaking out in a cold sweat if I ever have to clean it or watch someone else poke their finger in their belly button! I know, I know, I'm very weird.

3. When I was 18 I got a tiny black kitten. I named him Midget and everyone always thought it was because he was so small. He was actually named after a character from the 90's movie New Jersey Drive - a carjacker and petty theif called Midget (who later dies in a car crash). Now thats random!

4. One of my favourite things to eat is a sesame seed bun with cream cheese and sliced beetroot out of a tin. The combination of flavours and texture is great.

5. I can only cry properly out of one eye. When I was 5 I got stabbed in the eye with a pencil by a kid at my school (I grew up on the bad ass west side). My tear duct is damaged so now if I cry, tears stream out of the good eye and the bung eye just gets a bit moist and watery.

6. On a trip to LA when I was 7, I threw a massive tantrum at an airport security guy because he took my Cabbage Patch Kid from me to put through the x-ray machine. As a 7 year old who believed my Cabbage Patch Kid was real, I was NOT impressed with him at all and had an almighty crying fit, much to my Mum's embarrassment!


So now you know those fascinating random facts about me, its time to pass the torch onto some other bloggers I love:

1. The Art of Karla

2. 62Cherry

3. R.W.Scissors

4. Sugar Lemon Sweetheart

5. Candy Yum Yum

6. Cupcake Goggles


Have fun guys and I look forward to reading your Meme blog posts!

Stitch'd Ink cross stitch kits

Alot of my time and energy has been going into my new range of cross stitch kits. For the past few months I have been working on designs, then stitching up samples. I've finally got the kits done and they're now for sale on my Etsy store.



Stitch'd Ink has been a labour of love for me. It started out very simply, I was looking for some cool tattoo based cross stitch designs and couldn't find any, so I decided to make what I was looking for. I enjoyed doing them so much I figured other crafty people would too. And that is how Stitch'd Ink was born.

You can visit the Stitch'd Ink website (which is still a work in progress) and to purchase the kits you can visit my NZ Cupcake Queen Etsy store.

Where are the cupcakes?

I'm still baking and have had a few orders lately. I've been so busy a few have gone out the door without me even taking a photo!

But here are some ones I did for a baby shower/leaving afternoon tea. It was a very last minute order. I did 24 cupcakes in 2 flavours - organic vanilla with raspberry frosting, topped off with a sour cherry ball and jaffa with orange frosting

catching up on my blogging

I don't seem to have enough hours in the day to keep up to date with my blog, so I apologize for the big gaps between posts and then trying to cram all my updates into one day!



Lots has been going on here in NZCQ land. One of the exciting things has been being featured in Frankie magazine! They did a little piece about my art project called The Cupcake Project and also created a cupcake for their submission. If you haven't checked out The Cupcake Project yet head over there! I have around 160 submissions with more coming in each week. The creativity of the people submitting cupcakes blows me away!

I've been busy sewing too, but I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave sewing a plushie a go. I was inspired by a good cause, Softies for Mirabel which is run by the awesome Meet Me At Mikes.



I posted off my little cupcake plushie last week and he'll now be joining the rest in their window display. Get sewing and make a plushie too!

Eat cake. Worship Satan. tshirts

I was so excited to design these tshirts based on my cross stitch design and even more excited when the ones I'd ordered for Chris and I finally arrived in the post.



I know there have been a few people out there who have not approved of the wording, but these are simply for fun and for cupcake lovers with a quirky sense of humour and by no means making fun of people with serious religious beliefs.

You can grab yours from my Cafe Press store!

homemade chocolate peanut butter cups (and guns!)

Some of you may already know of my love of Reeces Peanut Butter Cups. I've been meaning to try making homemade ones for a while now and finally got around to buying chocolate moulds in the perfect PB cup size.

here is my first attempt!



and here is Mr NZCQ having his first taste:



The recipe I used more than filled the 6 moulds I had so I was left with extra chocolate and PB filling, so I grabbed my gun chocolate moulds and made a few extras that turned out quite cool:

95% vegan chocolate cupcakes

I'm a vegetarian who hovers on the line between being vegetarian and vegan. I haven't officially made the step over but I do enjoy alot of vegan food. I've had the cookbook "The Everyday Vegan" by the wonderful Dreena Burton for a while now. I've had my eye on a yummy vegan triple layer chocolate cake recipe in the book and when I finally got around to trying it out, it was so easy to make!



For those of you who don't own this awesome book, she does feature the recipe on her blog which you can view here and has brilliant step by step instructions with photos. If you enjoy it though, I suggest you support this awesome author and go and purchase a copy asap :-)

I used the recipe to make cupcakes (of course!!) but unfortunately my recipe is only 95% vegan as I ran out of time to buy vegan chocolate, so the frosting has normal dairy based chocolate in it. This recipe works so well as cupcakes, and the silken tofu based frosting was delicious with a mousse like texture. I am disappointed that I didn't use vegan chocolate in the frosting, but next time I will take the time to source some and make these cupcakes 100% vegan :-) They were still 100% yum!!

here they are all naked:



and then frosted:

NEW - Eat cake. Worship Satan tshirts!!!!

My Eat cake. Worship Satan. cross stitch has been my most popular design on my NZ Cupcake Queen Etsy store.

