Lesson's learnt so far...

So i've been baking since January when I was given the Hummingbird Bakery book and a food processor for Christmas. It's been a long journey since then and i've learnt a lot...with a lot more still to learn. Each time I bake I make some form of mistake, and each time I bake I learn something...progress!

These are some of my adventures so far...

1. Vanilla cupcakes.
The first ones I tried and a firm favourite. I love how dense the sponge is and i've made this recipe several times, trying different frostings/fillings in the process.

Next step: try a different vanilla cupcake recipe.

2. Cream cheese frosting
So I kept reading about cream cheese frosting and I really wasn't sure about it....time to try it! I made strawberry cheesecake cupcakes with a plain cream cheese frosting sprinkled with crushed digestive biscuits. They were so delicious and I really should make them again, but I mixed the frosting too much and it was too runny and make the cake quite messy!

Next step: don't mix frosting too much!

3. Lemon cupcakes
Next up, I made some lemon cupcakes. I loved them, though perhaps they were a bit too lemony! I was really chuffed with them but when I looked at the photos of them I realised my decorations were just not up to scratch, see in the photo below.

Next step: buy some piping tools and some nicer cupcake cases.

4. Vanilla cupcakes with M&M's
After a few more baking sessions, including making Oreo cupcakes and truffles with my friend Gem I decided to make some M&M cupakes. The main aim of these was to improve my decorating skills as well as use my lovely new blue cupcake cases. However, the M&M's sunk and although I didn't get a photo, I was told the bottom of the cakes looked like rabbit droppings. Ooops. However, I was super chuffed with the frosting!

Next step: coat M&M's (and any toppings) in flour before adding them to the mixture.

5. Toblerone cupcakes
Probably my most adventurous cupcakes, I saw the recipe on Gem's blog (they were originally from Red Deer) and as it was my step-Dad's birthday and I knew his favourite chocolate was toberlone, I thought i'd give it a go. The cakes were amazing, they were so golden and the toblerone chunks didn't sink (wohoo!). However, the SMBC was a complete disaster, really runny and I put it in the fridge to help it set but nope, no go. I need to look into this and try again!

Next step: learn how to make SMBC successfuly!

Now that I have Martha and I've found some great online blogs it's time to be more adventurous. I think my next baking day will be Sunday 13th, so watch this space...