Bake Sale for a coworker - cupcakes

Another book that I borrowed from the library was Hummingbird Bakery. From what I read, I think it's a well known bakery located in UK. Sometimes it's hard to know where a place is because numerous locations have similar names. The funniest location mix-up is Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada and Sydney, Australia - people have ended up in small town in Nova Scotia when they wanted to be in Australia.

Anyways, back to baking. The book had very nice pictures and recipes sounded interesting plus Gwyneth Paltrow commented on the book cover (so it must be good).

Cupcake Relay

I took a cupcake class. Not that I needed it but the recipes sounded interesting. I guess I could have gone to recipe books but I also thought I'd see some cupcake decorating.


The class was taught by Chef Clarence Ma.

It was a two day class. On the first day we made:
Limoncello with Limoncello icing, chai latte with chai frosting and tangerine cranberry.

Day 2 we made Banana Rum Foster and Chocolate Guanduia Pyramids with Chocolate Ganche. We also made lemon curd and vanilla buttercream frosting.

The recipes were easy to make though quite rich as it required butter and shortening. One thing that I discovered was the shortening is more stable than butter. As well it's cheaper. However the shortening we usually buy (Crisco) has hydrogenated fat which is bad for your health. Instead he used shortening that's for vegan so no problem with hydrogenated fat. Good to know. Wonder if will work for pie and puff pastries (that's my next plan of attack).

Red Velvet Cupcake

I finally made Red Velvet cupcake. I kept seeing red velvet cakes and cupcake on food network and found it very appealing. I love the red colour and have been dying to try it. I never saw it sold in bakeries here so no chance to try it. I finally had the chance during the Christmas holiday in Las Vegas. It was good so I decided to make red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.