So I thought I'd make up some tshirts based on this cheeky design. I think they've turned out great and I've ordered one each for Chris and I. I can't wait to wear mine.



They're available to purchase at my Cafe Press store in ladies, mens, plus size ladies and kids sizes. I also have a few fun things like tote bags and baby bibs.

Unfortunately they're a wee bit more expensive than the white tshirts Cafe Press has available, but this design just HAD to be on a black tshirt. Thats the price you pay for being cool I guess hehe

choc with peanut butter frosting cuppies

I had an order from a girl called Carmen who was after a batch of cupcakes to cure a major cupcake craving she'd been having while studying. I made her chocolate cupcakes with choc and caramel chunks, topped off with creamy peanut butter frosting, chocolate sprinkles and some peanut butter m&ms that I'd been sent from America!





She also asked that I packaged up some of the cupcakes in lots of 2 so she could share them with her friends.

cookies & cream baby shower cupcakes

I had an order for some baby shower cupcakes with a boy theme. Leigh wanted cookies & cream flavour which posed a challenge with colouring cookies & cream frosting blue!



I think they came out quite nicely with a bluish tinge, the blue could possibly have been stronger. I topped each of them with little baby feet and a couple of hands made from chocolate that I made the night before.

NZCQ hits Melbourne

Chris and I were lucky enough to get to go to Melbourne for a flying 4 day holiday. Its my favourite city in Aussie and this was trip number 5 for me, but it was Chris' first time (and first time out of the country!!)

He was pretty excited about getting to visit Rare Records in St Kilda and he and the owner Doug had a great time talking and sharing fanboy stories. Not to mention the fact that Chris and I both came back with some great music nerd goodies!

For me the highlight was getting to meet the lovely Jess from Sugadeaux Cupcakes! Its such a small world - shes also good friends with Doug from Rare Records.



We'd been Flickr buddies for awhile and she bought one of my Eat cake. Worship Satan cross stitches. Due to a rather blonde moment from me involving getting on the right tram in the wrong direction, we were 2 hours late to meet her, oops! I finally got to try a Sugadeaux cupcake and I was not disappointed! Its a shame we're in different countries because we got along so well. She is one of the most genuine and down to earth people I've met and I think her cupcake business is going to take off!



You can see just how excited I was to try a chocolate Sugadeaux cuppie in this photo!



We also got to visit Little Cupcakes on Degraves Street in the city and loved the cute little store they've set up! Their red velvet ones were very addictive and we went 2 days in a row to treat ourselves to a mini one each.





One of the unexpected highlights of the trip was a chance meeting with the oh so talented Gemma Jones. We popped into the Outré Gallery and got chatting with Gemma about all things crafty. She snapped this cute photo of my tattoo (with Chris lurking in the background).



And then sent us on our way to meet Pip at Meet Me At Mike's. It was awesome getting to meet these creative crafty people and discovering a bit of the craft community in Melbourne! I will definitely be keeping in touch with both Pip and Gemma. I'm also working on sewing a plushie for Meet Me At Mikes Softies for Mirabel charity.



We also met a rad chick called Lauren at a shop called Off Your Tree and she had THE most amazing candy and cupcake sleeve done!



So those were the highlights of the trip! If you want to check out more of the photos head to my
Flickr page where there are HEAPS of rad street art pics we snapped all about the Melbourne CBD.



love the NZCQ & Mr NZCQ
x

Ice Cream & Cupcake Swap goodies!

I joined Swap-Bot last year and I have had so much fun taking part in swaps, particularly the cupcake themed ones.

I dont have much time for swaps at the moment so I have to be very discerning in choosing the ones I join. The most recent one I took part in was the Ice Cream and Cupcakes swap. I had a great time putting together a parcel for my swap partner but the best thing was receiving MY parcel in the mail.



The talented lady behind all this was Niss who also has a great blog Creative Niss. She absolutely spoilt me with my swap package but the most amazing thing was the scrapbook she put together called "Felicity's book of decoration inspriation". It was FULL of cupcake pics and each page was so beautifully done, it was a work of art. So I had to share the pics here :-)

Sierra's strawberry shortcake 1st birthday party

Our friends Gareth and Melissa threw a Strawberry Shortcake themed birthday party for their little girl Sierra's 1st birthday.





I made these yummy vanilla cupcakes with tinned whole strawberries mixed through them, topped with strawberry buttercream frosting and finished off with a cute little strawberry lolly!

They were a hit and very yummy!

Cherry 7Up cupcakes - an interesting experiment

I love Cherry 7Up and there are a few dairies here in Auckland where you can pick up a can. So I got to thinking "wow, Mountain Dew cupcakes are super rad, wouldn't it be great to make Cherry 7Up cupcakes"



These cupcakes were good in theory but didn't come out the way I expected, they were yummy but lacked the cherry bite I was after.

I thought I'd experiment with a can of Cherry 7Up much like I make Mountain Dew cupcakes. I mixed glace cherries through the cupcakes, which turned out yummy, but the frosting needed more cherry flavour. Next time I'll use some cherry essence IF i can find some. I topped them off with yummy sour cherry balls.





