other cool bloggers
Baked goods19. June 2013
Ooooooooooh weeeeeeee I need all these things in my pudding compartment. Maybe we should have a baking party where we all meet in a dark location each armed with several baked goods, which we then pig out on in the dark together away from judging eyes slash Instagram. Yes?
Chocolate Espresso Brulee Tarts
chocolate cupcakes with oreo cream cheese frosting
Chocolate cake – love how it’s been decorated
sweetened condensed milk cake with lemon zest
Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes with Earl Grey Buttercream & Salted Caramel
Mini Chamomile Cakes with Honey Frosting
Yoghurt cake with caramel sauce
Mini tart with blueberries and mascarpone
Curate 1k23. May 2013
Came across this cool site called Curate 1k that has loads of pieces of art on it that are for sale. It’s run by a lady named Norah, she scours the internet to find $1000 worth of beautiful, affordable artwork each and every week. So if you are keen to find some pretties for your walls, click here.
Here are some pieces that took my arty fancy…
Jane Sews online23. May 2013
My friend Amy has finally got her Jane Sews online store up and running and it’s full of wonderfully pretty things for you to buy. Amy has also become one of my sponsors, which I’m super happy about.
Here are some photos of her latest collection which is all available online. So happy viewing and shopping and welcome Amy to Lucky Pony.
Sally Ross17. May 2013
I came across this artist named Sally Ross on Design Files and thought I would share her work with you guys. Her paintings look very labour intensive, what with all the tiny dots and lines that make up most of what you are looking at, which is pretty amazing. The blog I found her on interviewed her in her studio, so if you like what you see and want to read more about her, click here.
- My process is simple – found photograph, composition drawing, then paint (Lukas oil paints on linen).
When I find an image I wish to paint, a sort of recognition takes place and then I just do it. The actual painting is time-consuming, tuning up the image always seem to require further detail, more observation. A work can take from weeks to many months to complete. I do work on several canvases at once, they tend to feed off each other.
Happy birthday to my best friend and hooray for Oreo cupcakes.16. May 2013
On Monday night I threw my Shane a small surprise Rumdayillovo party. It’s his birthday today which means it’s pretty much impossible for us to go out because of Howl, so with Doug’s help I made prego rolls and potato wedges, hung up balloons with steamers, set-up a poker game and had our Rumday Illovo family over to surprise him. He was ALMOST surprised. Boo. He arrived home literally 10 minutes before everyone else arrived to shout the big ‘S’ word, but he appreciated it anyway.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SHANE, you are my best friend and I love you so so so much.
I also, for the first time attempted to make Oreo cupcakes. They were actually pretty easy to make and they turned out really good, well that’s what everyone told me. I always feel weird saying things tasted good, like I’m blowing my own horn, but they were really nice. The Oreo after being baked in the cake batter turned out really soft and yummy, so when you bit into the cupcake everything was super soft and sweet. I made a simple cocoa buttercream icing for the tops, which complimented them nicely, it also made them look cool, white on the outside and brown on top, sort of like an Oreo.
Anyway here is the recipe for the cupcakes, the buttercream icing I just made up as I went along, but next time I’m totally making this recipe because it sounds amazing and who wouldn’t want the most amazing icing on their cake? Not me.
Vanilla Cupcakes
125g butter
150g castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs.
200g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
125ml milk
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together Add the vanilla essence and mix well Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl well after each addition Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the mixture and beat well Pour a small amount of the mixture into the cupcake holders then place a Oreo cookie on top of the mixture before covering it with more batter. Fill the cupcake tin holes just under 3/4 of the way. Bake at 160° for 20 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes are slightly golden brown. Once they are cooled you can ice them with whatever icing takes your fancy. Like I said I made some cocoa buttercream icing, but next time I’m using this recipe (below) but I’ll add some cocoa.
Fluffy Buttercream Frosting
1 1/2 cups butter, at room temperature (3 sticks)*
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (use clear if desired)
Directions
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, using the paddle or whisk attachment whip butter on medium high speed (if using whisk attachment whip on high speed) until nearly white and very fluffy, about 7 – 8 minutes, frequently scrapping down the sides of the bowl. Add in powdered sugar, heavy cream and vanilla extract and mix on low speed until blended, then increase speed to medium and beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 – 6 minutes, frequently scraping down the sides of the bowl. Immediately spread over cooled cake or cupcakes.
Typography cake. Now. I want it now.15. May 2013
Good Lord, look at this amazing cake! My friend Clint always finds the coolest things like this and then mails me the link (he found Eyescream and Friends). He is the best at finding stuff that makes me want to backflip off a roof. I’m so so so going to try make this cake and when I do I will blog about the results, but for now check out these cool photos and read about how to make it. Here is a link back to the genius who actually made this in the first place – Victoria I’m sending you a virtual high-5, because your face and this cake flipping rule.
- To make the cake you will need; 1 box cake mix, any flavor (we used white), edible dough (any color), mini alphabet cookie cutters (these will vary in size, make sure they are small enough that when your word is spelled out, it will fit in your pan), a 9×5 loaf pan (or any cake pan in which your message can fit; a bundt pan is a fun one to use), rolling pin, and confectioners sugar.
Take your edible dough and knead it into a workable, pliable consistency. Then sprinkle a little confectioners sugar on a clean surface and roll out the dough to your desired thickness. Cut out the shapes of the letters you want to use in your message. For the cake in this tutorial, I used a whole package of edible dough and cut out the letters Y and A to spell YAY.
Make cake batter according to instructions on box. Grease your pan and pour enough batter in the pan to cover the bottom. Take your cut-out letters and place them in the batter, spelling out your word or message. Repeat this until you have crossed the length of the pan. Make sure the letters are lined up and straight.
Place the rest of the cake batter into a measuring cup (or piping bag if you want to really be careful) and pour batter slowly over the top of the letters, until they are covered and you have used up all the batter.
Bake cake in a 350F oven for about 40 minutes; check for doneness with a toothpick. Allow to cool before using a sharp knife to slice into the cake and reveal the surprise message.
