Review - Happy Home Made Cupcakes

After my massive cupcake tour of Melbourne I was contacted by Neev from Happy Home Made Cupcakes. She runs her own cupcake business from home and was keen to get me and Daz to sample some of her delicious treats. Daz and I being the cupcake fiends that we are were never going to knock back an offer like that! So today we got the best treat ever and have an entire cupcake platter prepared for us! How lucky are we!

I must compliment Neev on really thinking about Daz and I, she had prepared a combination of regular sized cupcakes and mini cupcakes. Considering that there were quite a few flavours on offer, tiny morsels are the best to taste test without getting too full along the way. I do have to confess though, they were so good that Daz and I went back for seconds! Diet starts tomorrow!

After visiting Cupcakes by Heather and Lori in Vancouver a couple of years ago, the cupcake bug well and truly took a bite. Neev started the business in March this year after a little gentle persuasion from her daughter Ameesha. All cupcakes are proudly baked from scratch, containing no artificial preservatives. And I must say Happy Home Made is the most perfect name for her cupcakes, after meeting Neev and her whole family I can see that alot of love and happiness goes into every single cupcake.

So onto the eating right!?! Listed in order of consumption. We started with a Vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. This was Ameesha's favourite. I thought I would get some inside knowledge before diving in, and it was a good way to start. Subtle vanilla flavour with a good dose of vanilla frosting.

Then we moved onto Coconut cupcakes with meringue frosting. Daz loves anything meringue, so this one was pretty close to his heart, and I adore coconut. The crunchy intense coconut on top was a delight. You would think that anything with a meringue frosting would be overly sweet, but the sugar levels were just right. That's absolutely perfect for me, its means that I can eat more without feeling like I'm about to fly out of a room on a sugar high!

Next we had Dark brown sugar cupcakes with caramel and cinnamon butter cream frosting. This was good, real good. The kick from the cinnamon was unexpected and freakin delicious! Daz really loved this one, he was raving about it all the way back home. We were even lucky enough to get a couple to take home....they didn't last long....sigh.

We left the best to last. When I looked at the Chocolate Mud cupcakes with Caramel frosting topped with violet crumble and a drizzle of caramel I knew we were in for a treat. They looked like miniature volcanoes exploding with flavour, with a trickle of caramel magma flowing over the side. Deep, dense, intense chocolate flavour topped with subtle caramel and crunchy violet crumble. Hmmmm these were my favourite. I'm crazy about dark chocolate and there was a good dose of it in these cupcakes.

Neeve is an absolute delight and I'm so pleased that I got the chance to sample her baked goods. If you would like to order some of her cupcakes you can contact her through her blog at Happy Home Made Cupcakes or drop her an email at neevrap{AT}hotmail.com

Punch Lane

Punch lane

43 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

It was a cold August night and we'd ventured out into the wind and rain to meet up with the dynamic V's for a bite to eat. We'd left early so we could find a close park and have the opportunity to sit in the warm comfort sure to be awaiting us inside Punch Lane. I parked on Little Collins street. I was so proud of myself, I've managed to find the perfect car spot on the exact same street that the restaurant is on, how often do you get to do that in the CBD. Daz and I got out of the car and started walking up the street. "Where is it?....its 43 right...so it should be here somewhere"....."are you sure its on Little Collins street" CRAP!...wrong "Little" street!

So a slight detour and 15 minutes later we were inside the bar. The place was packed so our table wasn't quite ready, so we sat at the bar....all of us starving, cold and uncomfortable (who thought tall wooden chairs were a good idea?). Cured meats hung mockingly in front of us. I contemplated grabbing a sausage and chowing down before a waiter could notice, but the dignified side in me kicked in and stopped me just in a nick of time. My stomach soon gave way to my bladder, time for a pit stop. I don't usually mention toilets at restaurants, but this one was a doozie. I walked in, and as a women the first thing I did was look for the bag hook. I looked everywhere, and then....I looked up. The bag hook was way up on the wall, way above my head! I thought it best not to put my bag up there, just in case it fell off and knocked me unconscious while sitting on the toilet. Knowing me and my track record so far that night, that would be likely to happen.

