Oh SO Easy Passionfruit "Souffle"

I say "soufflé" and not soufflé, because this dessert isn't technically a soufflé. It lacks the standard soufflé base of crème patissiere. It's just a bit of cleverness with egg whites. But it looks just as impressive as a soufflé and takes about a tenth of the effort to make! It also translates perfectly across all seasons: the fresh passionfruit flavour for summer and the hot-out-of-the-oven pudding for winter.

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.