sewing classes

yesterday was my first day at a sewing class at sewnit. I had expected it to be some really basic stuff but it was really good! i learnt a new technique about how to decorate plain fabric and I came back with a lot of inspiration.
we started to make a bag but my fabric was to small so we are re-creating it into something else. The lady that takes it is very nice and so is everyone else in the class and shop. it felt like a very quick two hours and I am looking forward to next week. As for now, heres a quick peek at my creation.

 
friday, 1st april 2011

Cupcakes . . .

ahh, cupcakes!

. . . the crispy yet sticky top

. . . the soft and fluffy middle

. . . an amazing amount of icing (because that's whats acceptable with cupcakes!) 

. . . and not to mention the gorgeous and mouthwatering appearance!

well, last weekend I made some plain vanilla cupcakes with a buttercream icing, just a simple recipe from the Internet but they turned out really yummy which was a bonus!
the main reason that I wanted to make them was to practice my icing, I had been given a tutorial on how to do a rose swirl and after looking on YouTube I got some other ideas as well, I ended up with the rose swirl, a daisy inspired pattern, a weaved look and a few others that were total experiments! here are my final products . . . 

my new stand :)

yum!!



normal swirl



two toned rose swirl



mm. . .

 

up close!

I also had my first try with gum paste, im still not entirely sure what its real purpose is as I was looking for sugar paste (not sure what the difference is but any way)  it worked fine for me! first I coloured it with the Wilton colour pastes and rolled it out until it was really thin. I then cut out some butterflies and placed them in a foil shaping thingy that I made to make the wings stick up. Once they had dried I put them in an air tight container until the cakes were ready. One thing that I didn't really predict was that once the butterflies went on the cakes and in the fridge they collapsed over The icing. I'm not sure weather this was caused by the moisture of the cakes or the fridge itself but I will experiment with that next time I make them. And here they are . . !



welcome!

hello blog world :)
I am really excited about what this blog will entail for me and how it will develope over time!
I will be blogging about my cooking (not the flops though!) and any crafty things that I do.
I hope to post between one and three blogs a week but it may take me a while to get the hang of writing to no one but also knowing that the whole world has access to it!
I will leave you with a cake that I made last year, its a tripple layer chocolate mud cake with cream filled profiteroles which is based on the "treasure cake" from the cheesecake shop!