Birthdays And Cupcakes

What in the world are these??? My birthday cake??? Yes, happy birthday, Keshia!!!

Can't make out what we are trying to spell???...HAPPY B DAY KESH and of course a heart-shape. It was supposed to spell 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY KESHIA' but the cupcake recipe yielded only 16 small cakes when I clearly needed 19, so I had to abbreviate. We got hungry half way thru the job and devoured the extras.

Kesh, we hope you like these cup cakes which we took one whole morning painstakingly created especially for you. We know they don't look professional at all,  but they are filled with lots and lots of love.

When I decided to make a cake for Keshia's birthday, I know it would be a near impossible task for me to make a cake and decorate it, convincingly that is.

So I took a baby step and go small, cupcake small. I figured that would be a piece of cake (not exactly!). 

Surfed through the internet and looked through the recipes of all those bloggers I admire (namely terri, nee, ganache..) who can so easily whip out such awesome work of art one after another. 

Hopefully by going into their blogs their magic might rub off on me :p. And of course, to look for tips. I needed all the help I could get. 

Nee's butter cream looked sooo beautiful and satin smooth but I wasn't confident enough to attempt the sugar syrup thing and I wasn't so sure of the freshness of the eggs I have in the fridge. 

I don't want coloring and plasticky whipped cream, so I ended up doing butter icing, plain and with melted dark chocolate for contrast.

Certainly not a piece of cake as I thought. The icing was not as obedient as I expected and the cheap plasticky whatcumicallit I bought specially for this task was not much help either. 

The icing landed not only on the cakes but also our hands, table and floor. I should have done this when our part-time helper was in. 

I know now why I never like working with icing...it is the cleaning up. I had to mop the floor with detergent, if only I could pour hot water over it like i did the oily dishes!

Thank goodness for this cupcake stand from Mee Fung and the smarties which Leanne insisted we needed. They certainly helped to make these little cakes more presentable.

By the time I got to this last cupcake, I was finally getting the hang of it and enjoying it...Leanne and myself had a really fun time decorating...

and eating these as we worked...

And the look on Keshia's face was priceless when she walked in and we surprised her with the cakes. Happy birthday, my girl.