Heaven is a Cupcake

Valentine's Cupcakes

2012-01-17T18:48:00.000Z

Well, it's not long been Christmas and already, it's time to think about Valentine's Day...

We have added our new Valentines Day cupcake designs which are available to order now. There will also be a range of Valentines Day cupcakes and gifts at our market in St Albans Town Hall on 11th February 2012 - our first market of the year! If you're looking for something a bit different from the cupcakes below then just drop me an email to discuss and I'll be happy to create something unique for you.

Love is....

Classic: £2.75 each, Divine: £3.00 each (minimum 6 per flavour)

Classic Gift Box of 4: £14.00, Divine Gift Box of 4: £15.00

Red Hot!

Classic: £2.25 each, Divine: £2.50 each

Classic Gift Box of 4: £12.00, Divine Gift Box of 4: £14.00

Love Hearts

Classic: £2.10 each, Divine: £2.30 each

Classic Gift Box of 4: £11.50, Divine Gift Box of 4: £12.50

Cupcake Bouquets

Cupcake bouquets start from £25.00

There are also a wide range of other products available to order for Valentines Day - cakes, cake pops, push cups, iced biscuits and giant cupcakes.

2011 in Cupcakes

2012-01-06T20:21:00.000Z

Happy New Year cupcake fans! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year and were able to have a bit of a break. Back to normality now.

I thought I would start 2012 off with a round up of last year's cupcakes as it was a very busy year and I got to make some really fun creations (so a big thank you to my customers for that!)

January - James Bond

James Bond themed cupcakes for Mark's 30th Birthday.

February - Cupcake Bouquet

It was really difficult to pick just one photo this month as I had lots of great orders; circus babyshower cupcakes, a handbag cake and of course, lots of Valentines Cupcakes but this has to be my favourite - a cupcake basket bouquet. It has since, been a very popular gift for birthdays, anniversaries, new baby arrivals and more!

March - Graduation

In March 2011, I finally had my Masters Graduation Ceremony which I completed in December 2010. Who'd have thought it would lead to a career in cupcaking? ;)

April - My First Wedding Order

This was my first wedding order and has been a popular choice for many brides & grooms in 2011. This was also the month of the Royal Wedding - quite fitting I think!

May - New Baby Cupcakes

This month we welcomed a new baby into our family so I thought these babyshower cupcakes from May were a good choice.

June - A Giant Month

I did a lot of giant cupcakes this month so I thought I had better post one for June!

July - Off on Holiday!

I went to Florida with my sister in July but not before I had time to make some Summery cupcakes for the Highfield Park Fete.

August - True Blood

August was a busy month at HIAC. The highlights being my sister's 30th Birthday and the pleasure of making cupcakes for some of the cast of HBO's True Blood.

September - Pony Cupcakes

Every month just got busier and busier at Heaven is a Cupcake. Here is my favourite of many:

October - Cupcakes for Holby City

It was a bit of a TV month in October as I was making cupcakes for Big Brother and then an episode of Holby City which hopefully will be airing in February - 2 guesses what it's going to be about ;)

November - Harry Potter in Halloween Wonderland

It was easy to choose a photo for this month as the themes are probably my favourite to do: Halloween, Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland.

December - Christmas of course!

I had lots of Christmas orders and really enjoyed coming up with new designs. Here's a close up of one of the Giant Christmas Tree Cupcakes.

And that concludes the round up of 2011 in Cupcakes. All the best for 2012!

Christmas Blog No.1

2011-12-19T23:29:00.000Z

I love Christmas! I think when you're a baker, you can't not love Christmas. It gives you so many opportunities to make delicious treats as well as amazing designs and is one of the most inspiring holidays you can get. Whether you celebrate or not; you can't deny that Christmas is good for the baking soul!

So with Christmas just around the corner I thought it would be a good idea to post some of my latest cupcake and cake creations. I'm sure more will follow!

Novelty Christmas Cupcakes

Winter Wonderland Cupcakes

Red Velvet Christmas Cupcakes

12 Days of Cupcake Christmas - at the St Albans Arts & Crafts Market

Me with All my lovely Christmas treats!

Happy Christmas Cupcaking!

