Chinese New Year & first Macarons Bake Up for 2012!!!

(side note : woo hoo to figuring out how to get my pictures to fill the width of the screen... :P)

Happy New Year everyone!!! \(^_^)/

Feels like Christmas and New Year was just yesterday, but hey, Chinese New Year is just around the corner!!

It's again, a time for the big family to come together and celebrate the year that was and the year that will.
2o12 is an extremely BIG year, it's the year of the GOLDEN DRAGON!! It is considered a very lucky year, in the sixty year cycle.

A chat with 'E' the other day revealed that a lot of times, oranges (yes, the fruit) are often brought over as gifts during Chinese New Year visits, the way one would bring a bottle of wine to a dinner party.

I know fruits are good for you, but I thought, why not bring some sweets instead? :P

Everyone needs something sweet to start the year right? So that the next 12 months will be 'sweet' for you.

This year's cupcakes themed around the word 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' (congratulations and be prosperous) , along with the hand motion that we do when we visit our elders, wishing them congratulations for the new year. :)

Thus the gold ingots as a reference back to the congratulatory saying.

Chinese New Year is a 15 day celebration, and on the 15th day, is the lantern festival. I still remember, once upon a time, I used to get to pick what lantern I wanted for this day, a long with my many cousins.

And of course you can't miss the Dragon right? This being the Golden Dragon year and all?

This set of 6 cupcakes is $45,- and they are perfect to have at home when you have visitors, or to bring along when you're doing your 'rounds' :)

Flavours included :
- Red velvet w/ vanilla cream cheese frosting (it's chinese new year after all, RED!!)
- Moist chocolate mudcake w/ dark chocolate & orange cardamom ganache (so it's not totally 'orange'less)

Now, if you're thinking, "but cupcakes aren't really my thing", I thought I'd shake up the kitchen a little this month (read : give myself a little more headache and challenge in the name of celebration). I thought I'd run the first Macaron Bake Up of 2012 at the same time. ;)

I am about to introduce the new i eat sweet pricelist for 2012, but for the meantime, they are staying at $22 per dozen.
As per usual, you can have a mix of everything or you can email me with what particular flavours you want in your pack.

And this month, the flavours are :
1. chestnut
2. sydney breakfast (feat. T2 tea)
3. dark chocolate orange & cardamom
4. mac & cheese
5. kaya toast
6. milo dinosaur
7. taro
8. white chocolate chai

So, get in quick! Email me with your orders :) I'll be waiting :) :)

Hoping to get all your emails by 10am on Monday 15th of January 2012. From which I will lock myself in the kitchen and get your goodies ready for Friday 20th of January 2012

There's a new email address : ieatsweet@gmail.com - however if you accidently sent it to the old one, not to worry, it's still active too.

Very excited for the new year!! A lot of things happening this year, and I am (telling myself that I am) ready for them!! :)

And, just in case I don't see you before the 23rd of January, "Gong Xi Gong Xi," may the Golden Dragon brings you prosperity to all of you this year.

RSPCA Cupcake Day 2011

Tomorrow, Monday 15th August 2011 is the annual RSPCA cupcake day.

For the past 3 years I've been doing some cupcakes for them via my sister who goes to Sydney Uni.

This is year is no different.

Sydney Uni Animal Welfare Society is selling cupcakes to raise money for this event.

(more info on their facebook 'event' page . )

And this year, these are the cupcakes I'm sending over to join the other cupcakes to find a new home/ tummy.

pockpock 'chickin' & max 'da dog'

mifty 'the kitty' & chike dee dee 'the chick'

'chike dee dee' & 'max the dog' are yummy peanut butter cupcakes whilst 'pock pock chickin' &

'mifty the kitty' are the very scrumptious nutella cupcakes. They are petite, adorable, and hard not to like (yes... i maybe a little biased). But most importantly, they are for a VERY GOOD cause.

So please adopt (buy/eat) them and help the uni raise some money for the RSPCA and all the good works they are doing.

And if you go to Sydney Uni, then you have NO EXCUSE not to help the cause. Here's the a link to event again just in case ;)

all packed and ready to meet their adopter tomorrow

Snow Season

I'm not a snow person myself, it's wayyyy too cold for me. But the visions of white snow everywhere you look always makes me smile.

This year's snow seem to be one of the best amongst all the snow lovers. Throw in a blizzards here and there, the season still proves to be one of the best.

Whilst there's still snow in our mountains, I thought I'd share this cute cupcakes set I did for Kasha a while ago. Her mum contacted me for a ski themed cake. And after a few discussion and sketches we agreed on a figurine, skiing on cupcakes, with little groups of snowman in party hat.

Sweet, simple, appropriate and easy to divied up :)

Finding Nemo cake & cupcakes

When one think of cartoon or animation, Disney would definitely comes to mind. When one say "colourful", I definitely think about Finding Nemo - featuring OZ's very own Great Barrier Reef.

The beginning scene, with the anemone always comes to my mind when I thought of Nemo. So it's the first thing that came to mind when sketching this cake. "How" will I get it to stand up? First I thought of foams - inedible of course - but after some consideration, decides to stick with fondant and skewers.

Sides... Reef scenes are always good inspirations :) *gave me an excuse to pull out the DVD as well in the name of research :P

reef scenes along the side

And what's Nemo without his friends (and dad)... This time, we are doing standard sized cupcakes with 3D figures on top, ala Planet Cake :)

Marlin & Dory

Peach the Starfish & Bloat the Pufferfish

Blossom & Squirt (don't tell the others, but I like squirt the best.. hee hee hee)

And altogether now..




and here's another look at Squirt.. just because... :P

choo choo choo

Kids these days have lots of choices when it comes to TV. One that seems to be a favourite amongst (almost every) kid is Thomas.

I know who Thomas is, but I-(who-need-to-catch-up-on-kids-tv-characters) didn't realise he has so many friends, whom each look somewhat similar but not the same.

There has been a few Thomas the tank engine requests. And I thought I'd share them with you.

1/ cake & cupcakes set for Oliver

2/ a Thomas 6" cake for Zachary

and its' side views

3/ a Toby cupcakes set for Nic