We got to our table, and my favourite thing about any restaurant....plentiful free bread. Since there were four of us and the waitress was a class act, the bread baskets were flying at us at an incredible speed.

We each had a glass of wine and then it was time to order. There was a winter express menu on offer so we opted to go for that.

Daz started with a huge bowl of cream cannellini soup with chorizo and spinach. It looked so lovely and creamy, with crispy pieces of chorizo floating on top. Daz was so kind to give me ONE spoonful, it was warm, thick inviting and perfect for a cold wet night. I really wish I had ordered that dish for myself, atually I wish Daz was more inclined to share half his meals with me, we have a mortgage together...whats half a bowl of soup!?

The rest of us had the salted salmon, potato and olive salad, with fresee and lemon mayonnaise. The salted salmon tasted a little weird. It was originally supposed to come with salted cod, but they had run out for the night. I wondered it if would taste much nicer with plain smoked salmon. The mayonnaise was the saviour of the dish, it was tangy and refreshing, an element that was really needed to combat the saltiness of the salmon.

For mains, V2 had a confit of chicken with winter cabbage, peas and jus roti. He was bitterly disappointed, and I was for him too. Confit is one of my favourite dishes, and his tasted exactly like fried chicken...nothing special, didn't taste bad....just ordinary. sigh. I dislike ordinary.

The rest of us had braised lamb shanks with creamed carrots and swede. We hit the jackpot. The lamb was tender and juicy, exactly what a lamb shank should be. The creamed carrot and swede was delightful. It was so special, I still think of it to this day. It was fluffy but filling, the dish had a few olives dotted here or there. Your mouth would burst with excitement when you took a mouthful of mash and hidden withing was a salty little package that just made everything taste so well rounded. I had never thought to throw some olives into a mash, but I sure am going to do that now!

We also got a side of Greek salad and crispy french fries.

Overall the dinner was pretty good. I enjoyed the atmosphere and I'll definitely be going back. Hopefully next time I can try some of their cured meats, and park on the right street!

A death in the kitchen + Peanutbutter Gelato + KitchenAid = AWESOMENESS!

I started my weekend on a bad note, or as it later turned out - the best thing that has ever happened to me! While making a cake with the vivacious Ms V, my trusty - but cheap - hand held mixer finally died (You'll find out about the cake soon). While beating the frosting the motor made a funny noise, struggled for a bit and then started to smell like electrical appliance death. I shed a little tear for my dear friend and said my good byes. We had alot of fun together, the countless cupcakes we've made together, I'm surprised she didn't die on me earlier!

Today, while shopping with Daz I saw a gorgeous limited edition candy apple red KitchenAid stand mixer. We went in to check it out and low and behold it was on special! $599. Was it my birthday? nope. I've been hmmming and arrrhing about getting a KitchenAid for ages. I have an issue with purchasing things, impulse buying is not in my repertoire. Daz convinced me after offering to pay for it, not only is it on special, but you're telling me I can have it for free? GIVE IT TO ME....NOW!

I got her home, unpacked her and gave her a little kiss. Daz and I stood around for a while and just stared at it. There's something incredibly hypnotic about a shiny red piece of metal. Then came the difficult part, giving her a name. We recently welcomed Beryl to our home a couple of months ago, and shes been couriering cupcakes back and forth like a real pro. A shiny new RED kitchenaid needs a name that is sexy and sounds like alot of fun......cause we're gonna have fun together! So we decided to name her Corinna. Here are some happy snaps

Now to the second part of this post, on a recent trip to Leo's I came across some peanut butter flavoured gelato, made by Gelati Sky. I LOVE peanut butter anything....who doesn't like peanut butter? I went against my better judgement and ignored the $7.80 price tag for 1L.

I purchased it on Tuesday night, and its been sitting in my freezer since. Not because I didn't want to eat it, oh on the contrary. I wanted some good lighting to take photos before I hoed into it, so I waited until the weekend. If I know anything about myself, I know I cant resist gelato if its anywhere near me, so I'm pretty proud of myself for lasting 4 days!

Oh man was it good, it tasted like peanut butter funnily enough. The surprising part, there were swirls of chocolate through the gelato which I didn't expect. It didn't taste overly like chocolate, but it was a great flavour to contrast with the salty peanut, it actually tasted alot like a picnic bar without the crunch and caramel. It was delicious, no wonder they've won awards!

So in the end it was a pretty great weekend, I got peanut butter ice cream and I finally got a KitchenAid! Woo hoo!

Cupcakes in Melbourne

Competing in the cupcake challenge has intensified my already insatiable appetite for cupcakes, recently Daz and I decided to go on a grand cupcake tour of Melbourne, for research purposes of course. I searched the Internet for anything cupcake related that existed in Melbourne. We set out early in the morning, had some breakfast, bad mistake, then proceeded to eat our own weight in cupcakes, along the way we almost made ourselves violently ill from eating too much frosting. So here's what we tried.

Little Cupcakes

Shop 7 Degraves Street Melbourne

No cupcake tour would be complete without making a stop at the infamous little cupcakes. So we started at the best and worked our way through my list. We tried a selection of mini cupcakes. My thought process was, they're tiny so I can eat more of them. They are $2.50 each or $2 each if you purchase 4 or more, and everything you buy is served with the most friendly smile you will ever see. Top score for customer service! We tried, cookies and cream, strawberry, Belgium chocolate and chocolate mocha.

Cookies and Cream Cupcake

Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

Belgium Chocolate Cupcakes

Strawberry Cupcakes

Every single one was delicious! The frosting was so light that it wasn't sweet at all. I had intended on only consuming half, but I just had to eat all of them right there and then. My favourite was the strawberry, so full flavoured and cute with its little silver balls.

The Cupcake Bakery

495 Collins Street Melbourne

A relatively new addition to Melbourne, this bakery was first started in Sydney. A friend of mine had been to the bakery the week before and warned to stay away from the Chocolate cupcakes, she thought they were a bit dry. We tried the Choc Mint (Standard - $3.50) and Tiramisu (Delux - $4.50).

The service at the cupcake bakery is fantastic. I got into a conversation with the owner about cupcakes, and even told her I was a food blogger, something I don't do often from fear of being attacked. They even have a massive cupcake on display!

So we grabed our cupcakes and sat down to enjoy the cakey goodness. I would love to say that the choc mint cupcakes were wonderful, but unfortunately it was a little dry.

The tiramisu was moist and very tasty. It was a little on the dense side, something that is good in a mud cupcake, but I don't think this cupcake was intended for that purpose. I doggy bagged half of my choc mint cupcake, I thought it would be best to save my stomach at the early stay in the tour.

Let Them Eat Cake

147-149 Cecil Street, South Melbourne

We didn't actually get to sample any of the cupcakes at Let Them Eat Cake. Whenever I go somewhere food related, I usually ask if I can take photos....as a courtesy. I don't have to explain why I take photos, I just don't want to surprise anyone and make them upset. At let them eat cake I was so excited about all the pretty cakes in front of me that I totally forgot to ask if I could take photos. I took two snaps and then I was attacked. And I'm not kidding. I had heard that they were pretty rude at let them eat cake, but the lady behind the counter exceeded rude! She told me off for taking photos, even after I apologised, she still attacked me. She demanded I delete the photos from my camera, which I wasn't going to to. I still wanted to order something and thought that she would put it behind her, but as I was ordering she was still talking down to me and pointing out what a "bad thing" I had down. I didn't want to be spoken to that way any longer, even after I had said I was sorry, so Daz and I left empty handed. As Daz and I were walking out she was still screaming across the counter at us, with a shop full of people! I've decided that I'm going to go back, buy some cupcakes, then take photos of her and the inside of the shop from the street. I'll be on public property there so she wont have any say. Ha Ha.....take that rude cake lady!

