Passionfruit Cupcakes.

Right outside my front door there is a passionfruit vine. It is a crazy big vine that is now covered with ripe passionfruit. I had a few ideas on how to use my abundance of passionfruit but not much in the pantry to back up my ideas. I had everything I needed for cupcakes, so cupcakes it was.


The recipe for this cake said just to mix all ingredients together. Not knowing how that would turn out I chose to use the regular method I’d use for a cake batter, creaming the butter and sugar and so on.

The cupcake turned out really nicely, except next time I think I’ll probably strain the seeds out of the passionfruit pulp. I left the seeds in thinking they’d look really nice through the cake, which they did. Personally though I didn’t enjoy the crunch factor.


To me, the best part of these was the frosting. Seriously! I could have sat down with the bowl and a spoon. A lot of love for passionfruit icing.



Passionfruit Butter Cake
(addapted from- Women's Weekly Cupcakes, Cheesecakes, Cookies)

90 grams butter
½ (110 grams) caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (150grams) self raising flour
¼ cup (60 mls) passionfruit pulp

To make the cupcakes- preheat your oven to 180 degrees c. Line a regular size cupcake tin with 12 cupcake papers.

In a medium size bowl cream together the butter and the sugar until its pale in colour.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating the mixture well after each addition.

Add the flour, continue mixing until all the flour is incorporated.

Stir through the passionfruit pulp.


Divide the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake pans.


Bake the cupcakes in a moderate oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until they are golden and spring back when you poke them.


Remove the cupcakes from the baking tray and let cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

Passionfruit Frosting

60 grams butter (softened)
1 ½ cups icing sugar
3 teaspoons passionfruit pulp (seedless)

To make the icing- beat the butter in a medium bowl until it is as lightly coloured as possible.

Gradually beat in the icing sugar, followed by the passionfruit pulp to taste.

Spread the frosting over the cooled cupcakes.

(For the flowers I rolled out a little white fondant and cut with a small flower cutter. Into the middles I pressed 3 pink cachous).

What to do with left over egg whites?

After making my doughnut dough I had three spare egg whites and 2 hours of sitting around waiting for my dough to rise. Two excellent reasons to make make macarons, blue vanilla macarons with whipped milk chocolate ganache filling.

Doughnuts or Donuts?

I don’t know if I should be using doughnut or donut? I want to go with donut because its short and I’m tired but it just doesn't look right.

Yummy yum yum, Doughnuts!! These aren't quite Krispy Kremes but they're still pretty tasty and a lot of fun to make.

From what I had read from other people while looking for a recipe, I was expecting these to be a bit of a pain in the bottom. Glad to report my adventure into doughnut making was hassle free.

Lucky for me we had people over the night I made these so I didn’t have to eat them all by myself.

I don’t know what more to say, except maybe make them, then eat them!



Doughnut dough- (adapted from Joy The Baker)

1 packet active dry yeast (2 ½ teaspoons)
2 tablespoons warm water
3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (extra for dusting)
1 cup full cream milk at room temperature
½ stick (¼ cup) butter (softened)
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
About 10 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

For the doughnuts- Add yeast and warm water to a small bowl, mix together until yeast is dissolved. Cover the yeast mixture with a clean tea towel and let stand in a warm spot for about 5 minutes. The mixture should foam and double in size. (If yeast doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

In a large bowl mix together flour, milk, butter, yolks, sugar, cinnamon, and foamed yeast at low speed until ingredients come together to form a soft dough. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.

With a spatula scrape the dough into a ball in the middle of the bowl. Sprinkle the dough lightly with flour (to keep a crust from forming). Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel, stand in a warm draft free spot to rise for about 1 ½ to 2 hours, dough will double in size. (Alternatively, let dough rise in bowl in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours.)

Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin. Turn dough out onto floured surface and roll out to about ½ inch in thickness.

Using a floured 3 inch round cutter cut out as many doughnuts as possible from the rolled dough.