Cupcake Shop Review - 27th November 2011

2011-12-17T20:08:00.000Z

Again, a month has slipped by without any blog posts. I've been so busy this last year I barely find the time to sit down and relax let alone update my blog. One of my new year's resolutions will be to write blog posts more regularly.

Anyway, last month it was my birthday and I'd been wanting to visit some cupcake shops in London for a while so this was the perfect opportunity. It's only 20 minutes from St Albans to London so it's not far!

My sister and I visited Lola's Cupcakes in Selfridges and Cox, Cookies and Cake. There are so many cupcake shops on my 'to visit' list but my little feet can only take so much walking around so we just did the 2 this time!

First up, 'Cox, Cookies and Cake' in Soho. I'd heard lots about CCC so was eager to go and see what it was like. CCC was set up by Patrick Cox, fashion designer and Eric Lanlard, reknowned pastry chef so I had high hopes. Unfortunately these high hopes were short lived as when I sampled them at home I was less than impressed.

But before I go into details, first let's see the shop and see what they had to offer. Now, the shop looks fab. It's really stylish and very 'Soho' - you can tell it was started up by a fashion designer.

The cupcakes look reasonably good and again look 'fashionable.' However, they are extremely overpriced. These ones below are £4.00 each. Now, I can understand maybe paying that for the 'boobs' and as someone who knows how much work goes into cupcakes, I don't usually complain about price. But the price HAS to reflect the quality. The decorations were all ready made and none of them had any ingredients that were that expensive to buy. So the main reason you pay £4.00 for these is the name and unfortunately, it doesn't reflect the quality you would expect.

When I got the cakes home, unfortunately they had been squished on the tubes (won't be going to London near Christmas time any time soon!!) but that shouldn't affect the taste too much! There was hardly any cake in the cupcakes. The red velvet cupcakes were half pinkish half vanilla. And the cupcakes were dry. If there's two things that bug me about cupcakes being done wrong it's a) dry and b) no cake. Literally the cases weren't even full of cake.

Luckily, Lola's made up for these. I didn't get any photos in Selfridges as it was absolutely heaving, but it's a cute little counter with a few tables in the food court and it's right next to Ella's Bakehouse which has cupcakes, pastries and cookies for sale (they looked amazing. I regret not buying anything from them!) I went with a selection of minis but in hindsight I should've gone with my own choice as most of them were just vanilla with different coloured icing. They were nice but my favourite was the one I bought separately which was a banana cupcake. It had a divine cream cheese frosting and a really light, moist cake. I would definitely go back to Lola's but I think next time I would go for the ones in the counter instead of the ready boxed ones as I think they would've been fresher. Here's me with my box of Lola's cupcakes looking rather tired at St Pancras Station.

Until next time...Happy Cupcaking!

Wedding Fairs

2011-11-13T21:45:00.000Z

Hello all,

Hope you're having a good month so far. October was incredibly busy for me, I had the food festival, lots of wedding orders and lots of new customers. It was my busiest month yet which is fab but also means I didn't get a lot of time off! But not complaining, loved every minute of it!

I had my first large wedding fair on 29th October at Sopwell House, St Albans, then last week I was in the town hall for Wedding Wonderland and today I was at Knebworth Barns Wedding Fair. It's been lovely to meet so many brides and grooms to be as well as meeting lots of other wedding suppliers. It's really nice to meet other people in similar businesses.

So I thought I'd share a few photos of the wedding fairs I've done. And I look forward to doing more next year!

Until next time, happy cupcaking!

Wedding at the Oldest Pub in Britain - Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, St Albans

2011-10-17T21:32:00.000+01:00

This was a lovely, homely wedding and the cupcake tower fit in very well on the bar as the centrepiece for the evening reception. A selection of Devil's Food, Carrot and Red Velvet cupcakes with little heart sprinkles.

Highly Commended :)

2011-10-12T13:24:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post to say thank you to everyone who voted for me for the Local Gem Award in the St Albans Food and Drink Awards. I didn't win, but I cam second and got 'Highly Commended' which is lovely. After all, it would be greedy to win 2 years in a row. Congratulations to Johnny from The Pudding Stop who won and to all the other worthy winners and nominees in the Festival.

