Stuff I've been up to

I'm feeling very guilty at the moment and have been being a bad bad blogger.

Although I have been neglecting the blog I have been busy baking and this is a quick post to share some of the things I have been doing.

A couple of weeks back I attended a friends Girls Night in held in honour of her co-hosts late mother Eileen and I really wanted to share a couple of photo's. These ladies raised just under $2,000 to donate to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. It was superbly organised with raffles, a dessert table, auctions and more, many local business were so generous in donating goods and services.  I made some macarons (of course) some decorated sugar cookies and triple choc cookies. I had a great time, met some lovely people and even won the lucky door prize (wahoo), thanks so much to the organisers for such a great night.

As well as the girls night in, this past weekend I made up a couple of batches of cupcakes and decorated cookies for my Aunty who participated in the relay for life in her bid to raise awareness and funding for Lynch Syndrome, she and her supporters did a great job as well.

and you all know it was Halloween, well was baking up a Halloween storm, orange macarons for the neighbors, Halloween cake pops and more. In fact I entered the Little Betsy Baker Halloween pop competition and was lucky enough to win the facebook fan vote with my Betsy Witchy Poo pops pictured above.

Then I made up a batch of rainbow lollipop cookies for Faye at Giggles and Tantrums for a photoshoot, yup their the ones at the top of this post, those cookies always brighten up my day.


And created some new lollipop cake pops pictured below.......tutorial on how to make these will hopefully be up within a week.

oh and some cupcakes and fondant toppers for Ah Tissue fabulous new product shoot which will get their own posting in a couple of days.

Phew, and a bit more in between all of this ....busy busy busy.

Ladybeetle love bug cupcake toppers

OK, I'm totally in love with these little lady beetle love bugs I made today. Ever since I saw them in a new book I bought I've just been itching to try them out.

Now I'm not the best with figurines but the ones in the pics were my first attempt using the easy instructions in Debbie Brown's new Gorgeous and Gruesome cakes for Children.

Who wouldn't love this little fella and his misshapen eye...


and I thought I would try my hand at making the concept into a bee, it needs a bit of work but those lady beetles love, love, love them.

I used the instructions in the new Gorgeous and Gruesome cakes for Children by Debbie Brown...mostly.... just a little tweaking, Debbie's look way cuter of course, but I did replace the little feelers with fondant just because I have little kids and I like everything to be edible where possible.



Gorgeous and Gruesome Cakes for Children

Sorry my posts have been a bit sparse lately, I have been a little bit busy with real life. But don't worry soon I promise I'll have a tutorial for these super cute and super sweet Bubble and Sweet original Lollipop Cake Pops I made last week.

Triple Chocolate Cookie recipe - my fav chocolate cookie eva

Well today was supposed to be a Daring Bakers Challenge post, but that's not happening.

Instead I'm going to share the recipe for those rich looking cookies from Robert's birthday party, my favourite Triple Chocolate Cookie recipe.


It's based on an old Family Circle recipe with a little tweaking. Make sure you use Large eggs, not Extra Large as it will make a difference.

Try to use nice quality chocolate and cocoa I used a good Belgium brand, but whatever you like eating will probably work.

Sometimes I replace some of the dark choc chips with Macadamia nuts and they become oh so yummy triple chocolate macadamia cookies.

However you make them I hope you enjoy them they have been a favourite of mine for years.

Triple Chocolate Cookies - makes about 25 large cookies

1   1/2 cups plain (all purpose) flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1   1/2 cups soft brown sugar
180g (6 and 3/8 ounce) unsalted butter
150g  (5 1/4 ounce) dark chocolate, chopped
3 large eggs lightly beaten
3/4 cup dark choc chips
3/4 cup white choc chips

Preheat oven to 180 C (375 F), line a couple of trays with baking paper.

Sift flour, cocoa and brown sugar into a mixing bowl.

Combine butter and chocolate in a bowl and melt in microwave on short bursts at med/low mixing well between each session.

Add butter mixture and eggs to dry ingredients and mix until combined, do not overbeat.

Stir in choc bits.

Drop about 2 tablespoon for each cookie onto tray, flatten slightly and bake for 12 mins.

Cool for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool.