The Weekender ~ "Rotcher" Cupcakes

Hello lovelies, welcome to the first installment of 'The Weekender', another new weekly feature on the blog! Each week I'll post a recipe(either my own or something fabulous I've stumbled across), a trick or tutorial, or  a party DIY! I'm really excited about this one, I think it's going to be tons of fun- and I'll be sharing secret cupcake recipes for the first time!

This week, my first recipe post is dedicated to one of my best friends in the whole world, Shakey. Well, it's not so much dedicated to him as a person, as it is dedicated to him making an idiot of himself and me dying of laughter at his expense. That's what friends are for right?

Shakey being really excited about panda-
shaped bread at Bread Talk in Singapore!

"Rotcher" cupcakes are actually just Chocolate Hazelnut cupcakes...but for the rest of my life I will call that flavour Rotcher, because of one afternoon in Singapore. Shakey was trying ice cream in a shop and had asked for some of the kind labeled "rocher"(as in ferrero rocher, which was blatantly obvious to everyone but Shakey at this point). After telling me loudly that he was "just going to try this rotcher for something different", he takes a bite, makes a face, and shouts across the store, "THIS ROTCHER TASTES LIKE NUTELLA." It took a minute for me to realize what he was talking about before I started laughing like a crazy person...Meanwhile, the poor girl behind the counter is just staring at us with her mouth slightly open, trying to figure out what's going on right in front of her. After typing this out I realize that it's probably not actually that funny to anyone else, but honestly it's one of my favourite moments of all time. There is nothing in this world quite like laughing til you cry/stop breathing, and the best people in your life are always the ones that make it happen. So, in honour of laughing like an idiot about absolutely nothing, with people that mean absolutely everything, my Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes have been renamed "Rotcher" Cupcakes (and here is the recipe!)

My 'Rotcher' Cupcakes were part of a cupcake photo shoot last year...
they scrub up pretty well!

"Rotcher"(Nutella) Cupcakes

People will be hovering at this point waiting to lick the spoon.

Cake:
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup nutella
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup flaked hazelnuts, optional

Frosting:
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup nutella
4-5 cups sifted icing sugar
pinch salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix together dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, and nutella and mix until smooth.
3. Add a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, mixing just until you can no longer see most of the flour.

Drinking wine is essential to successful baking

4. Mix in half the milk, and another third of the dry mixture, and repeat. You should have added three lots of dry and two lots of milk, starting and ending with dry ingredients. Just mix your batter until it's pretty much uniform in colour and texture, and then STOP STIRRING. Seriously. Put down the spoon, step away from the mixer. Ain't nobody got time for chewy cupcakes...don't overmix your batter!
5. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3rds full- you should get 12-15 cupcakes.

Freshly baked and smelling like heaven

6. Bake the cupcakes for 17-20 minutes in the centre of the oven. Open the door at 17 minutes and lightly touch the top of a cupcake. If it springs back, they're done. If you leave a dent, they need a few more minutes. When the cakes are baked,  let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer them to  a wire cooling rack.
7. For the frosting, whip the butter and nutella until combined, and then gradually add the icing sugar while mixing. Whip the whole lot for a few minutes, add the salt to taste, and then eat a big spoonful, because seriously this stuff is amazing and you deserve it!
8. Decorate however you like- this frosting is so decadent that it looks amazing just swirled onto the cupcakes with a teaspoon- add a few hazelnut flakes and you've got some show-stopping rotcher goodness!

Friday Freebie!

A couple of years ago, when I was really hurting for any kind of work after moving home, a friend scored me a job at a greeting card store. Not exactly what I was going for fresh from university but hey, work is work(or more accurately, paychecks are paychecks). I'd like to say it was fun, but honestly I hated every second of it. For one, the company runs its business like a prison. It felt like how many times you sneezed or blinked while on shift was regulated by the looming spectre of "head office". As you can imagine, that really isn't my thing- I quit pretty soon after being formally written up for "saying a word that sounded like the word crappy" to a customer. Seriously, that was written on the form they made me sign. I was only there for about four months, but in that time I realized that the greeting card industry is probably the biggest rip-off EVER, next to bottled water and movie popcorn. Some of the "nicer" cards we were selling there cost $14! For one card! Didn't they hear about the financial crisis?! Ain't nobody got time for dat!

All this time later, while I was thinking of new things to spruce up the blog and website, I thought about these rip-off greeting cards and invitations and decided to include a Free Printable section in my page. Every Friday I'll share a new invitation, thank-you card, save-the-date, or other greeting, as well as a link to download a printable pdf of the design. When holidays are approaching I'll also throw up a few mini-printables for kids..You know the cheesy cards that you had to give to everyone in the class, even that kid you really didn't like, because it was Valentine's Day and your mom said so. ANYWAY....I will try to keep these worth looking at, and they will all be stored on the PRINTABLES section of the website to be downloaded anytime. Just to get the ball rolling I've put a few up already, so take a look!

Click Here to visit the Printables Page & download your free pdf printout

CLICK HERE to visit the Printables Page & download your free pdf printout

Wish List Wednesday: The Pilot!