We had a lovely time at the Food Festival Finale this year - another great event. Sold out of cupcakes and only had a few cake pops left which I gave to my wonderful stall helpers so worked out very well. It's always nice when you sell out as it makes all the hard work worth while and it was really nice to see so many new faces at the festival. Making people smile is the best thing about my job!

Me in front of my stall with a cupcake St Albans Flag and little St Albans Crests. Plus my new Best of British range and Halloween cupcake stand.

Thanks for coming and see you next year!

So Much More Than 'Just' Cupcakes

2011-09-19T21:16:00.000+01:00

As I have been nominated for the Local Gem Award in the St Albans Food Festival this year (please vote here: http://www.allaboutstalbans.net/food_festival/vote.aspx ) I thought I would take the opportunity to blog a bit about why I think you should vote for me.

I covered briefly about why in my previous post but I thought I'd talk a little about why I am unique and not just another cupcake company. With cupcake companies popping up all over the place now I always try to be different. I started my company up because I have a true passion for baking and decorating. And this isn't just contained to baking cupcakes. However it is with cupcakes that I specialise because they are so versatile and they are anything but boring fairy cakes. They can be anything you like. A couple of weeks a go I trialed a new flavour based on the famous Key Lime Pie and it was extremely well received!

Anyway enough of the cupcakes! Onto the OTHER products I do. Yes, I'm not JUST a cupcake company. (Is that enough capitals for you?) Every market I always have other cakey bakey products on sale. At my previous market I had yummy chocolate brownies and delicious mini banana bread loaves. I also make customised celebration cakes, a few of which you can see below:

As well as celebration cakes, I also do tea time cakes such as mini cakes, macarons, layer cakes and guglhupfs.

And of course there are my cake pops and push cups.

So as you can see, I am so much more than just cupcakes! And keep watching as I'm always experimenting with new flavours and products.

Vote Heaven is a Cupcake for Local Gem! http://www.allaboutstalbans.net/food_festival/vote.aspx

Please take 2 minutes to vote for me!

2011-09-17T22:09:00.001+01:00

Now if you can't see from the photo ;) - I have been nominated for the Local Gem Award in the St Albans Food Festival Awards. I would really appreciate it if you could take 2 minutes to vote for me. All you need to do is go here: http://www.allaboutstalbans.net/food_festival/vote.aspx Fill out the form, get the code and finally click on 'Heaven is a Cupcake' under Local Gem.

And here's why you should vote for me...

Heaven is a Cupcake has been established in St Albans for almost 18 months and I have a very loyal customer base which is constantly growing. This is not only because I produce excellent tasting, beautifully crafted cupcakes and cakes but because I pride myself in going the extra mile for my customers. I will always do my best to accomodate orders and make sure my customers are wowed by my products.

I work very hard to achieve this and I hope that my website, facebook and blog emphasises this. I find myself working very late nights but I do it all so that I can give YOU the best cupcakes and products possible.

I am very pleased to say that I always try to be original as possible and this is reflected through my stream of new products (most recently, the Push Cups, the BFC (Big Friendly Cupcake - a Mini Giant!) and mini loaves.

I like to stay in contact with my customers and feel through my blog & social networking I am really able to get to know them and I hope, you can get to know me. So please, take the time to vote for me and if you also feel I deserve it, please feel free to nominate for the Kate D'Arcy Award for Outstanding Customer Service.

Happy cupcaking

Top Tips: Cupcake Innovation

2011-08-28T12:18:00.000+01:00

With more and more cupcake & cake companies emerging every day it is important to make sure you keep innovating and don't find yourself seeking more than inspiration from other cakers. One of the things I pride myself in, and which I hope comes across from not just my blogging but my social networking and products themselves, is my cupcake innovation. By this, I mean that I am always seeking to put out products and flavours that are unique and have my own 'Heaven is a Cupcake' stamp on them. There is nothing wrong with seeking inspiration from others and in fact I encourage other bakers to network and chat with eachother - I have met many great cakers through my blog, twitter and facebook but it is important not to copy them exactly as this can harm your business and well, nobody wants to be the same as everyone else!

