The beginning...

My love of cooking began around my teenage years, as I gradually took a greater interest in what was going on in the kitchen. I would ask my mum what she was doing, how she was doing it, what she was cooking and slowly became more and more involved in the whole cooking process, mind you there were times I didn't want to be involved. I don't particularly like touching flour, it literally makes my skin crawl (I'm a little strange like that), so I never liked flouring the meat and zucchini for our schnitzel dinners. It was always worth the effort in the end though, because it tasted SO good.

My mum also had a repertoire of cakes, puddings and slices that she baked, which is where my passion for cooking really took flight. She had one particular chocolate cake with caramel icing which I will always associate with my childhood and even now it's still a favourite of mine and my two brothers. It was invariably something we looked forward to in our lunch boxes at recess or after school with a glass of milk.

As I got older my sweet tooth began it's hostile take-over of my brain consequently turning my search for and experimentation with new recipes away from the savoury and toward all things lusciously sugar-filled. I think the fact that cakes can be made to look so pretty probably has a lot to do with my obsession too. Below are some cakes I have attempted in the past:

This was my first foray into birthday cake making and I think the first time I ever tried using fondant. I made the cake for my friend's daughter's birthday, I think it was a mudcake inside.

This birthday cake was for my friend's other daughter, one of the hardest things was trying to make the chocolate gates. I was living in a part of Australia that averages about 40 degrees celsius in the summer time so trying to work with them and not have them melt was very tricky. 

This cake was for a friend's 'Bogan' themed birthday party. VB is a cheap brand of beer in Australia and I tried to create a cake version of a VB can.

Another birthday cake for my friend's daughter's birthday, in the book that this design came from they used horses but she preferred elephants, so I turned it into an Elephant Carousel. It took about 10 hours in total to make!

Yet another of my friend's daughter's birthday cakes, this was fun to make! I loved the 'jelly water', some of the sea creatures are sweets and some are plastic toys.

A cake for my friend, she loves elephants and I was inspired to make him pink as a hommage to the Pink Elephants on Parade in Dumbo

I attempted to make this globe for my partner's cousin's going away party. I was a little disappointed because the cake didn't turn out as spherical as I would have liked, the tins didn't fit together perfectly, also I couldn't find any white fairy floss for the clouds.

This cake was based on a recipe I had found online and the only reason I baked it was because I had a massive chocolate craving! It was divine and on the weekend I baked it I ended up having a piece for breakfast, lunch and tea!

I made this mudcake with ganache icing for myself and my partner's birthday (our birthdays are 5 days apart). I also made the truffles on top.

I made this cake for my partner's birthday, he loves the Rocky movies. I had to paint the fondant black because trying to knead the colour into the white fondant didn't create a dark enough shade of black.

In the beginning for me it was all about cakes (evidence of this can be seen above!) but now the cuteness of cupcakes is increasingly capturing my imagination and so I have decided to write a blog inspired by the movie Julie and Julia. I haven't read the blog written by Julie Powell but I loved her idea which I saw in the movie (I loved the kitty in that movie too, so cute!).

On my kitchen bench I have a number of cake, slice, biscuit and cupcake books that I love to bake from but I have a tendency to stick with the 'safe' ones or the ones I've cooked before which I know I and the people I cook for like. Now that's not necessarily a bad thing because at least I know people will like them and to be fair I do have a tendency to tweak the recipes I am following. However, baking the same recipes over and over again does get a wee bit boring and so I have picked a book, 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly, with the intention of cooking each and every cupcake in the book. I've decided not to set myself a time limit, after all, baking 500 cupcakes is no small task! I'll also be blogging about various other sweet treats I make, such as the cupcakes and slice I will be making this week for a cake stall, as well as those that I have when I eat out, makers of tasty sweet treats deserve to be recognised and celebrated!

Now to decide which of the 500 cupcakes to bake first . . .