Cloggers and bupcakes!

cupcakes with flags

Twitter is to blame. I read a tweet by Betty Bake when she asked if any bakers would mind making R150 cupcakes for the Blogger’s get together at the Granddaddy Hotel. I immediately said I would do half? I was so excited about the meeting – of course I would bake for it! Then I thought about it. That’s 75 cupcakes… trays usually come in 6 or 12… and so on. That is a lot of cupcakes for one little house oven! I tweeted my own pretty plea to Chetna and Bobby to see if they were keen to help. I didn’t really asked my little sister – she just got dragged into it. Luckily for me sisters don’t get much better than her and she’s always willing to help me in a pickle. She even helps me study boring things like Pharmacological… I love her.

So we planned a date! I had never met Bobby before (or Nico)! Our mutual friend is Chetna…who I hardly know but her fiance is the older brother of Stuart (this boy I’m seeing). So after that circumstantial explanation! We were pretty much strangers on a cupcake mission! We also made the flags… using some paper, toothpics and printed out names. Bobby brought a bottle of tequila along for moral support…

I spent a whole evening with the delightful Robynne (aka Bobby) from Bobbylicious blog. She is truly lovely in real life. We succeeded in our mission and did more than 100 cupcakes, drank some (a considerable amount) of tequila and even cracked some jokes about ‘grrr’ factor in the name Bobbylicious (she has those hot secretary glasses to go with it). Hehe. Hope she doesn’t mind me saying that. As for her BF, Nico, he should be cloned as far as boyfriends go – I was a bit tipsy told him to do a course for all men in boyfriend etiquette. He is just too sweet! They are an adorable couple. I had so much fun getting to know some fabulous people… the time flew and we churned out more than enough vanilla cupcakes with amarula icing… Most of the photos posted here, Bobby took – seems I was a bit preoccupied at the time or it was that tequila.

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The recipe (From Mel’s Kitchen Cafe)

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk

METHOD:

In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in eggs and egg yolk one at a time and then mix in the vanilla. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine. Add 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix. Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Mix. Add the final 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix and then add the final 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Mix until combined and the batter is smooth. Spoon out batter into lined cupcake pan, filling only halfway or just barely over halfway. Bake for about 15-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out with moist crumbs. Don’t overbake!

AMARULA ICING:

(This should ice a good 20 cupcakes!)

60 g butter

500 ml icing sugar

20 ml Amarula cream liqueur

125 g cream cheese

Cream the butter and sugar until SUPER DUPER light and fluffy! then mix in the other stuff slowly. I added the Amarula afterward, then the cream cheese. The key here is bit by bit and gradually because I never use as much cream cheese as the recipe says! Suppose it depends on your taste and how thick you want your icing!

On the night! The Venue was the Granddaddy Hotel (the pics of the venue are from their website) in Long Street, Cape Town. It’s a gorgeous venue that screams bling! The whole thing was organised by Betty Bake and Being Brazen! What fabulous girls organised free wine, chocolate brownies from Decadent Dani’s and some prizes on the night! There were the cupcakes too and Nelle Cakes did red velvet cupcakes for the evening. I chatted to Annari from Nelle Cakes for a while. She is divine! A passionate baker and something of a girly hero to me. She is also so approachable and charming. One of the non-bloggers I met was Mark, my ‘foodie pen-pal’ who I have been chatting to via e-mail about baking, food and the tools for the job. He’s surprisingly good looking, knows more about baking than I do and, girls, he’s heterosexual. He also likes dogs. Just saying. Mark introduced me to the fabulous Lipgloss girl (she also did a great post on the evening)! She’s got style and a wardrobe I’m envious of! I also stole a pic from her blog… Thanks Lipgloss girl! I also got to meet Tori from Kiss Blush and Tell who gave me my little Kiwi foot hamper! Thank you! It’s so cool! Definitely improved my high heel comfort a notch…

bloggers meet up cape town

blog

Then! I met the lovely Lisa from Time and a Few Moths (who also has a post about this)… her passion for vintage clothing is infectious! She asked if I wouldn’t mind modelling some of her clothes. I didn’t need much time to think about that. Hell yea! I would love to! I wish I got the chance to meet more bloggers but there were so many people I only chatted to a handful. I’m excited for the next one! I got to meet ‘Imnojamieoliver’ He’s is one of the photos below (red jersey) and photographer Robert from Panascape – who is just a sweetheart! And was a huge fan of the vanilla and amarula cupcakes! He offered to do a photoshoot of my cupcakes if I ever wanted… lucky me.

kathcake