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 :-)