They looked pretty and tasted great, but not the way I WANTED them to taste. So if anyone can give me a heads up as to where I can pick up a bottle of cherry essence (if you know a place in NZ that would be even better!) I would be eternally grateful!

George the pug turns ONE!

Our adorable pug George had his 1st birthday in May. He is just as obsessed with cupcakes as I am (well he lives in hope of eating them!)

For his birthday I made him his own mini cupcake and let him have the whole thing, which was a big treat for him. It was gone in a flash, but I think he enjoyed it.

more Mountain Dew cuppies for Dave's bday

Dave and I go way back to highschool days and I made him a batch of Mountain Dew cupcakes for his birthday.

Hello Kitty Mountain Dew cupcakes for Samrulz

Sam Rulz (from Two Hands Tattoo) is the talented tattooist behind my pin up girl tattoo. We headed to her new place for a flatwarming get together and I took along these super cute cupcakes for her.

Mountain Dew cupcakes topped off with Mountain Dew frosting (that puts you on a major sugar high) and then some cute as a button Hello Kitty candies I found in a local shop.

(apologies for the crappy photos!)

baby shower cupcakes x 2

I was contacted by a lovely lady Ever who ordered 2 lots of baby shower cupcakes for her morning tea shouts at work. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the 24 mini Elmo cupcakes I made! They were hard work but turned out so cute!

But I did remember to take photos of the second order - 24 organic vanilla mini cupcakes with raspberry frosting and 24 jaffa mini cupcakes with raspberry frosting, all topped off with cute baby theme edible decorations.



here are the jaffa ones ready to go in their box:



I also made a few extra standard size cupcakes for our friends while I was busy baking the baby shower batches. These ones went to my good friend Paul:

Perky Nana cupcakes

I've been doing alot of experimenting with making cupcakes based on popular chocolate bar flavours. Perky Nana's seem to be a big hit with our friends.





This batch I topped off with banana flavoured frosting and some yellow and purple sprinkles and Pebbles candy. I just think yellow and purple on cupcakes is a lovely colour combo!

Mothers Day cupcakes with a twist

My lovely mother in law Barbara lives too far away for me to make her real cupcakes for Mothers Day. So I devised a cunning little plan. Mini cupcake shaped chocolates that I could easily post down to her.



To make these little cuties I used my cupcake shaped chocolate moulds and some milk chocolate, red Wilton melting chocolate for the cherry and white chocolate with sprinkles for the frosting part.

I made a second batch for my Mum and I think they were a hit with both Mum's for Mothers Day :-)

NZCQ goes A.W.O.L!

I can't believe how fast time flies. I haven't done a post since the end of April which is VERY slack of me, but at the same time, if any of you keep track of my Flickr photos you'll know I've been super busy with cupcake orders, new crafty ventures and a trip away. Apparently just too busy to squeeze in some time to blog!

Time to get typing and catch you all up on the news!

NZXQ xx

new Choc Cherry cupcakes & new boxes!

I have been on a mission for a while now to find the perfect box to deliver my cupcake orders in. When I was first starting out I would deliver them in my own plastic containers, but now its getting harder to keep track of them and make sure they come back to me.

So I made a trip to Printbox to go on a cupcake box mission. The guys there were so awesome and helpful and I was stoked to come away with 20 boxes that fit my NZ Cupcake Queen cupcakes perfectly!

To make it easier to find the right box I whipped up a batch of cupcakes to take along and try out for size. I thought this would be a nice chance to try a new flavour so I made some chocolate cupcakes with glace cherries and white choc chips topped with chocolate buttercream frosting, a glace cherry and some red and chocolate sprinkles. They are my new favourite cupcake flavour. I'm a huge fan of the cherry/choc combination.





And as a thank you to the guys at Printbox for being so helpful and paitent, I left half the batch for them to enjoy for afternoon tea :-)

cupcake cross stitch takes over :-)

I've been selling my cupcake related cross stitches for a while now on my NZCQ Etsy store and at Craftwerk here in Auckland. Inspired by a quote I saw on my fellow cupcake baker Natalie's Flickr, I designed this cute little cross stitch.





My Eat cake. Worship Satan. piece has become the most popular cross stitch I sell on my Etsy. I won't be making too many more as this was never meant to be a huge run. So get in quick and snap one up.

If you're in Auckland, come visit me at my Craftwerk stall. I'll have some more Eat cake. Worship Satan. cross stitches plus you can buy some of my yummy cupcakes:

Craftwerk!
SATURDAY 3 MAY from 10am till 4pm.
@ Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts - 13 REEVES RD in PAKURANGA, Manukau City.
With special special musical guests, and is of course FREE!

Rocky Road cupcakes = super yum!

I have finally gotten off my butt and made some Rocky Road cupcakes. I've been meaning to for such a long time but I keep getting distracted by other recipes or cupcake orders coming in. I often make rocky road for my stepdad and he is a HUGE fan of it, so it seemed natural to give rocky road cupcakes a go next!

I went through some of my favourite cupcake books for some inspiration but couldn't couldn't choose just one recipe that I liked, so I borrowed bits from a few and came up with these babies!



Chocolate cupcakes with white AND milk choc chips topped with chocolate buttercream frosting, chopped up marshmallows and wine gums, topped off with melted milk chocolate drizzled on top! YUM!

cupcakes for the MARCO Trust

I had the awesome opportunity of working with a really lovely bunch of kids for one week of the MARCO Trust school holiday art programme. Carrie Skinner was kind enough to take me on as a volunteer for the week and helping out was such an amazing experience and confirmed that my dream of training as an Art Therapist is the right path for me.

On the last day the kids put on the show they'd been working on all week, making costumes and creating the set. As a special treat I made a batch of mini cupcakes for them - 24 vanilla with raspberry frosting and 24 vanilla with orange frosting. They were a hit (with the adults as well!)





The kids also created a bunch of new cupcake drawings for my art project The Cupcake Project so I'm busy scanning those and will have them on the site in the next day.

Mt Dew cupcakes topped with Nerds

I can't take credit for the awesome idea of making Mt Dew cupcakes! But I can tell you who inspired me with hers. Natalie from Bake & Destroy made some and posted the results on Flickr, complete with rad Garbage Pail Kids cupcake toppers!

Since I showed Chris the photos of Natallie's Mt Dew cupcakes, he's been asking me every now and then when I'd make some. I finally bought Mt Dew and Nerds yesterday.

I wanted to try out Natalie's recipe, but she hasn't finished tweaking her from scratch recipe and the original one she tried used cake mix. So I had a hunt around and found this awesome one from Quirky Cupcake.

These are so digustingly good, its almost impossible to describe eating one. Its an explosion of Mt Dew flavour and they're so sweet, almost too sweet, and yet you want another bite. The Nerds on top were just the best touch, maybe I'm biased because I LOVE Nerds. But we're hooked and so are all our friends who got to sample one!

Thanks to my willing victims - the hubby, Karla & Alex, Berry, the Redline boys & Val, Danz, Emz & Logan.



Heres some topped with some tropical fish sprinkles (thanks to Patti!!):

NZCQ hearts Cakespy

In our household we LOVE cupcakes



and we LOVE chucks



So how stoked was I when I saw her latest Cakespy artwork featured chuck taylors!



I'm a huge fan of Cakespy and already own one of Jessie's gorgeous cupcake paintings. I snapped the chucks one up quickly and it now sits in pride of place by my mac. Be sure to visit her Etsy store and buy your own piece of cupcake cuteness - http://www.jessieoleson.etsy.com

And of course visit Cakespy for some sweetness every day, not to mention great reviews on bakeries and batter chatter interviews with bakers and cupcake makers (even including yours truly http://www.cakespy.com/2007/12/batter-chatter-interview-with-city-down.html)

don't you love a GOOD mail day

I've felt very spoilt this week. I've had a couple of exciting parcels come in the mail. The first was a package from the lovely Patti who writes one of my new favourite blogs Candy Yum Yum. We got talking about Perky Nana bars and Patti mentioned she's always wanted to try one. So I did the only thing a fellow candy lover could do, I sent her a package of Perky Nana bars, Jaffas and Pineapple Lumps.

Patti sent me a package in return and I was so excited! Amazing cupcake sprinkles, like I've never seen before (there were shark sprinkles! Sharks!! So exciting), a Reeces Whipps bar (which I'm now addicted to) a Herseys Take 5 bar (which I'm also now addicted to - the perfect mix of salty and sweet with pretzels, caramel, peanuts, peanut butter and chocolate), Herseys Kissables, Pop Drops and little marshmallows filled with chocolate and grape (which Chris inhaled!!!)



I also got another very cool package from the lovely Jenn (who is another Baker & Destroyer and proud pug owner!) She kindly sent a tshirt I'd purchsed to me to save me the horrendous shipping (thats what you get living at the arse end of the world) but she also spoilt me and popped in some other goodies - a cute as a button cupcake shaped notebook, gorgeous cupcake stickers and Hello Kitty cupcake stickers and a package of amazing chocolate from Redstone Candy in her hometown.



and her 2 cute doggies Molly & Benny put a gift for George in too. A dog plush toy in the shape of an icecream cone. It was almost too cute to give to George, but look at him looking longingly at it - how could I not let him have his pressie :-)



and one last thing in the package, Jenn's friend Jilissa made her an awesome beaded bracelet for her birthday with a little Frankencupcake on it, complete with eyeball on top in place of a cherry. I fell in love with it and Jilissa was kind enough to let me order one from her and Jenn posted it with all my goodies :-)



And even though I didn't get to post this at the time, I have to show you the rad parcel Natalie from Bake & Destory sent me. I popped a couple of bags of Jaffas in the post for her to try (since I ALWAYS seem to be making Jaffa cupcakes) and she sent me back an amazing gift box from the Bleeding Heart Bakery! The "Love Kills - A tribute to Sid Vicious" box of chocolates, complete with a chocolate gun! I was in heaven and the choccies were so yummy!

mini baked cheesecake cupcakes

These are a huge favourite amongst my friends and family, and apparently I don't make them often enough! But I prefer to keep these gorgeous mini baked cheesecakes as an occasional treat, that way it keeps the fans wanting more.

But I did make a batch last weekend for a dessert for a dinner we went to, and I dished out the rest to a few friends and family who happened to pop by that weekend. The recipe is from the lovely little pink book "500 Cupcakes" by Fergal Connolly (page 128 - mine is permanently bookmarked!). I topped my ones off with passionfruit syrup but in the past I've done berries and that tastes just as yummy!