In the centre of each large circle cut out the donut holes with a 1-inch cutter. (Turns out I don’t have a small round cutter so I used a starburst shape instead.)


After cutting the shapes transfer the doughnut rings to a large baking paper covered tray. Cover doughnuts with a clean tea towel and leave to rise again in a warm draft-free place about half and hour, until puffy. Don’t reroll the scraps it will make them tough. (I let the scraps and the doughnut holes rise with the cut-outs and used them to test the oil, or maybe that was the excuse i used as i snacked on them while making the actual doughnuts.)


Heat 2 1/2 inches oil in a deep, heavy based pot to 175 degrees c (350°F). Gently drop in your doughnuts 2 at a time and fry until they puff up and are golden, about 1 minute per batch, flip halfway through frying. Scoop out the donuts and drain on paper towel.


When the doughnuts are done ice them, glaze them or roll them in cinnamon sugar. Enjoy!


Vanilla glaze-

½ cup icing sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
¼ cup water (room temperature)

In a small bowl mix together all ingredients until smooth. While the are still warm dip them into the glaze. Place dipped doughnut over paper towel on a wire rack until glaze is set. It’s totally up to you how much glaze you want on them. I tried some with just glazed tops, some glazed all over and some double coated. (None of them were bad :D )

Chocolate icing-

½ cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon melted butter
1 tablespoon milk (approximately)

Mix together icing sugar, cocoa, butter and milk until smooth but slightly thick. I found the chocolate icing works best if the donuts are left to cool a little before dipping. Press doughnut into the icing about half way, remove from the icing and allow to set on a wire rack.


Cinnamon doughnuts-

½ cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. To ensure the cinnamon sugar sticks to the donuts, toss doughnuts in the mixture while they are still hot.

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies.

If you, like me enjoy the idea of your whole house smelling of peanut butter try these cookies. Seriously!

I've been craving peanut butter alot lately but there is only so much peanut butter toast that one girl can stand.

Im happy to report that now not only do i have a new favorite peanut butter delivery system, but also a new favorite kind choc chip cookie.

Babushka! and peanut butter. I was lucky to have just enough chocolate chips and peanut butter to make these.

For the cookies

2 ½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 sticks (8 ounces) salted butter (at room temperature)
1 cup peanut butter- crunchy or smooth (I used crunchy)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used a mix of milk and dark)
1/2 cup white sugar (to roll cookies)

To make the cookies- Preheat oven to 180 degrees c. (350 degrees F) Line baking trays with baking paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg.

Beat the butter in a large bowl on medium speed until smooth and light.

Spoon in the peanut butter and beat until creamy.

Add the brown and white sugar and beat for about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition.

On a low speed gradually add the dry ingredients, mix in until just combine.

Stir through the chocolate chips.

Pour the 1/2 cup sugar into a small bowl.

Scoop a level tablespoon of dough for each cookie, roll into a ball and place in the bowl of sugar.

Coat the balls of dough with sugar and space 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.

Slightly flatten the balls of cookie dough with a fork.

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, swapping the baking trays halfway through. The cookies will be very lightly coloured and still quite soft but will firm up as they cool. Let the cookies cool slightly on the baking sheet before moving them to a rack to cool completely.

I chose to ignore instructions and ate them just out of the oven. Do it you wont get in trouble I promise.

Jiggly jiggly jelly/jello

Sadly I haven't had much time for baking in the last few weeks. But I did rush my way through this eye catching jelly recipe from JaeBellz. The jelly worked out great, though next time I'll make sure I follow the tip to evenly measure the different layers.

Macaron Topped Cupcakes

I have a naughty naughty secret about these cupcakes. I cheated and used a packet mix for the cake. Oh and it gets worse, for vanilla cupcakes I enjoy, maybe even prefer a cake mix. There I said it.

I don't know if I was being punished for using a cake mix or if it was because of the time i tried to beat rock hard butter, but halfway through making these cupcakes my electric beater decided to call it quits. It made a horrible clunking noise and that was the end.

