Do you all remember the nursery rhyme?

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
one a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters, 
give them to your sons.
One a penny two a penny, 
Hot cross buns!

It's an early Easter this year! And although completely not religious, sometimes (time permitting), it's fun to create some easter treats. We're pretty full with cake orders next week and due to other commitments, we're having some fun in the kitchen this afternoon instead.

Trying out our new flavour White Chocolate Earl Grey with these midi sized cupcakes (they're good, really good). Dark chocolate whipped ganache and speckled Cadbury eggs. I think I'm going to be a popular person at work on Monday!

I had every intention of using my shiny new little canon camera with wifi capabilities. But by the time I'd run out to the shops to buy a candle and have a coffee, we were running late! So phone camera it was.

Our little Ethan (my grandmother's youngest great grandchild to date!) is one today!!! So his parent's and big brother Justin had a big party today at their house to celebrate. My goodness, a whole bunch of kids under the age of 10 is crazy! Especially when you've been charged with entertaining them for the afternoon! Thank goodness they had an awesome trampoline! But we did have games like 'pass the parcel' (completely not rigged...), 'what's the time Mr Wolf?', 'Egg and Spoon' Race and an Easter Egg hunt.

The food was amazing compliments to Ethan's grandfather who use to be the Head Dim Sum Chef at one of the main chinese restaurants in Chinatown.

And of course, I was charged with the cake! Yay!!! It makes me so happy to make it. No Thomas this year (although Justin did get a very special present). Just a little two tier, blue, green, stars, stripes and sporty cake. With a cuddly bear on the top. A fun but tiring afternoon. So glad to be part of it!

We're on the cusp of the end of berry season but there were these delicious strawberries at the grocer's the other day that complimented this huge marble mud cake sooo well. It smelt delicious.

It's hard to think of things to do for a guy's birthday. Especially when it's not a themed party and they don't have any particular interests that they want shared on a cake. I thought this was nice and safe and very appropriate for a 3 course restaurant setting.

The cake was served with ice cream, berries, coulis and cream so it would have been just perfect.

Here's a lovely little snap from a few Friday nights ago when I had a few friends over for Pizza (all homemade) and Pimms. It was devine.

Sourdough. I have been converted and now only resort to the jar of microorganisms commonly known as "yeast" when I'm out of time... 

Sourdough is so delicious, so good for you, so easy to look after and gives it more taste. You really do have to try it!!! I have a couple of pizza stones and a pizza oven but I assure you that this is not necessary...

Do you notice something missing on these pizzas though...?

I was a bit out of sorts with this one and was so excited to package the finished cake that I didn't get a happy snap. It was a Square cake too! :(

I don't do very many Baptism cakes either so this was the best I could do. 

Silly ol' me use to think a stick of butter was 250 grams. For clarity, it is not, 1 stick = 125 grams. Needless to say, some things didn't turn out so well. I made a simple vanilla buttercream once (way back at the beginning of my culinary adventures) with what I thought were the right ratios. Essentially it was 250 grams of butter to about 250 grams of icing sugar. I even put it on my cupcakes and gave it to my friends who then proceeded to eat the cupcakes. I'm not sure if anyone realised what I'd done and why the icing was well so.. buttery. Anyway, they probably gained a pound of two because of me that day. hehehe... ^-^

I now have in my head that it is 1 cup of icing sugar to roughly 60 grams of butter for buttercream plus vanilla, a dash of milk, etc.

Sometimes, you just need a recipe to guide you and this is one of the best Chocolate Buttercream recipes I have come across. Light, fluffy, buttery, chocolately and absolutely not sickening sweet. I used it to pipe words, I used it to pipe borders and to fill my cake.

Chocolate Buttercream (adapted from addapinch.com)
Makes about 8 Cups

Ingredients:
375 g butter, softened
5 C (650 g) icing sugar mixture
1 C cocoa (I used Hershey's)
1/3 C milk (or less, depending on consistency required)
1 t vanilla essence (mine was organic)
pinch salt

Method:
1. Beat all ingredients together until well combined, fluffy and pale in colour. You may choose to add milk last and as required until the right consistency is achieved.

I use to get away with not having to temper chocolate before melting and making cool shapes. But in the current humid and warmer weather, it's not a great idea.

It melts and it doesn't re-set. I think its my cue to learn how to actually temper chocolate.

In the meantime though, I can make loads of chocolate ganache, chocolate dipped goodies, shaved chocolate, piped chocolate, chocolate borders, etc etc. And yes, it is a pretty messy job. If it's too warm, it's too runny and if it's too cold, it sets before you can pipe and shape it. Many nights, chocolate is not my friend.

But its everywhere. And if it's not, then cocoa is.

It is just that popular in cake form! Almost as popular as my Chocolate Caramel Ombre Cake. Another variation below.

It's always exciting to remake a cake. From a purely 'numbers and time' point of view, it is very economical because you already know mentally what needs more time, where you can save time and how you can achieve everything in less time.

So I was very fortunate to be asked to make a cake that I did last year for another little boy's first birthday. It is just so colourful and simple and so innocent and everything a first birthday should be about: blue skies, a few giant cumulus clouds and little cars.

It also gave me more experience in portioning. Because a taller tier cake means you don't need the cake to be as large is diameter as the additional height makes up for it. This is still something relatively new to me (yet it is so logical). I guess coming from a hostess' point of view, I always want to ensure that there is slightly more than enough rather than "just enough". This translates to cake sizes. And I also want to be fair from a pricing perspective. So these days, when I have customers asking for a quote, I always ask how many serves required. If they ask for 30, then I try to cater for 35. If they are for 35, then I try to cater for 40. Of course, sometimes it is not so simple with the tiered and larger cakes.

It's always very interesting to do your own research on this. It depends on the person cutting the cake, the sharpness of the knife. The general consensus is that a coffee (finger) slice is 1" x 1" x 4" and a dessert (party) slice is 1" x 2" x 4". Great to keep in mind for your next occasion.

And if you're a bit like me and aspire to be something along the lines of Hostess with the Mostess (Yes, I think she actually exists), then Pintrest is a great place and guide to how many portions of different types of foods and drinks you should have. I've learnt over the years that... Less really is more. Unless you want to try making all these things because otherwise you won't have the chance to or time to or just want to show off your amazing kitchen skills. Then it's a good idea to ask your guests to bring tupperware ;)