NZCQ gets a few mentions :-)

As many of you know, I'm a cupcake baker, freelance graphic designer and crafty person. I do alot of cross stitch and embroidery and attend Craftwerk here in Auckland selling my cupcakes and crafts.

I was stoked last night when I came across a post about my embroidery on the Craft website blog. The lovely Jenny (of Sew Darn Cute fame http://sewdarncute.typepad.com/) had put a nice little piece about me on the site:



http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/03/heavy_metal_hisnhers_pillowcas.html?CMP=OTC-5JF307375954

I also found a mention about my Star Wars quote cross stitch on the Dinosaurs and Robots blog:



http://www.dinosaursandrobots.com/2008/03/you-will-never-find-more-wretched-hive.html

and one last website, my perky nana cupcakes got a mention on The Ex-Expat blog. Its always nice to know that other people enjoy my "cupcake porn" as much as I do :-)

http://exexpat1.blogspot.com/2008/04/loved-links-8-with-theme.html

NZCQ is a Baker & Destroyer

I'm one of Bake & Destroy's many fans out there and I proudly wear my Bake & Destroy tshirt and hoodie (which always gets lots of comments from people!)

So I was stoked to see that Natalie had included me in her blog along with some of her other fans modeling her kick ass apparel :-)



http://nataliecakes.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/and-were-back/

Make sure you buy a Bake & Destory tshirt while you can. The last lot ran out in record time, and that was BEFORE wrestler CM Punk wore his on tv along with Michelle Garcia wearing one while competing in a Food Network Cake Challenge and Hannah Aitchison during the filming of LA Ink. New shirts are available on Natalies Etsy store, but be quick!!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5150031

Elmo cupcakes for Aza

Our friends Melissa and Gareth little girl Aza was turning 2 and the theme of her party was Elmo!

A little while ago Natalie of Bake & Destroy whipped up a batch of Elmo cupcakes for a friends son's birthday. And it seemed it was now my turn to join the Elmo cupcake club.

So armed with Natalies awesome instructions and some super cute Elmo cupcake cases (supplied by Mummy Melissa) I whipped up a batch of Elmos for Aza.





I think they turned out pretty good for a rushed job, even though some of them have super crazy eyes!! While Natalie used marshmallows cut in half for Elmos eyes, I used large milk chocolate buttons instead (due to realising that all my white marshmallows had been eaten by hubby!). I used an orange pebble for the nose and the same Wilton 233 tip for the fur. I really need to invest in some better red food colouring as mine turned out a bit pink red, rather than a nice strong red that I was after.

new products at the NZCQ Etsy store

When I'm not being a baker or a graphic designer, I'm busy being crafty. You can check out my Etsy store for all my crafty goodies including cupcake cross stitches, Badass Baker aprons and my new lasercut wooden jewellery!

http://www.citydown.etsy.com/

One piece that will appeal to the all the cupcake queens out there is my wooden nameplate necklace with the word "Cupcake" laser engraved in a graffiti font.



you can purchase your own here www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10827206

here are a few of my other goodies:

The Cupcake Project hits 100

I'm a bit late in posting this, but my art project "The Cupcake Project" has hit the 100 cupcakes mark and gone beyond that!

The lucky person who submitted number 100 was Ashlie Johnson from Savannah, GA, USA.



http://thecupcakeproject.blogspot.com/2008/03/cupcake-100-ashlie-johnson.html

Ashlie submitted her cupcakes after making them for a class project in Illustrator! Being the lucky number 100, she won a prize of a whole bunch of cupcake goodies from the NZ Cupcake Queen. But thats only the first milestone for The Cupcake Project. I'm aiming for 200 cupcakes and then if we hit that, I'll see how much further we can go :-)

if you haven't submitted a cupcake, have some fun and do it today! http://thecupcakeproject.blogspot.com/

how lucky am I!

Our lovely mates Emz and Logan came over for dinner last night and so our dogs could have a doggie play date. We made vegetarian pizza and for dessert I'd whipped up a batch of chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes, some of which are heading to my friend Kym today for her birthday!

Emz and Logan gave us an amazing present, as a thank you for making cupcakes for their wedding (which was a total pleasure!!)



Check out my brand new pedestal cupcake stand, complete with gorgeous little glass dome on top! I'm in love <3 I put cupcakes straight into it last night and then we spent awhile admiring them, before tucking into them for dessert.

Thanks Emz and Logan, love you guys xx

Death to Cake Mix!!!!

Jess from the very cool Sugadeaux Cupcakes based in Melbourne, Australia has started a new blog called Baked From Scratch and basically its a list of bakers, both professional and home enthusiasts who make a point of doing all their baking from scratch, no cake mix - ever!



I'm extremely excited to join Baked From Scratch as I truly believe in doing everything myself when I bake, from start to finish. The rare occasions I have tried cake mix, I felt cheated from the enjoyment of baking something and cake mix never tastes like homemade!

Check out the list of bakers at Baked From Scratch

and here is a bit about Baked From Scratch from their website:

"Do you realise how many bakeries in your area, included those super expensive specialty cake stores, use prepackaged cake mix to create their products?

We have a list of bakers, both professionals and enthusiasts, who take pride in letting you know that all their items are baked from scratch. That means we don't take any shortcuts or use any mixes.

We do it for the taste, the skill, the quality and to preserve the traditions. And we want you to know it."

WIN with The Cupcake Project

Many people who read my blog also know that I have a website dedicated to my art project called The Cupcake Project. Its something I started just to get people being creative and to remind us that we all have creativity inside us. What better way than drawing a cupcake!

The 100 submissions mark is oh so close now and I'm offering a very cool cupcake related prize for whoever submits the 100th cupcake drawing!!!!!!!!! I've had so many amazing cupcake drawings submitted so far, by people around the world and I really want to keep this project going. Visit the site and have a look for yourself :-)

So please, go scribble a cupcake or create a cupcake masterpiece, whatever you fancy - and submit it to The Cupcake Project. Its all about having fun, getting creative and spreading the cupcake love.

my aprons on All Things Cupcake

Natalie from Bake & Destroy featured my cupcakes and guns handmade apron on the linkAll Things Cupcake site!

I'm so stoked that everyone is loving this apron as much as I do :-)

cupcake aprons for sale

What am I up to when I'm not baking cupcakes or doing graphic design work? I'm sewing like a mad woman :-)





Here is my latest project. There are quite a few cute cupcake aprons out there, but I wanted something super quirky to match my personality. So I found this amazing cupcake material and whipped up an apron with little guns embroidered on the pockets. I've already had some interest from a few friends so I've whipped up some more and they are now available from my Etsy store

www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10559484

I'm hoping to whip up a few more in time for the next Craftwerk!

Easter wrap up!

This Easter seemed to come and go in a blur! I managed to make 2 batches of Easter cupcakes for friends and family, even making it to my old work to deliver a batch of cupcakey goodness to my old workmates!

I found the cutest marshmallow Easter bunnies, eggs and chicks and went nuts decorating cupcakes with them:



Here is the first lot of cupcakes, Perky Nana flavour with banana buttercream frosting (since this flavour is proving so popular!) and topped with the gorgeous little marshmallow bunnies, some pink sprinkles and silver balls.







For my second batch of Easter cupcakes I gave the old Perky Nanas a break and made organic vanilla cupcakes topped with lemon buttercream frosting, marshmallow bunnies and chicks and some tasty candy coated mini choc eggs!





I hope you all had a happy Easter!!
NZCQ

NEW FLAVOUR - Perky Nana cupcakes

Carrying on my theme of classic Kiwiana lollies in cupcakes, I had a suggestion to try Perky Nana cupcakes, so here they are and they are even better than I imagined. I usually only have one cupcake when I make a new flavour and I'm generally satisfied. But with these ones, I'm onto my third!! If you love the banana taste of Perky nana bars, you'll adore these!

Vanilla cupcakes, chopped up pieces of Perky Nana bar mixed through, baked till they're gooey and then topped off with banana buttercream frosting, chocolate sprinkles and a mini banana candy! YUM!

here they are fresh out of the oven:



and topped off with yummy banana buttercream frosting:





and a Perky Nana cupcake cut in half:



and if you're curious, here is a Perky Nana bar:

seriously cute cupcake necklace

My friend Lisa from Wales is a total sweetheart and she sent me this cute cupcake necklace for Easter!

I love it and have hardly taken it off since I got it :-)

NZCQ on All Things Cupcake

The always awesome Natalie from Bake & Destroy posted about my "I'm Rad" cupcake cross stitch on the All Things Cupcake website.

Thanks for the shout out :-)

Cupcake Cross Stitch - made by the NZCQ

At the last Craftwerk I sold a few of my cross stitch creations. These little mini framed cupcake cross stitches proved very popular and I now have them available on my Etsy store

Here are a few of the designs:









plus my all time favourite cupcake cross stitch:

individual cupcakes in noodle boxes

I made a few extra cupcakes when I made the batch for Chris, and I topped these ones with chocolate buttercream frosting, on top of the orange. Decadent! I packaged individual cupcakes into noodle boxes, tied some pink ribbon around them and delivered them to some very special friends.

jaffa cupcakes for Chris

Chris has been talking me up to his classmates at tech, so I felt it was time I made him a batch of cupcakes to take in and share with them all. He picked jaffa (everyone always picks jaffa!! hehe) and I iced them with orange buttercream frosting.





Mr Gillham taste tests the cupcakes!

NEW FLAVOUR - Pineapple Lump cupcakes!

Since my jaffa cupcakes have been such a hit with everyone, I thought I'd give another kiwiana favourite a go in my cupcakes. Behold the amazing "Pineapple Lump" cupcakes. Vanilla cupcakes with chopped up Pineapple Lumps mixed through them, iced with a creamy chocolate buttercream frosting and topped off with MORE Pineapple Lumps.

The lucky testers for this new batch were: Sam & Ross, Kym & Wayne, Raggles & Lissy and of course, Mr NZ Cupcake Queen. It seems they were a hit with my cupcake tasters!

Here they are fresh out of the oven and look at all that gooey melted candy



Here they are all iced and looking pretty tasty!



had to cut one in half to give you the full effect



and if you're curious, heres what a pack of Pineapple Lumps look like



and he's the NZCQ whipping up the chocolate buttercream :-)

Baking & Destroying

My new Bake & Destory tshirt arrived the other day and I was STOKED to get to wear it out.