Crabapple Cupcakes

Shop 6/163 Commercial Road, Prahran Market

I like crabapple cupcakes. Most of their cupcakes are quite dense and if you get them fresh, they are delicious. I've been to crabapple cupcakes a couple of times and every time I always seem to get the raspberry white chocolate mud cupcakes...mainly due to the frosting I wish I could make frosting like that! So on this occasion we tried the raspberry white chocolate mud, lamington and flourless chocolate mud cupcakes.

Lamington Cupcake

Raspberry and White Chocolate Mud Cupcake

Fourless Chocolate Mud Cupcake.

I was a little disappointed in the lamington cupcake. To me it just tasted like a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting and coconut sprinkles, nothing like a laminton at all. I dont know why, maybe t needs a really fluffy light sponge cake with a oozzy chocolate sauce. It was still really nice, just not like a lamington.

Planet Chocolate

Highpoint Shopping Centre L03 7326, Highpoint, 200 Rosamond Road, Maribyrnong

Whatever you do, never...and I mean NEVER buy cupcakes from Planet Chocolate. Yes they look kinda cute and have the potential to quench a cupcake thirst, but they do the exact opposite. I asked the girl behind the counter what flavour she had and it was a choice between vanilla and chocolate. I decided on vanilla. When I asked her what type of frosting it was she told me it was cream cheese so I was sold. She Literally threw the two cupcakes into a bag, I was worried they would get damaged and look terrible. To my luck they were as hard as a rock and could have been tossed off the top of a 3 storey building and still stay intact.

The cream cheese frosting was not cream cheese at all. It tasted like a big wad of lard, and no cream cheese frosting I know could withstand a nuclear attack. Lesson learnt, keep walking past Planet chocolate.

Peterson's Cakes

117 Chapel St, Windsor

On our way to crabapple we drove past Peterson's Cakes, and saw a lovely wedding cake made entirely out of cupcakes which apparently is all the rage now. I was pretty sure that they they didn't sell cupcakes over the counter, but the store on chapel street has a cafe section and Daz was a little thirsty, so we stopped in for a look see.

I walked all the way around the shop and saw no cupcakes. Sigh. Daz had a drink and a little rest on a chair, then I got up to pay the bill when low and behold I saw it. The last cupcake left in the entire shop. Yes it was more of a patty cake than a cupcake, and yeah it was a little worse for wear, but I gotta give it a try right....I'm on a cupcake tour, I just have to. I handed over my $2 for the patty cake/cupcake. I sat it down, had a good look at it and then ate it. It was really nice. I total surprise. Despite it probably being older than me, it was pretty moist and the icing was nice. The taste reminded me of cupcakes my mum and I used to make when I was little. It was good, ugly, but good.

After exiting Peterson's Cakes, Daz told me he had to give up. His head was hurting and he was a little sugared out. I could have kept going for ages, it was only 2pm, the day was still young. I still had more places on my list to visit, but for the sake of our relationship, we drove home and Daz had a rest. He promised that next weekend we could finish the tour. The other locations are;

Sweet Source in Carlton
The Replete Providore in Hawthorn
Cooks Food in Toorak (not sure about this one)
Switchboard cafe off collins street,
The Lounge Bar Cafe on Swanston street
Sophisticakes of Melbourne @ The Arts Center Sunday Market (my review here)
Wild Holly Cakes in Brigton.
Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses
Happy home Made cupcakes (my review here)
Cupcakes by Paolo (my review here)
Amsterdam St cafe in Richmond for Sugadeaux Cupcakes
I've even been told that Costco have cupcakes, so I'll have to try them!

So stay tuned for part two of the cupcake tour, In the meantime, do you have any suggestions of cupcake venues I should try?