My frog princes

Believe me one is not enough! Just in case I kiss him and it does not turn into a prince! Or in case a kiss turns into a bite which turns into me eating all of them ;) So I made a few frog-prince-cupcakes just in case and they have actually been my first attempt with fondant. What do you think? I am not a fan of extremely decorated muffins/cupcakes, since they are already so small and the topping ends up covering the taste of the muffin itself, but I decided to try just to use some creativity. I used the OGM free rollan fondant from Decora in the colour "leaf green" and as a matter of fact it was the packaging which gave me the idea.

Actually, did you know that in the original version of the story by the Grimm brothers, the frog´s spell on the prince is broken when the princess throws it against a wall in disgust?! I wonder who decided that the frog needed a kiss!? Animal-right-activists, male chauvinists or dreaming teenagers? Hahaha!

Well. . . I hope you enjoy my attempts ♥

Martina

Draw me a cupcake

Besides baking one of my other hobbies is drawing. I am not a master at it, especially when it comes to people, but I am always quite happy with the result. When I was in school I used to win the "artist of the year award", the "creativity award", or the "most likely to build a bridge to the moon award". Boy, I felt proud back then! Anyways, cupcakes are also a very easy object, even more if i create them in my fantasy, draw them, and then bake them, rather than the other way round. As a matter of fact I have baked all of these and I have posted some of them too.

Hope you like them, soon I´ll post more baking.

Enjoy ♥

Martina

The sweet bunny army ...

... wishes you a happy Easter Monday!

Hope you had a lovely couple of days with family and friends. 

At my house there has been a chocolate and a cupcakes invasion and I loved it!!!
The cupcakes are with vanilla and rose essence, buttercream icing, and pink sugar sprinkles.
By the way do you like the cupcake cuffs? They are from Depot, a shop I love.

✿ Martina ✿

Spring-evoking-cupcakes

Seriously people what´s going on?

I have put flying bees all over my blog, I have adopted a lovely white bunny named Ludwig to keep me company during the Easter holidays (by the way feel free to feed him carrots, he´ll be happy), and my cursor is a flower. What else am I supposed to do to evoke spring??? Maybe a native American sun dance? Or lodge a complaint to Baldr, Ore, Flora, Surya, or any other divinity who is apparently not doing his/her job? I hope this funny bill will help ;)

The only thing I can come up with right now, whilst looking at the winter wonderland outside  my balcony, is to bake spring-evoking-cupcakes! 

Ingredients:

120 gr. flour

140 gr. sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

a pinch of salt

40 gr. butter

120 ml. milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

mixed berries

For the frosting:

250 gr. icing sugar

80 gr. butter

25 ml. milk

a couple drops of rose extract

pink food colouring

Procedure:

Preheat the oven at 170°C. Put the flour, sugar, baking, powder, salt, and butter un a mixer with a paddle attachment and beat until you get a sandy consistency. Then gradually pour the milk and beat until incorporated. Then add the eggs and continue beating until the mixture is smooth. Spoon the batter into the paper cases until two-thirds full, add the berries, and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Leave the cupcakes to cool and when cold, spoon the frosting on top and decorate.

For the frosting beat the butter, icing sugar, and food colouring until well mixed. Then combine the milk and the rose extract and continue beating until light and fluffy. The longer you beat the lighter it will be and the better it will taste!

Enjoy ✿

Martina

Pistachio dessert variation

The weekend is approaching and so is Easter! Finally I can start bringing colour into the house and... onto the dining table!!! So which better ingredient then pistachio? Green, delicious, versatile, and Sicilian. So here are some tasty ideas for you (I have tried them all already):

To start with here are some pistachio cupcakes with buttercream icing. An easy combination of vanilla cupcakes dough with some pistachio grenadine inside and outside. Crunchy and creamy all at once.

And now pistachio-vanilla pudding with Sicilian "pasta di pistacchio" and pistachio cream. "Pasta di pistacchio" is basically  nothing other than pistachio marzipan and is typically Sicilian.

Third on my list is this lovely pistachio sponge cake with sugar glaze, shortbread bunnies, and candied roses and violets. This cake is not from me, but from the very talented Annalisa, whose cakes and sweets I adore (I will soon write a post about her baking).

Last but not least this amazing pistachio cake with pistachio cream filling and pistachio grenadine. Pistachio cream is soooo good! It is like Nutella but green. To make it yourself is very expensive, so I suggest you buy it; take a look here.

I like baking with pistachios, they are a wonderful (also expensive) ingredient, and I am "jealous" of these recipes, but if I did inspire you and you would like to have the ingredients and steps for the preparation one of these desserts just leave a comment and I will post! Promise!

Enjoy ♥

Martina

Panda People

I guess it´s because they are so cute, cuddly, furry, lazy, and sweet that everybody loves pandas. And by the way they are the most non racist animals on this planet: they are white, they are black, they are asian : ) 

Anyways it´s been a funny combination of events since my friend Romina suggested I bake mini panda cupcakes and my friend Carla instead that I bake sweet panda bread! Panda feelings in the air! 

Thank you girls for the inspiration ♥

So I made these... unfortunately I do not have any other pictures; they got lost on some company computer in Iran : D

It is fun making them, although it is a lot of work and you need quite some patience with all the little details. You will need patience also because the people around you will want to eat them even before you´re finished!

If you feel like trying here are the very detailed recipes:

Panda bread

Mini Panda cupcakes

Enjoy ♥

Martina

W la Mamma!

I love you mom!

Ti amo mamma!

Ich liebe dich Mutti!

Maman je t'aime!

Te quiero mama!

愛してる  ママ! 

Martina ♥

 

Girls just wanna have fun

...and cupcakes!

Yesterday afternoon I had a lot of fun baking with my girlsfriends Anna, Romi, Karina, and Lovi.

We had a great "cupcakes baking session" hosted by the Home ♥ sweet ♥ Bakery (that is in my own kitchen).

Cherries ended up on the floor, icing on the wall, and dough all over the kitchen counter, nevertheless we were quite successful. We baked cherry-mascarpone, chocolate-nougat, and rose-butter cream cupcakes... so delicious!!! Everyone agreed ;)

Thankyou girls, I love you! 

Enjoy ♥

Martina 

Me, Romi & Anna

 

Me & Anna

Romi & Anna

 

Karina

Anna

Karina & Romi