Pantry & Patty Cakes

I'm getting ready to move into my new house (estimated date around middle of July), so I've been buying some things for it. KMart had a sale on the Sistema containers so I bought up to get my pantry organised.

Here's a photo of before and after:











And then here's the main focus - Sistema containers! I told my sister that I'm getting rid of my Tupperware containers so now I have to save them for her.














Once I had sorted out my pantry and pretty much procrastinated for the entire day (I've just realised that my towels are still on the line) I thought I'd get into some cooking just before I started to prepare dinner.

I got the recipe for the cupcakes at Life In A Peanut Shell. I highly recommend this blog. As per usual when I find a blog I like I can't help myself but look through the ENTIRE blog. I just kept hitting the "older post" button. I save recipes I like and print them out and make recipe cards.

The cupcake recipe uses cake flour. I have come to the conclusion that using cake flour is the way to go. It gives the cakes such an airy texture - oh, and the batter! This is so yummy I could just eat it out of the bowl as a meal - YUMMO!!

I made up the mixture and then divided it into two - one I left plain and the other I added some melted chocolate. Here's what I came up with:

The first was from the chocolate mixture. I placed some white chocolate bits into the mixture once I had put it into the cases. I'm calling these Cupcake Dots (small dots inside big dot on the outside). The icing is something I found in the pantry once I had sorted it out; chocolate icing - just add a little softened butter and hot water. Perfect!

The next cupcakes were Funfetti. I found this idea on Baking Bites. I just love the name! I found some coloured sprinkles and stirred them through the vanilla mixture. The picture isn't too clear but you get the gist of it.


I also made some Marbled Cupcakes by swirling the vanilla and chocolate mixes together. I topped them with vanilla buttercream and Flake pieces.

Finally, I made Chocolate Lover's Cupcakes. I used the chocolate mixture then I used the vanilla buttercream and added melted chocolate to it. I then topped the cupcakes with a smashed up Crunchie bar.

I'm feeling generous this week since it's nearly school holidays - 4 days to go (WAHOO!!) so I'm going to take a selection to the kids in my class.

All up I made 50 cupcakes today. Imagine what I could have done if I hadn't of procrastinated all weekend!