Oh hi! Welcome to the very first Wish List Wednesday, one of the promised new features to come along with the Little Bow Sweets face lift! Every week, I'll showcase two things that are on my Little Bow wish list- one splurge item, and one little treat. I've convinced myself that this will stop me actually running out and buying these things (but let's be serious if I wasn't broke from travelling we all know I would). Sometimes the things on my wish list are practical...sometime's they're just pretty and shiny and I really really want them! Anyway, let's start this weekly wish list off with something I've been drooling over for  a while now...

KIDDING! ....sortof. *ahem*

Seriously though,  the first Splurge on my wish list is a custom painted KitchenAid, like these ones from Un Amore by Nicole DiNardo:

Through the Un Amore site, you can either order a
stand mixer to be delivered to her for painting, or
you can send  her one yourself. Either way,
when it gets back to you it won't be your standard
KitchenAid anymore!

I can't decide if I like her bold Rockabilly-style prints or these
pretty floral ones more. I'll just have to get rich and buy two.

This is definitely a splurge item, starting at around $350 for basic designs, plus the cost of your stand mixer itself. The photo gallery is amazing...I can't even come close to picking a favourite! If you love the idea but don't want to splash the cash, there are some great tutorials out there for refurbishing your stand mixer at home- my favourite from a quick read-through of five or six sites is here.

This week's Little Treat item is these Cakes by Bien Side Stripe Cutters from Carina's Cupcakes. They may seem plain, but for those of you that may have noticed a little trend called Chevron floating around, you cannot imagine how much easier these would make chevron cakes. Actually. you don't have to imagine, the answer is A LOT EASIER. I also love that the set comes with four widths of stripe, which completely eliminates fidgety guesswork. And the best news is that the set only costs about $22- definitely worth it since bold geometric trends are sticking around! Long story short, I want these....right meow.

So there it is, the first Wish List Wednesday! Come back each week for more cake & baking related products you didn't know you wanted and maybe a few little things you didn't know you needed! xx

Goodbye, MeowCakes- Hello, Little Bow Sweets!

The very first MeowCake!

Well, here it is...after a lot of thought and debate (and possibly a soul-searching move to the other side of the planet *ahem*) I've finally decided to take all the love and time I've put into MeowCakes over the last year and a half and turn it into something a little more sophisticated. This involved a little bit of an image overhaul, and a move towards a branding idea I've been working on for a while now. I love MeowCakes and its quirkiness, as well as the fact that a silly joke actually caught on as name, but just like the rest of us, MeowCakes had to grow up... so here we have it, Little Bow Sweets! I spent months thinking of names for my project, constantly trashing what I had come up with or finding that someone else had beaten me to the punch. As with most good ideas, this one came to me out of the blue- while I was in Brisbane a couple of months ago actually. I love the fact that it's cute and quirky, a play on words, and just a little more refined than its predecessor. I cant wait to unveil everything I have planned for this, honestly, I'm like a kid at Christmas right now. The full website is now up and running and I will be adding some freebies as well as a weekly recipe/tutorial very soon! I'm so excited for everything to come and will try and keep you all updated as much as possible throughout the next few weeks! xx

It's not all about the brand- check out today's dark chocolate cakes with
vanilla bean buttercream and crunchy honeycomb topping!

The New Look! 

Valentine's Adventures

This Valentine's Day, I'll be on my way to Vietnam for a two-week adventure! This means no frantic Valentine's cupcake-making for me this year, but I did manage to knock out a simple and adorable Valentine's Cake just to keep it a little bit festive! As I'm currently working on some wedding showpieces, I've been searching this tropical corner of the world for cake dummies and completely failing to find any. Basically even getting the supplies for this "cake" was a bit of a mission, but so worth all the cuteness!

All the tutorials I found online for  DIY cake dummies
looked so crafty and well-done, I was convinced I would
be creating my own perfect fake cakes in no time...

Instead it took four days three endless trips
around town and about fifteen phone calls
before I managed to get this nice man to cut
me a stack of cake-shaped foam...

But with that out of the way, I could focus on the fun stuff. Like these
Valentine Owls!

I love the simplicity of this cake.  I'm not into sappy
glamourous valentine stuff- cutesy is the way to go in
my opinion!

The heart on a spring makes the cake for me- just a touch
of whimsy!

The owls are dead simple to make- I think they also look a bit like
penguins, but who doesn't love Pingu?

Tea Party Table & Treat Tutorial!

As a grown-up adult female, there are a few acceptable ways to celebrate your birthday. If possible you should try to incorporate as many of them into the days surrounding your birthday as possible, in order to reap the maximum benefit of getting another year older. First and foremost, milk it with your family (unless you have one of those families where your mum or granny is going to pinch your fat and ask why you're still single, then skip this step). Secondly, pick any night of the week and get outrageously, embarrassingly drunk somewhere, preferably while wearing a party hat or tiara. Extra points if you fall off something, dance on a table, or dramatically throw a martini in someone's face. Extra extra points if you do one of those things and it's a Tuesday. Last and certainly not least, assert your grown-upness by having a super-cute tea party with all your friends, with as much frill and fancy as possible. Ideally, just send really obvious hints to a friend with good taste and have them set it all up for you. This tutorial is for that friend, complete with an easy-peasy tea party treat recipe... so here goes!