Do yourself a favour and visit Natalie's awesome Bake and Destory blog for her witty musings on baking, zombies and anything else that takes her fancy :-) Shes awesome!

more hens night cupcakes - for Emz

Before Emz wedding we had a kick ass hens night for her, and what hens night would be complete without penis cupcakes. This batch turned out great, I did jaffa cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting and the girls LOVED them.





And what kind of friend would I be if I didn't post a pic of the bride to be in her hens night outfit - here she is as Rainbow Brite, looking very hot. Logan is a lucky man :-)

sorry for the lack of posts!!

I've been busy with cupcake orders, baking adventures, freelance design work and lots and lots of embroidery for the next Craftwerk. But today I'm posting all the cupcake goodies, including NEW cupcake flavours!

And heres a pic guaranteed to get you going "awwww" - my little baking assistant George :-)

NZCQ goodies for SALE!

yes, you heard right. You can now finally get your hands on some cute NZCQ tshirts, buttons and aprons at Cafe Press

http://www.cafepress.com/nzcupcakequeen

I'm hoping to get similar stuff made here in NZ,but until I get that sorted, this is still a great way to get yourself one of the NZ Cupcake Queen or "I heart cupcakes" logos that I designed.

a new baby for NZCQ

Meet George!



Chris managed to freak a few people out by announcing he was going to be a Dad. But there are no little NZCQ's running around our house except for our spoilt cat Minerva Moonshadow and now our new addition to the familly, George the pug. We adopted him on the weekend and we adore him. Minerva wasn't too happy with his arrival but they're slowly getting used to each other. A few more nose scratches from her and we reckon he'll know his place :-)

NZCQ @ Craftwerk

It was time for another Craftwerk, this time part of the Cross St Carnival being held on Sat 16th Feb. The whole of Cross St was shut down and it really did feel like a carnival atmosphere. There were awesome live bands playing throughout the day, my favourite being the Benka Bordovski Bordello Band who played right at the end and had the whole crowd tapping their toes and dancing. There were a few tense moments when it seemed it might rain but luckily the only kind of downpour happened right at the end when many were packing up their stalls.

A few people were disappointed that I had no actual cupcakes on sale and I felt really bad to let them down since they had been looking forward to them since the last Craftwerk. But council regulations came into play because it was outdoors and as I still do my baking from a domestic kitchen, it was too much paperwork to deal with and easier to just miss them out this time.

But at the next Craftwerk i WILL be selling all your favourites so watch this space or keep an eye on www.craftwerk.co.nz for the next date. I promise you will get your sugar hit that you've been wanting!

What did I sell instead of my cupcakes? My other passion of course - cross stitch. I did a couple of designs from my favourite craft book "Subversive Cross Stitch" but the rest were my own designs and I think they turned out kinda rad. Keep an eye out for them at the next Craftwerk, I think the mini cupcake cross stitches and the cupcake writing sets will be popular.

Heres my hubby Chris holding down the fort:

last batch of work cupcakes

I finished up at my full time graphic design job on the 15th of Feb. I'm now working from home doing freelance design work and concentrating more on my baking orders. I'm also heading back to study later in the year so watch this space.

In the meantime, here are the final batch of cupcakes I made for my lovely workmates before I left. I kind of had to!! They are some of my biggest fans and were threatening to handcuff me to my desk or barricade the door if they didn't get one last taste of NZCQ baking.

Everyone had their favourite but in the end I went with cookies & cream cupcakes with buttercream and crushed oreo frosting that was almost as tall as the cupcakes themselve.

And since my boss Dennis can't eat chocolate, I always like to make something he can eat, so I whipped up a batch of banoffee cupcakes that kept him and all the caramel/toffee fans happy.

a close up of the banoffee creations with gooey toffee sauce, thickened cream and fresh banana on top





and the sky high cookies & cream frosting

Valentines Day 2008

I'm not that into Valentines Day except for one thing - its a great excuse to make pink, pretty, girlie cupcakes - my favourite!!

This year I only made one batch and didn't really go too crazy with my decorating. I kept it tried and tested and used the cute looking but not the greatest tasting glo heart lollies on top. Everyone seems to want jaffa cupcakes at the moment so I went with them for V Day.

Here are the cuppies before our friends and Chris ate them all hehe



and what did Chris and I do for Valentines Day? Well we had our own anti Valentines celebration on the 13th Feb and did things our way. He made me french toast with lots of fruit and maple syrup for dinner (yes dinner! not a veggie in sight which was very very weird for me) and I bought him a wedge of his favourite blue cheese, which I am not a fan of (and then refused to kiss him till he'd brushed his teeth). Very us and very un Valentines'ish :-)

1st birthday cupcakes

an order I did for a very nice lady who goes to the same gym as me. She wanted 24 mini jaffa cupcakes for her grand daughters 1st birthday party. And since it was for a little girl, it had to be pink and girlie when it came to the frosting and sprinkles.

