Hummingbird cupcakes

These cupcakes are made using the same recipe for the hummingbird cake.
Frosting was piped onto the top and garnish with a single dried pineapple slice.

Hummingbird Cake

Very eager to try out this classic recipe, the hummingbird cake: 

The Original Hummingbird Cake Recipe
Originally submitted by Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, North Carolina in the February 1978 issue, this Hummingbird Cake recipe is known to have won numerous blue ribbons at county fairs.


  Photo: Southern Living

It is full of flavours; with chopped bananas, crushed pineapples, (mine with dessicated coconut), cinnamon and chopped pecans.

Instead of topping the frosted cake with pecans, I decorated the top with dried pineapple slices.

These pineapple slices are baked at 112degC for about an hour.

Cream cheese frosting covered this 2 layer cake.


Cream cheese frosted Hummingbird cake topped with dried pineapple slices.

Macarons
Macarons with chocolate ganache filling

                                            

                                                 

Graduation cake

To celebrate my niece's graduation, I made her a blueberry pound cake graduation cake.

I chose pink fondant to cover the cake because her Arts faculty colour is old rose.

Green wavy border lined with pink roses and pearl beads.

Two main items on the cake are the graduation scroll and cap.

 The graduation cap

The graduation scroll


Congratulations!!

Cherry No bake Cheesecake in a jar

I made these jars and presented them as birthday gifts to my family and friends.
It is a no bake cheesecake recipe from Martha Stewart.

Lovely Australian cherries make delicious cherry jam.

Starting at the bottom is a layer of crushed chocolate cookies.
Next is the cream cheese filling.
Followed by the cherry jam with whole cherries.
Sandwich the jam with another layer of cream cheese.

As for toppings;A whole cherry with stalk, Royce' white chocolate and chocolate chips.

Finally, bottled up with a lid  and kept chilled in the refrigerator.

Blueberry  Bake#4 -
Blueberry Jam

Adapted recipe from Jamie Oliver's homemade strawberry jam.

Ingredients are only blueberries, sugar and lemon.

 Cook them all in a pot until the right consistency is reached.

This jam can be used as tart filling as well.
 

Blueberry  Bake#3 - 
Blueberry and Lemon Bundt Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe; I made a very light lemon glace with very much lesser icing sugar :)

Blueberry  Bake#2 - 
Blueberry and Lemon Tart

This french tart recipe (tarte aux myrtilles citronnées) is from this delightful book by pastry chef Murielle Valette.

Sweet shortcrust pastry is first made and line the tin.

Fresh blueberries are baked directly in the tart shell.......

As well as sugar too...

When the tart is almost done, a lemon cream consisting of egg,sugar,lemon zest and juice is spread on top of the tart and bake for another 10 minutes.

Et voilà..Blueberry and lemon tart...

Blueberry season is here again.. so are all my blueberry desserts...

Blueberry Bake#1 -
Muffins
Breakfast  blueberry muffins made two ways:

Adapted from Martha Stewart's recipes, I have made Berry avalanche blueberry muffins and crusty sweet top blueberry muffins.

Berry avalanche blueberry muffins
These muffins were stuffed with almost doubled the amount of berries so that berries will burst and avalanched when baked and filled the muffin cups:

Crusty sweet top blueberry muffins
To make crusty top; flavoured sugar, like cinnamon sugar was sprinkled generously on top of muffins just before baking.