Pink Ribbon Day Fundraiser

Coconut cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting

On November 8th I will be running a 10km fun run to raise money for the Breast Cancer Network Australia. Today is Pink Ribbon Day so at work I organised a fundraiser with proceeds going to the BCNA. I made kitchen sink cookies, coconut cupcakes , vanilla cupcakes and cookie dough truffles. (Info on the truffles coming soon) My co-worker Eve made beautiful orange and almond cupcakes. We sold them for $2 each or 3 for $5 and raised $100. Better yet, my boss is going to match the amount we raised! Thank you to my co-workers for alway supporting my fund-raising efforts.

Carrot Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made from Donna Hay’s recipe. Pretty yum, but perhaps not carrot-cakey enough as I didn’t frost them? Regardless, I hear from my hubby they were gone in five minutes at a Monday night football gathering.

Sparkle Cupcakery, Sydney

It’s always a surprise to me when a cupcake bakery has good cupcakes! I’ve had two cupcakes from Sparkle Cupcakery and so far so good! The vanilla bean flavour is just that – vanilla beany. The black velvet is so nice and rich and chocolatey. I only wish they did a red velvet cupcake. Unfortunately it seems not everyone share my experience of Sparkle. Read another review by Sheryl from Sheryl’s Cupcakes here.

(Both my Sparkle experiences have been cupcake deliveries to my work rather than in-store dining).

Sparkle Cupcakery store from Sparkle website.

My First-Ever Fat-Free Cupcake

My new obsession is crochet. Make your own from this pattern.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze

Yesterday was Father’s Day here in the land down under and my dad requested some “nice” cupcakes. I chose to bake peanut butter cupcakes from the  Cupcakes! book I received for Christmas from my mother-in-law. I can’t tell you how these cupcakes taste – I’m recovering from the flu and my sense of taste is still AWOL. Hubby says they are “awesome” and Auntie says they are “divine” so it looks like a thumbs up on these cupcakes. I’m hoping I will be able to taste one soon!

A note about this cookbook – there are very few pictures in it! Seems odd for a cupcake cookbook not to be filled to the brim with cupcakey imagery.

RSPCA Cupcake Day

 Monkey, tiger, lion, ladybird, koala and pig cupcakes.
Click on an image to enlarge it. Which is your favourite?

Cupcake Day for the RSPCA 2009

I signed up earlier in the week to participate in this year’s Cupcake Day for the RSPCA. Yup, I love any excuse for a cupcake event. The idea is to sell cupcakes to raise money for the RSPCA (Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals I believe the acronym stands for). It will take place next Monday, August 17. I’m thinking perhaps I will make some more koala cupcakes, among other animal-themed treats.

On Thursday our office was surprised with a special delivery – a yellow cupcake courier filled with 24 animal themed cupcakes and brightly coloured balloons. Yay! Confusion! Where did they come from? A gift? Was it because I has signed up to participate in Cupcake Day?
Once the excitement settled down we found out that there it was a promotion for Cupcake Day from the sponsors New Idea magazine and The Cupcake Courier.

12 cupcakes were decorated by My Sweethearts Bakery.

The other 12 were decorated by Sharon Wee.

Buy cute merchandise here. And if your pup is sad because he is missing out on cupcakes, here’s a pupcake recipe for him!

Cup-a-Cake

Here’s how to carry a single cupcake to school/work/wherever without the icing getting all smooshed.  The cup-a-cake holds the cupcake in place well. The protrusions do stick into the cupcake so it won’t look as pretty as it did before it left home, but the icing will be intact.

I spied these little beauties online about a year ago here and tried to order some, however the international postage calculator on the check-out page was inaccurate so I decided not to order the Cup-a-Cakes until it was fixed (out of principle!). They are now available from the same website I ordered my Cupcake Courier from. Postage was speedy and you can choose which colours you prefer. US price is $US9.95 for four, Australian is $AU24.95 for four.

Cupcake Courier Sale

These are reduced to $39.95AUS

Vegan Coconut Cupcakes

I love coconut. I love these cupcakes. I want another! I found the recipe posted on a fashion message board, of all places. The recipe is by Bethenny Frankel. My version is almost 100% vegan. I used margarine (instead of vegan shortening) which does contain a small amount of dairy (listed as milk solids).

The recipe calls for vegan shortening. In Australia, a common type of vegetable shortening is Copha. That’s right, the stuff most of  us only ever use to make the childhood favourite chocolate crackles. Does anyone use Copha for anything else? I’d love to know! Copha is basically hydrogenated coconut oil. In other words, saturated fat galore.

*I used Meadow Lea margarine, which is made from vegetable oils — including canola oil — and a great deal less saturated fat. It’s not health food by any means, but I felt more comfortable baking with margarine over Copha. I’m sure butter would also work (but then it’s bye bye vegan!).
*I used plain wheat flour instead of oat flour.
*I couldn’t get coconut extract easily, so I settled for coconut essence. I wasn’t disappointed, the cake has a nice coconut flavour.
*I got about 11 cupcakes from the batter. Next time I may squeeze it out to 12.
*I halved the ingredients for the icing and still had enough to cover all of my cupcakes.

These cupcakes were very easy to make and took about 20 minutes to bake. Don’t expect the baked product to have the same consistency as cupcakes containing egg. I ate my cupcake while it was still a little warm.