Lemon Poppy Engagement Cupcakes

 I had such a great time last weekend. After all the planning and organising, my engagement party went off without a hitch. I wanted to put together a cupcake tower for dessert, instead of the more formal cake option. Cupcakes are just so easy to pick out your own and devour without the need for a plate or spoon. Lemon poppy was the new trial flavour accompanied by the already well appreciated divine carrot cupcakes topped with yummy cream cheese frosting. The recipe was taken from the fabulous Bella Cupcakes blog, and it is deliciously moist, so much so that these really do not require frosting at all.

Divine Carrot Cupcakes

 Just last weekend I got a brand new camera and as soon as it was finished with its first charge, I had to spend some (or a lot) of time, having a play around with it. You see, I'm going overseas in just a couple of weeks, and the old camera was playing up just a bit too frequently for my liking. An example involves me standing in front of the 12 Apostles in Victoria, with the camera not working until it's been turned on and off again 10 times. I just cannot have this happen to me whilst in Europe.

My new camera is the Nikon coolpix S9100 which is a compact ultra zoom camera - apparently. Well, I'm really excited about taking this new toy overseas to capture some moments and memories of the adventure. I equally enjoy looking back through baking photos and the memories they're linked to. Some are linked to events, such as a brother's birthday, but others are linked to memories of the food itself and how good it tasted. When I look at the photos of these carrot cupcakes, I most definitely relate it back to how good they tasted and my mouth starts salivating craving one.

I looked at a few different recipes and in the end based mine on a carrot cake recipe with a few slight tweaks. I reduced the raising agent, increased the walnuts but finely chopped them up and also added crushed pineapple as I wanted the moisture without the flavour. And boy were these moist - I ate one 3 days after baking and it was still just as good as freshly baked. Also the carrot was grated using a microplane grater and this makes for a nice soft texture in the cake, although any grater will do. I'm so happy with how this recipe turned out that it will be my go-to carrot cake and cupcake recipe from now on.

The directions for decorating these cupcakes are in my previous post - Pretty in Blue Cupcakes.

Pretty In Blue Cupcakes

 Blogging is a very new hobby for me. It started from a love of baking, which then turned into a love of decorating, then photographing and finally recording my triumphs and losses in writing. Each time I decide to bake, a lot of thought goes into the flavour of cake to make, and how to decorate it. These can be two very separate things, or they can be tied together. This time I feel the decorating and the cake flavour baked are distinct, so they have been divided up. I am so happy with how these cupcakes turned out in both flavour and presentation, and they are my favourite so far.