Christmas in July - Hummingbird style

As you should all know by now, I am a bit of a cupcake obsessive, so I was delighted to get an invitation to Hummingbird Bakery's Christmas preview evening last night.

Now normally the very thought of eating Christmas themed cupcakes in the middle of summer would be totally bizarre, but with the current weather we've been having it definitely wasn't that hard to force them down...and the odd glass of champagne helps!

Here is a quick preview of some of the cupcakes that were on offer.  

The first ones we tried, raspberry trifle, were unfortunately scoffed down too quickly for me to get a photo, so you'll have to go by the image in the book (most of the recipes are in the new Cake Days book so go get yourself a copy if you haven't already!!)

These were my favourite of the night, a soft vanilla sponge with a raspberry filling topped with creamy vanilla custard and another fresh raspberry.  It was light, fresh and definitely one I will have to be trying at home!  

Next up were a couple of the Christmas decorated vanilla cupcakes - how pretty are these?

And up next...(by the way, don't worry, I was there with a friend - I love cake, but not THAT much!)

White Chocolate and Cranberry - sponge filled with dried cranberries with a sweet white chocolate frosting...this got a big thumbs up.

And my choice - gingerbread.  I have these sprinkles at home, the perfect excuse to get baking these as well! This was delicious, a warm spicy sponge topped with lemon cream cheese frosting.  The quintessential Christmas cupcake? I think so!

Sadly, the last cupcakes were a little neglected and we only got about half way through before having to head on a rather long walk to burn off the excess carbs...and hit the shops!

Have you tried any Hummingbird recipes recently?  Or do you prefer someone else to bake them for you? 

Baking on a mission!

It was my beautiful Goddaughter and her baby brother's Christening yesterday.  My gift?  60 cupcakes!

I've never baked so much (well in one go) before, and it was a massive challenge - especially when the first 20 or so cupcakes sank due to my slightly dodgy oven.  But I perservered and I think they came out pretty well...if only they were all exactly the same, the perfectionist I am :)

For anyone interested, I used the hummingbird vanilla cupcake recipe, and my own improvised vanilla buttercream recipe (150g unsalted butter, 500g icing sugar and a generous glug or two of milk).  I then coloured some ready made royal icing and cut out some little stars and topped with edible glitter.  They all disappeared within about 20 minutes so a job well done, if I do say so myself :)

Now I just have to brace myself for the incoming orders...eeek!  Do you ever give homemade gifts?

A Little (cake related) Giveaway!

So I finally managed to get my mitts on a copy of the new Hummingbird Bakery book - Cake Days - and following the very positive response to my red velvet post, I couldn't resist picking up an extra copy for one of my readers.

So up for grabs is a brand new copy of 'Cake Days' as well as some lovely cupcake boxes ready to display your new baked goods!  I may also pick up a few more cupcake goodies this weekend...if you're lucky :)

Sound good?  Well if you want to enter, it's easy.  All you need to do is comment below with your dream cake recipe - and I'll start us off.  My ideal cupcake would be toffee apple - apple filled sponge with a toffee icing.  Yum!

If you would like an extra entry, please tweet about it (mention me - @jennyayre) and add an extra comment below.  Oh and you must be a follower, I will check!

This is open to everyone (UK and international) and will close on Friday 1st April.  So get your entries in!

Oh and to whet your appetite...a few images from the book...do they look good or what?!