For example, my 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' cupcakes have quickly become my signature cupcake and are very popular amongst by facebook followers & customers. I am, of course, not the only person to do rainbow cake but I've not seen many cake companies themselves doing the same kind of cupcakes and the rainbow icing.

It's good to do the 'classic' flavours, as I call them, such as Vanilla, Chocolate, Lemon etc. but it's also good to develop your own recipes and flavours. My Apple Strudel cupcake was inspired my Oma who hailed from a tiny village in Southern Austria where home baking was an important part of everyday life. She passed away in March but I am pleased that her heritage and memory lives on through me and that she was able to taste (and put her stamp of approval!) on my apple strudel cupcakes.

Another of my original recipes which I developed through my love of milkshakes are the Cupshake range - so far banana, strawberry and chocolate milkshake flavours. My strawberry cupshake recently won the 'Strawberry Tea Recipe Competition' on http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/

As well as keep my recipes original, I like to make sure that I am always producing new designs and bespoke cupcakes - unique and delicious, that's my motto! A year a go I started making floral cupcakes and had seen some beautiful cupcake bouquets in pots but I wanted to do something a bit different, so took my inspiration from flower bouquets themselves. This led to my popular cupcake bouquet baskets...

I have since seen other companies doing these so it must mean that they are good ;) But I am pleased to say that I hadn't seen anyone doing them before hand.

New products

As well as continually produce unique flavours and designs for my cupcake, I am constantly expanding and improving my product range. You can NEVER stop improving and learning new techniques, anyone that says otherwise is either very naive or lying!

Another of my products influenced by my Austrian heritage are these mini Gugelhupfs...

And I have LOTS of other ideas so stay tuned and finally, don't be one of those cupcake companies who is the same as everyone else - keep innovating and keep being you.

Top Tips: Food Photography

2011-08-21T12:43:00.000+01:00

I don't post recipes of my own on here very often now due to some people not being able to have their own ideas, so I thought I'd start posting a kind of cupcake top tips about how to best improve your own cakes and in this case, any kind of food really!

My first top tip focusses on the way you take photos of your products, and this really can be applied to any product: Take the time to take good photos!

This is one of the easiest things to get right and yet one of the things I see so many businesses (cupcake or otherwise) getting wrong. Now, I am by no means an expert in taking photos but alongside baking it is probably one of my biggest hobbies. Before I started taking photos of all my cupcakes, I would take photos of EVERYTHING (and still do!) so I've had a lot of practice of seeing what looks best and which settings to use.

So here are a few of my top tips for taking good photos of cakes/food. Firstly, take photos in front of a clean, blank background. Don't take it next to a mixer, or with flour all over the place. If you have a shop, designate a photo taking area. This may seem like an obvious thing but so often I see businesses uploading photos of their cakes with lots of other equipment in the photos. You want to make sure your product is the centre of attention and not have any other distractions. If your products don't look good, people won't want to eat them. Anyone that says otherwise is wrong! The aesthetic appeal of food is just as, if not more, important as the taste (but obviously the taste has to be good otherwise they won't come back!)

Here I've just used a plain, clean teatowel and the plain wall in the background to take a photo against. Light colours are best! Secondly, always use natural light whereever possible and don't take a photo in a dark place. These are all things you can do with a simple camera.

The first photo was taken in a dark area, whereas the second photo was taken outside in nice natural light. And it makes all the difference!

The great thing about digital cameras is that you can take hundreds of photos and not waste any film. So take lots and from different angles, different rooms, different backgrounds - see what works best. Don't put out bad quality photos, it just makes your product look bad. If you are serious about your business I would recommend investing in a good camera, it doesn't necessarily have to be top of the range but you can get a good camera with lots of easy to use features for a relatively low price now. I have a Canon 500d and I love it :)

I leave you with this photo of my icecream cone cupcakes. I hope this blog was helpful!

Busiest week yet!

2011-08-15T19:01:00.000+01:00

Hello cupcakers!

It has been an extremely busy week so I thought I'd share with you some of my latest orders and the biggest challenges I've faced yet as a home baker and they all happened in the same week - typical!