Tea Party Table Tutorial 

& Mini Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecakes

Glass jar, marshmallows, ribbon,
doily = Perfect decoration.

What you'll need to decorate:

- a colour palette (we chose pastel blue, pink, & white with a tiny bit of purple accent)

- your chosen colours of ribbon

- one or two plastic tablecloths

- paper napkins

- several sizes of paper doilies

- a few empty glass jars or big drinking glasses

- candy that matches your theme (we used pink and white marshmallows and some pink candy canes)

- teacups & a teapot, as well as dishes for milk/sugar/lemon etc

- a tiered cake/dessert stand, preferably clear or white

- fairy lights and/or bunting

- optional: fresh or fake flowers of your choice

Decorate your dessert tier with ribbons or frills to your
heart's content. You can cut a doily to place around each
tier if you like, or place the whole thing on top of one.

Flowers add a little extra to the table, especially if they
are brighter shades of your colour scheme.

 

Fold the bottom corner of a paper napkin up an inch or
two, and wrap the two side ends in towards each other
to fill glasses for a table setting.

Tie a ribbon around everything. The more bows the better.
The more candy the better as well, if we're being honest.

Cupcakes that also match your theme are pretty much a given. These are
Raspberry Almond with Vanilla Buttercream Flowers & Swirls!

Use your dessert tier as the table centrepiece- not only
does it look adorable, everyone will be drooling over it
the entire time.

What you'll need for the Mini Cheesecakes: 

(recipe makes 8)

- cupcake liners that match your theme

- a muffin/cupcake tin

- 8 round chocolate cookies

- 12oz or 350g Cream Cheese, softened

- 2 large eggs

- 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread

- big pinch salt

1) Preheat your oven to 375F, or 190C. If your oven is fan-forced, drop the temperature to about 175C. Line your muffin tin with 8 papers, and place a cookie in the bottom of each paper. 

Something like this works perfectly- it doesn't matter that
the cookie is crunchy, as it bakes it absorbs moisture from
the cheesecake batter and turns into the perfect crust.

2) Now comes the tricky part.......are you ready? Put all the other ingredients in a big bowl and whip them with a mixer for three to five minutes. Yes, that really is it. Divide the mixture between your cupcake papers, tap the tin on the counter to release any air bubbles, and bake them for 17-20 minutes. 

Your batter should be smooth and silky,
and taste like heaven.

3) When they're puffy and not-quite dry-looking on top, take them out of the oven and cool for half an hour before refrigerating. They'll need 4-5 hours in the fridge before you serve them, but you can make them a day or two ahead if you need to as well! When you're ready to serve them, they can be topped with whipped cream, melted chocolate, or as I've done here, half a ferrero rocher.

 

Rustic Ruffles & A Photo Flashback!

October was a pretty busy month for me...finishing work, finishing cake orders, moving halfway around the world, you know- the usual. In all the excitement, it turns out I forgot all about my Thanksgiving Post! Since almost two months have gone by now, I'll spare you listing the things I'm thankful for- except that I want to say thank you to everyone who's been following and supporting this little venture over the past year or so! Today I decided simply to share the Thanksgiving treat I created for my family's festivities all those weeks ago, as well as some of my favourite MeowCakes moments from the last year!

Instead of a quirky thanksgiving themed cake or pumpkin cupcakes, this
year I decided to go for simple decadence:
Butter Pecan Dulce de Leche Cake with Whipped Vanilla Buttercream

Ruffles are a great way to decorate a cake when you don't want to cover
it in fondant. They still look luxurious, but it's 100% icing. Om.

To create this cake, I made a standard vanilla cake batter using brown sugar
instead of white. I baked a tray of butter pecans and added several handfuls
of them, finely chopped, to the batter. I then split a can of homemade dulce de
leche into thirds, mixed 1/3 into the batter and layered the rest with vanilla icing.
The result was a dense but fluffy cake with a rich nutty flavour and just the
right amount of caramel. Which is a lot. Success!

After-cake chats on the couch. My two fave little girls in the world! <3 

This baby shower tier picture is on my Pinterest page
and has something like 125 repins...while that's nothing
compared to the 70,000 repins of cheesecake-stuffed
strawberries, I'm pretty proud that something I've done
is making its way around the web :)

I always like to create flavours based on people's favourite desserts. When
I got 'bubblegum ice cream' as a request, these blue and pink marbled
beauties were the result, and they were a huge hit!
#becreative #hubbabubba

Smash cakes are becoming more and more popular these days- luckily
for the toddlers who get to smush and eat to their hearts' content when
they receive one!

This is my favourite way to decorate a cupcake with just icing- these
colourful roses fed all my lovely friends back in June when they came
to hang out with me while I bartended on my birthday... I seriously doubt
 anyone has ever had such a good time working on their birthday. <3 

Another favourite munchkin, Mr.Owen. Even though he used
to be a shy little thing, somehow he always got over it in time to
wolf down a cupcake...funny that. :)