Here are the cute wee cupcakes finished:

big baking weekend - hens day cupcakes

so here is part 2 of my big baking weekend. Tracy and I helped organise a hens day for our awesome mate Kym. We loaded a bunch of her friends all dressed in 70s gear onto a bus (the "Good Times Bus") and cruised up to Matakana to tour some vineyards. Being the cupcake queen, my contribution had to be cupcakes, but I made special penis cupcakes for the bride to be in vanilla and cookies and cream flavour.

They got some giggles from the girls :-)





the bride to be Kym in her retro 70s dress, wig and veil tasting a cupcake penis!


Kym will probably hate that photo of her on the hens day, so here is one from her wedding with Wayne cutting their very cool cake. She looked absolutely beautiful :-)

big baking weekend - sleepover cupcakes

I had a big baking weekend in Jan when I was making cupcakes for my lovely PT Bridget's daughters 8th birthday sleep over. The same day I was also going to one of my best mates hens days and was making special naughty cupcakes for her! Luckilly the right cupcakes got delivered to the right people and everyone loved them.

Here are Sahara's cupcakes for her sleep over with her friends. She wanted mini girlie pink jaffa cupcakes and mini cookies & cream.

Happy 2008 from a slack NZCQ

Happy 2008 everyone and apologies for being so slack in posting. I am way behind in adding pics to my blog! I had a bit of a cupcake baking holiday over the Christmas/New Year break which was especially good considering how hot and humid its been here in Auckland.

I but I did get back into cupcake baking and to get things going here are some cute cupcakes I made for our friend's little girl Ava's 2nd birthday party. Mini jaffa cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting and lots of girlie pink sprinkles. I made a few big ones for her Dad since he's a big cupcake fan :-)

gingerbread house for xmas day

I made my frist gingerbread house and it was so much fun. Chris helped me (he's the best baking assistant a girl could ask for!) and we had a great time putting it together and covering it in lollies. I was surprised how easy it actually was. I made sure I cut out cardboard templates first to make sure it would all fit together and then cut the gingerbread dough to the right shape before baking. I put it all together with royal icing (my first time making it) and it really did work gluing the walls and roof together.

On Xmas day Chris and I went to an amazing lunch held at my parent's friend's place. I made the gingerbread house for this couple, Jo & Owen, and I think they were quite stoked to get it. Mind you, we never got to try any of it as it was too pretty for them to cut into and they wanted to keep it for a few more days!

The house starting to take shape:


Lots of lollies:


NZ Cupcake Queen's concentration face:


Ta da! The finished house:


The smell of the gingerbread house was amazing:


My cute little lego skull man made a visit to the gingerbread house too :-)

interview on cakespy.com

I was fortunate enough to get to know the lovely Jessie Oleson through The Cupcake Project , an art project that I also run. She submitted some of her beautiful cupcake artwork to be part of the cupcake project and I discovered her amazing paintings and her very cool blog Cakespy.com

I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Jessie and you can find my interview on her Cakespy blog HERE. I've been a bit slack with my blogging over the xmas break so this is a little late.

cupcakes for Leonie & Melinda

I made a batch of Xmas cupcakes for 2 of my favourite people. My lovely massage/accupuncturist Leonie and my chiropractor Melinda.

Both of them have helped me so much this year when my RSI in my shoulder and arm got really bad. They've both heard ALOT about all my cupcakes so I thought it was about time I made them both a batch. I chose jaffa cupcakes topped with chocolate buttercream frosting, green and red m&m's and some festive xmas sprinkles! I packaged them up in star shaped dishes with some candy canes!

Merry Xmas to Leonie & Melinda :-)

cupcakes for workmates - last batch for 2007

My workmates often score cupcakes from me on Mondays after I've had a bake-a-thon on the weekend. I thought before work wrapped up for the year I'd make them one more batch of cupcakes. This lot were chocolate with caramel and choc chunk cupcakes topped with butter rum flavoured frosting and holly made of jaffas and spearmint lollies. The result is cute little cupcakes that look like xmas puddings.

Merry Xmas to the gang at Spot On!

cupcakes for Gun Club xmas bbq

The Birkenhead Rifle Club had its xmas bbq so I made us all special gun club cupcakes. Everyones fave jaffa ones topped with orange frosting and special red chocolates I'd made in the shape of the targets we shoot each week. Everyone really enjoyed them after they got past thinking they were too cute to eat!!

Merry Christmas to all the Birkenhead Rifle Club members :-)

NZ CQ

after a full on afternoon of cupcake baking I took a wee break to upload the pics. Lovely new pink cupcake apron was a bday pressie from my Mum!

Xmas Cupcakes for Fresh Cafe

Here is the first batch of Xmas cupcakes for Fresh Cafe!!

I made chocolate with caramel and choc chunks cupcakes iced with butter rum frosting and holly made out of spearmint leaves and jaffas.





There were also cute Santas made from Jaffa cupcakes topped with orange buttercream frosting to look like Santa.

support the NZ Cupcake Queen @ Craftwerk

The time has come! The NZ Cupcake Queen is selling her yummy cupcakes for the first time @ Craftwerk. Come along and support all the fine crafty people selling their cool handmade stuff and buy some NZ Cupcake Queen cupcakes :-)

Craftwerk
Thursday 13th Dec
6-9pm
St Kevin's Arcade, K Road, Auckland

www.craftwerk.co.nz