On Saturday 6th of August I had a wedding order to fulfil for Hanh and Alex who were having their wedding reception at the beautiful St Michael's Manor in St Albans. They had a cupcake tower of vanilla and lemon cupcakes topped with rose swirls and individual handmade roses. Their top tier cake was made by a family member and finished off their tower beautifully.

Here are a few snaps of the finished product.

I really loved the colours of these and the wrappers in particular - they are very popular wedding wrappers!

My next wedding and my biggest challenge yet was on Thursday 11th August, again at the lovely St Michael's Manor and was for Binanti and Darren. Now, originally Binanti asked if I could do her cupcake favours and of course I was very happy to, but she was having trouble finding someone to do her wedding cake. It seemed there weren't many cakers willing to make a piped rose swirl cake! So I said that I would have a go at doing her a sample cake and she could decide if it was what she wanted. I made it very clear that I've never done that sort of thing before but she was desperate! I made her the sample cake ( a vanilla pound cake with vanilla buttercream) and the happy couple were thrilled with it, I'm pleased to say. So she put her faith in me and I'm pleased to say all the hard work paid off....

Thank you to Binanti and Darren for having faith in me! And I'm very glad you weren't disappointed. Now amongst these wedding orders, I was also planning my sister's 30th Birthday Cake (a 3 tiered wonky cake, getting ready for my Saturday market in the St Albans town hall (sold out again!) AND fulfilling all my other regular orders for birthdays/anniversaries/cravings! So as you can see, I didn't get much time to rest (which is great for business, but not so great for my M.E.) luckily I have had the day off today...well sort of, I still have a sample box to make later and have been answering emails/sorting photos all day but in comparison to last week - it's a day off.

I will leave you with a collage of some of last week's orders. The rest have been uploaded onto my Facebook page . Also want to say a very quick thank you to everyone who has been so supportive to me and my business. You guys are fab so thank you :D

Welcome to Miami! HIAC Does Florida Pt2

2011-07-26T12:12:00.000+01:00

Sorry about the gap between posts, still jetlagged ;) Originally we were going to stay in Miami for 2 nights after Key Largo but we decided to go to Key West instead and just swing by Miami on the way to the airport. We will definitely have to go back to Florida as there are so many places to go and things to do that we couldn't possibly fit it all in in the time we had and also because, y'know - it's awesome!

So our next stop on the cupcake tour was The Buttercream Cupcake and Coffee Shop. It was a very sweet shop on Sunset Drive and the cupcakes were all beautifully presented. They had a range of flavours which were mostly traditional such as Vanilla, Choc, Choc-Orange, Choc-Vanilla etc but also some more 'interesting' flavours like Pistachio (which I bought) and Lime. As we were planning on visiting another cupcake shop afterwards and due to the fact we were flying home that evening, I settled on just 2 cupcakes - Pistachio and Red Velvet. As you can see, the display was FULL of cupcakes (just what you'd expect from a cupcake shop, but believe me I've seen some recently who shall rename nameless which was less than full and very disappointing!!)

Outside the store with my recent purchases. Not a good pic of me but focus on the shop ;)

Both the cakes were very light and because I was so full from eating the next cupcakes, they actually survived the 9 hr flight home as well. I liked the pistachio one best because I *think* the Red Velvet one had buttercream on whereas I prefer cream cheese on mine. However, the sponge was light and red velvety and it was red! One of the things I've noticed about some cupcakeries over here is that they just can't get Red Velvet ones right. It is tough and not one of the easiest to do but one thing that it must be is RED. I saw a Red Velvet cupcake this week that was brown...Easiest part to get right, right? Apparently not!

Next up was LA Sweets and I think this was my favourite cupcakery of the tour (just check out that homepage!) It was really roomy and light inside and I loved the display. Their speciality is mini cupcakes - perfect for someone wanting to try as many flavours as possible. But again, I showed restraint and just picked 6! Here I am trying to decide on which ones to go for!

I went with the cupcaker's recommendation for 2: their popular Red Velvet and signature Guava. And I can see why they are their most popular. The red was a really bright red, it was light, fluffy and had cream cheese frosting. Yum! The Guava I had never tried anything like before and it really did taste like Guava. It was a really fruity, tropical taste but not overpoweringly so and even had a tiny piece of Guava on top.