Oh well i figure I'm now one step closer to a KitchenAid mixer and with a borrowed beater i finished off the cupcakes.

Aside from that one little mishap everything else worked out super well, the macarons were my best yet and looked very pretty with the matching swirl icing.

For the Vanilla Macarons follow the recipe in my previous post.

For the Whipped White Chocolate Ganache (cupcake and macaron filling)

180 grams white chocolate (finely chopped)
180 mls thickened cream

To make the ganache- Place chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
In a small saucepan bring the cream to the boil.
Pour boiling cream over chocolate.
Gently whisk the chocolate and cream until smooth and silky.
Place the ganache in the fridge until it is cool.
With an electric beater, beat the chilled ganache on medium until soft peaks form.
Divide in two, half to fill the cupcakes and half for the macarons.

For the Vanilla Buttercream

100g butter (softened)
2 ½ cups icing sugar
20 mls thickened cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pink food colouring

To make the icing- In a bowl beat butter until pale. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and then the vanilla and cream. The buttercream should be light and fluffy. If too thin gradually add a little more icing sugar, if too thick add a little more cream.

Spoon half of the buttercream into a second bowl and tint with a few drops of food colouring until the desired colour is reached.

Fit a piping bag with a large star shaped tip. Spoon the pink icing into one side of the piping bag and fill the remaining half with the white icing.

For the cupcakes

1 vanilla or butter cake mix.

To make the cupcakes- Preheat oven to 180 degrees c. Line your cupcake pan with cupcake papers. (mine made 14 cakes)

Prepare cake mix as per instructions.

Divide the cake mix evenly between cupcake liners. (I like to use an icecream scoop for this)

Bake the cupcakes for about 15-20 minutes until lighty golden and bounce back when poked.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

Carefully cut a cone shape out of the top of each cupcake, set aside the cutout piece.

Spoon or pipe the ganache filling into the cupcakes.

Cover the filling with the saved cake cutouts.

Pipe a swirl of icing onto each of the filled cupcakes.

Gently press a macaron on top of the buttercream.

Carrot Cake/ Fish Birthday Cake

After a lot of brainstorming I finally worked out what kind of cake to make my dad for his birthday, a fish! It really should have been quite obvious to me but for some reason I couldn’t put praline out of my mind (I’ll save that idea for something else). The type of fish roughly resembles a maori wrasse, dads most recent catch.

The inside of the fishy was carrot cake iced with orange cream cheese frosting, the outside and the cake board were covered with marshmallow fondant painted with a mix of food colouring gel and lemon food flavouring.

I have to put the completion of the cake down to a lot of luck, it was my first time using this recipe, my first fondant covered cake and the first time I had tried painting icing. I had intended to make this cake over a couple of days but after some mix ups ended up doing it all in one very long night. Very long!

Carrot cake (I turned to Martha, using her recipe for Three Layer Carrot Cake)

For the cake-
2 ½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
12 ounces butter (at room temp)
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup of water
1 pound grated carrots (approx 3 large carrots)
1 cup pecans (finely chopped)

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 180 degrees c. Grease 3 three 9-inch round cake pans (I used two 8 inch square pans) and line bottoms with baking paper. Dust with flour, tapping out excess.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and nutmeg.

Beat together butter and sugars on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition.
Mix in the vanilla, water, and carrots. Beat for around 2 minutes until well combined.
Reduce speed to low, gradually add flour mixture and then finely chopped pecans.
Evenly divide the batter between pans. Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 minutes before turning out cakes onto rack. Turn right side up, and let cool completely.



Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

120 grams packaged cream cheese (room temp)
60 grams butter (softened)
2 teaspoons orange zest
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups icing sugar

To make the frosting- Beat cream cheese, butter, orange zest and vanilla with a mixer on medium speed until creamy. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually mix in the icing sugar until smooth and fluffy.

Spread cooled cake with frosting and cover with rolled marshmallow fondant.