{My Favourite Breakfast} Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

As we near the end of February, I'm finding it harder and harder to keep on that healthy eating band wagon. Mostly it's because the healthy food isn't quite as exciting as a beautiful piece of, say, Snicker's Chocolate Cake or Milo cupcakes with condensed milk icing...mmm...oh yes!

{Christmas Eve} Dark Chocolate Truffle Gingerbread Cupcakes with Chocolate Bourbon Buttercream

This is my second Christmas post for the year. If you missed it, make sure you try out this home-made eggnog recipe I posted yesterday; I am an eggnog convert! These are seriously the most decadent and delicious cupcakes. They’re perfect for the Christmas season, but I can’t say I’ll be able to hold out and only have these once a year! A delicious gingerbread cupcake with a Lint dark chocolate truffle filling and a chocolate Bourbon buttercream. I mean, come on!

These Are a Few of My Favourite Things!

Wow its been a CRAZY few weeks. Tons of deadlines at work, a horrible bug that knocked me down harder than a taxi on Jan Smuts (for the foreigners...think bus on a free way), my birthday (YAY!) and then a trip to Cape Town for work followed by a long weekend of fun, food and whale watching!

We had so much great food in Cape Town, I've decided to write a few posts on some of it. Cape Town really is an amazing city! But more of that to come...

Snickers Marshmallow Cookies aka "Little Bites of Heaven"

OMG these cookies are DELICIOUS! Cookie dough with bits of melted marshmallow, chocolate chips and Snickers bars. The caramel from the Snickers also melts a bit and oozes out...so good. When I asked my taste-testers for a name for these cookies, Little Bites of Heaven was decided on. If you get one of these bad boys fresh out of the oven you'll know why.

Do you see the gooey marshmallow? And that little piece of melted caramel? And all the chocolate chips in the dough? Now that's a cookie :)

Milestones and Milo Cupcakes

Six months ago when I started up this blog, it was mainly for my own enjoyment: a place to express myself, share my love of baking and track my progress. This last week, I reached 1 000 hits on my blog. Now I know for some bloggers this is a tiny number that they reach each morning by 9am, but for me it's an achievement and something I am very proud of. Thank you to you all for taking the time to read my posts, pin my pictures and enjoy my baking (hopefully) as much as I do.

I also took a few steps in the social media realm and created a Facebook page and Twitter account; you can now follow my baking adventures here, via subscription, on Facebook, on Pinterest, on Twitter, or on Instagram. I'm still working on figuring out how to get the links for those setup nicely on my page, but watch this space!

To mark this occasion I would like to share with you my new favourite cupcake: Milo cupcakes with condensed milk icing. OMG these things are amazing! I had to stop myself eating the batter just to make sure I got a few into the oven. And man am I glad I did. Fresh out of the oven they were even better! Once topped with condensed milk icing they were unbeatable!

Snickers Birthday Cake

Last week was my boyfriend's birthday. We had decided earlier this year that our birthdays would be on a budget because we are planning the trip of a lifetime in early 2014: we are going to Sweden and Norway to see the Northern Lights!!!! I am SOOOO excited! So even though I love birthdays, the holiday is worth putting them on a budget. But this doesn't mean that we can't celebrate at all, it just means putting in a bit more effort to make a special day for the most amazing boyfriend.

Photo courtesy of Victoria Pilcher Photography

A little while ago, Brown-Eyed Baker posted a Snickers Cake recipe. Snickers are my boyfriends favourite chocolate (well, maybe with the exception of Chuckles), so I knew it would make the perfect birthday cake! What I didn't know at the time was how much work actually needed to go into this cake! Especially since we don't get marshmallow fluff easily in South Africa and so every element needed to be made from scratch. I put in some serious hours, starting on the weekend and getting home from work a bit early each day so I could have a bit more time to work on the cake.

Chocolate Sprinkles Cake

This week my cousin, Amanda, is visiting South Africa from Australia. She moved there a couple of years ago and any opportunity we have to see her is a special occasion. This visit especially so as it is only a week from her birthday. We had a dinner at my parents house earlier this week to celebrate her birthday and getting to spend some time with her. Of course, I had to make a cake!

During on of my many blog-hopping experiences, I found a Gummy Bear Layer Cake on Raspberri Cupcakes. Being naturally drawn to anything with sugar, cream and bright colours, this cake REALLY appealed to me! I started off making the cakes a week or so ago, but then life happened and I didn't get a chance to finish it. I stowed the cakes in the freezer, wrapped thoroughly in glad wrap, ready to stack when I got the chance. This is a great celebration cake and I knew I had to get it finished for the dinner.

Happy Mother's Day: Palet D'Or

Mother's Day in my family is celebrated by myself and my two siblings making lunch for my mom. My brother makes the starter, my sister the main and, of course, I make the dessert. Now Mother's Day needs to be celebrated properly, with a dessert that shows all the love you have for your mom. This year, my chosen dessert was the Palet D'Or from the Bouchon Bakery book.

St Paddy's Day Celebrations - Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I'd been eyeing the Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes of Brown-Eyed Baker for a little while and decided that St Paddy's day 2013 was the day I would finally make them. So I combined these with the Chocolate Guinness Cake to make for one great St Paddy's day for me!

St Paddy's Day - Chocolate Guinness Cake

St Paddy's day isn't widely celebrated in South Africa; well, other than university students who will welcome any excuse for a party. Nonetheless, being of Irish descent, I felt like I couldn't let this opportunity to do some baking pass up.

A while ago I made this cake and it was just so delicious and moist. The cream cheese frosting perfectly complements the richness of the Guinness and the chocolate.

White Chocolate Mousse with Lime

My favourite part of having friends over for dinner, besides quality time with friends, is the chance to make an awesome dessert. I'll spend as little time as possible figuring out the first two courses and then spend days pouring over my recipe books narrowing down the list of exciting possibilities. The latest dinner included a lamb shank main, so I was looking for something that wouldn't be too heavy as a dessert, following such a rich main course. This mousse was just that!

Trixie with her dessert

Decadent Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Although these may not have been the prettiest treats I've ever produced, they were absolutely delicious! So chewy and the peanut butter and chocolate just work together perfectly.