My next favourite was the Chocolate Raspberry, it was divine! Moist, dark chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache and a drizzle of Raspberry sauce. The last 3 I tried were a little sweet for my taste but couldn't fault the sponge - Vanilla with peanut buttercream, Dulche de leche and Caramel Cheesecake.

Don't they look beautiful!?

Here I am with my purchases outside the front

And that concludes my cupcake tour of Florida - thank you Florida, you've been great. I can't wait for my next tour...which state should I visit next?!

Heaven is a Cupcake Does Florida! (Part 1)

2011-07-23T19:56:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I've posted due to having an extremely busy month, my busiest yet in fact! And then to celebrate ;) I went off to Florida with my sister for a much needed holiday. I've never been before and was very excited to go to Disney, Universal (and more importantly, Hogwarts!), go swimming with dolphins and finally visit as many cupcake shops as I a) could possibly find and b) would be allowed to go to before my sister tore me away! So I thought I would share with you my Florida cupcake shop adventure and let you know what I thought.

Our tour started in Orlando where we went to Disney World (we only had one day there so lots to fit in!) and Universal Studios. We both agreed that Universal was our favourite. We felt it was more suited to us, had great rides and of course, had Harry Potter's Wizarding World. Disney World was great because it fulfilled one of my childhood dreams and although we only had one day there, we managed to fit a lot in - visiting both Animal Kingdom and The Magic Kingdom. I would definitely like to go back and experience it in a more laid back setting, perhaps even staying at one of the hotels. DW was also where we spied our first cupcakes! In Animal Kingdom they had zebra cupcakes and in Magic Kingdom they had chocolate and vanilla. And they were huge! Twice the size of my large cupcakes. I loved the look of the bakery and the sweet shops on Main Street. It was really colourful and fun.

The cupcakes below were from the bakery on CityWalk at Universal. I actually preferred these as they were slightly smaller than the Disney ones and looked more appetizing.

Now onto the proper cupcakeries! Before we left for Florida I sat down with a nice cuppa and spent an enjoyable evening hunting down all the local cupcake shops to our hotel and I came across Sweet! By Good Golly Miss Holly! When I saw Holly, I immediately recognised her from The Food Network's Cupcake Wars so I was very excited that her shop was just half an hour away from our hotel in Orlando. We walked in and immediately I wanted one of each! Luckily they had a wide range of mini flavours which are also bigger than our minis and are enough for "2 and a half bites" (plenty when you want one of each ;) The display looked lovely and there was a really good choice of classic and more unusual flavours.

After much umming and ahhhing I decided to go for 12 minis (I restrained myself). Miss Holly recommends 3 per person which I think is a good average. We had a few on the journey, enough for a bite each of each cupcake then saved a few for later when we fancied them. Here I am taking time to choose the right cupcakes!

I went for a wide variety, some flavours which I like and have had before, others which I had always wanted to try (like the Boston Cream.) And this is what I went for: Carrot, Boston Cream, High Hat, Key Lime, Red Velvet, S'Mores, White Raspberry, White Out, Banana, Cinnamon Swirl, Dulche de leche and Cookies & Cream.

The first one I tried was the red velvet. I found the cake was quite sticky but it was very light and I enjoyed the frosting. My favourites were the boston cream *I loved the filling!*, the high hat and the carrot. I prefer cupcakes that aren't overpoweringly sweet so am a big fan of cream cheese frosting. My least favourites were the white chocolate ones simply because they were a little on the sweet side for my taste but those of you with a sweet tooth would love them. Overall it was a great start to my cupcake tour and I was pleased with the range of flavours available.

Our tour then continued to Naples where we planned to stop at two bakeries on our way from there to the Keys but unfortunately neither opened til 11am and because we'd got up early to visit the Everglades on route they weren't open when we popped by! And we didn't have much luck with any bakeries in the Keys, although I did find a couple of cupcakers that were based online in the area. In Key West, I did have the yummiest banana bread with maple syrup and flamingo crossing tahitian vanilla ice cream at The Flaming Buoy Filet Co. so that made up for the lack of cupcakes!! We also tried the famous Key Lime Pie at our hotel in Key Largo which also did not disappoint but did not top the banana bread.

Next stop...Miami!!

The Heaven is a Cupcake Mobile!

2011-06-21T22:05:00.000+01:00

Introducing...the Heaven is a Cupcake Mobile!

Look out for the Heaven is a Cupcake mobile! If you are one of the first 10 people to post a picture of our cupcake mobile out and about and post it on your facebook page and our fan page ( & send us a link so we can see!) then you will get a FREE classic vanilla cupcake. It doesn't count if you take a picture of my car on my drive ;)

Spread the word and happy hunting!

June Update

2011-06-06T20:57:00.000+01:00

I can't believe how busy I have been recently. It's just got manic and I haven't had time to sit and blog. But it's great :)

In May I attended the University of Hertfordshire Careers Fair and provided the cupcakes for the networking event. It was a lot of fun and it was great to be back at University again and see what they've done with the new Forum building (the Students Union).

I made over 100 cupcakes for the event and they disappeared in less than 10 minutes!! So a definite success :)

Then last weekend was the St Albans Arts & Crafts Fair in the town Hall and I did a tea party theme where I tried out a new Earl Grey flavour and I must say it was extremely yummy!! It may be my new favourite.

I also had a busy weekend of orders and some really fun themes to tackle. And next weekend is filling up fast too!

Happy Cupcaking!

M.E. Awareness Week - 8th - 15th May 2011

2011-05-10T11:37:00.000+01:00

Today I am taking a detour from cupcaking (slightly) to tell you about a very misunderstood and badly publicised illness, M.E (also known by some as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). I toyed up with publishing this as I didn't want people to look at me differently but then, I thought hey the more good press on this illness the better!

I have had M.E. for over 11 years and it has caused a lot of problems but has also helped me overcome these problems and has not stopped me from achieving what I have today - a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts and now my own business. Of course, I have had to adapt my lifestyle and make sacrifices - it has been, by no means easy. But I have peservered and I have never given up on the thought that some day I will get better.

So, what is M.E. you ask? Well the problem with M.E. is that as of yet, there is no known cause or cure so it is just something that most doctors say 'sorry, there's nothing we can do. You just have to live with it.' It is an extremely debilitating illness which causes extreme fatigue, migraines, muscle pain and spasms, light sensitivity, nausea, brain fog (confusion/slow working brain!!) and a miriad of other life altering symptoms. A good analogy would be to imagine you had an all night drinking and dancing session, followed by a bout of the flu and a hangover but that it lasted 11 years (and counting!)

The problem with M.E. is that people see you on a 'good' day and think you're fine, but most people with M.E. don't let you see them on a 'bad' day when they are too tired to move or in too much pain to get out of bed. Just like you wouldn't want people to see you with a hangover!

If you would like more information on this misunderstood illness please do visit http://www.meassociation.org.uk/ or http://www.ayme.org.uk/ (a website for young people with M.E. who without I would have felt even more isolated.)

Now for the positives! Yes, I have a debilitating illness, yes, I find day to day life a struggle but no, I am NOT going to let it stop me. In a way, I am one of the lucky ones, I am able to live a relatively 'normal' life in comparison to some of my very dear friends who are housebound and are too ill to leave. This blog is for them as much as it is for me.

Due to my illness, I found that a 'regular' job would just not cut it. People do not understand that I am not 'lazy' or 'depressed' but that I have a physical illness that affects my ability to do a normal job if I do not take certain measures. With cupcaking, I can work around my illness whilst doing something I love. I can take rests when I need to, I don't have to worry about the boss not believing me and I can work to my own schedule. I do a lot of my admin in bed so I can save my energy for the things that are important to me - making the best tasting and looking cupcakes in Hertfordshire (and who knows, maybe one day the world ;). M.E. has made me even more determined to be the best and to achieve everything I want to. I don't want people to feel sorry for me, I love my job and I love making people happy and perhaps without this illness I may not have gone into cupcaking. I could be sitting in an office falling asleep from boredom opposed to from having made 100 cupcakes for someone's special day!

So please, before you go to call someone lazy think of me and the thousands of other sufferers who battle everyday against prejudices and this illness to try to live a normal life. Oh and have a cupcake ;) This May I will be selling M.E. Awareness cupcakes for £2.00 each with 50p per cupcake going to M.E. charities - so do spread the word! And please do have a look at this short video that my friend and fellow sufferer Daisy Hill made for MEAW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDttA7kN-30&feature=share

I hope this blog has been informative and helped raise some awareness. Please comment, share and smile :) Normal cupcaking will resume very shortly!

My First Wedding Order

2011-05-01T21:46:00.000+01:00

So not long after celebrating my first year of business, I get to celebrate my first wedding order and I'm pleased to say it went very well. And I thought the whole set up looked very beautiful and the cakes went really well. It was a perfect day for a wedding and the groom said they had an amazing day and absolutely adored the cakes. So now for what you've been waiting for... the photos!

Until next time, Happy Cupcaking!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T21:59:00.000+01:00

Happy Easter everyone :) Hope you're all enjoying your weekend and have had fun celebrating or chilling out wherever you are. I had lots of fun making Easter themed cakes this weekend but also made some fab zombie cupcakes for a 30th Birthday. I can't wait to do that theme again!!

Here's a few photos from the last couple of weeks and a photo of some of my Royal Wedding cupcakes to get you in the mood for next week (whether you like the royals or not it's a great excuse to make cupcakes!)

Happy Cupcaking!

One Year On...

2011-04-18T23:42:00.000+01:00

I was just about to turn my laptop off and go to bed when I thought, you know what I haven't done for ages? Written a blog entry! So here I am. It's now been over a year since I first set up Heaven is a Cupcake and started my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/heavenisacupcake ) and what a year it has been, both personally and professionally. So much has happened, good and bad, but I am pleased to say that Heaven is a Cupcake has gone from strength to strength and the support I have received from my 'fans' has been inspiring. So I thank you to all those who have supported me and complimented me on my cupcakes. And to those of you who have given me the opportunity to create beautiful edible pieces of art, I owe you my most sincerest thanks.

So to celebrate my first exciting year of Heaven is a Cupcake I would like to share with you some of my favourite creations. Enjoy and here is to another even more successful and exciting year!

Happy Pancake Day!

2011-03-08T15:42:00.000Z

For those of you who don't reside in the UK or who have no idea what 'pancake day' is, I shall explain. Pancake Day or 'Shrove Tuesday' is the last day before lent begins. In Christian tradition, during lent you must give up rich/fattening foods, specifically 'eggs, butter, milk'. Therefore, on this most blessed day the best excuse ever arose - use up all your fatty foods (or go buy lots of fatty foods to use up ;) by making pancakes. I am a huge pancake fan and always make a big stack of them. And Im not talking about those piddly American pancakes, oh no, these are plate sized crepe pancakes and you can fill them with a range of deliciousness - bananas & chocolate spread, fruit, ice cream, maple syrup, golden syrup, syrup syrup and of course the classic, lemon & sugar.

Now the 'what' is out of the way, now for the 'how' - this is my go to pancake recipe which I have been using since I was a (slightly) smaller girl. And you can tell I've been using it since I was a short stack *pancake reference* as it's straight out of one of my favourite recipe books from my childhood, 'The Usborne First Cookbook.'

Ingredients

250g Plain Flour
a pinch of salt
570ml milk & water mixed (I usually just use milk)
2 eggs
1 tbsp melted butter

1. Sift the flour and salt into a big mixing bowl.
2. Make a hollow in the flour and break in the eggs. Whisk them, drawing in some flour from the sides.

3. Add the milk & water a bit at a time. Keep whisking until everything is mixed together. Add the melted butter and beat until mixture is smooth.

4. If you have time, leave mixture for an hour or so.

5. Melt a little butter in a frying pan and pour a ladleful of batter into the pan, swirl it around so it covers the pan evenly.

6. Cook the pancake until bubbles appear and the edges turn brown.

7. FLIP!!

8. Cook the otherside then turn onto a warm plate and serve with lemon & sugar, chocolate, bananas, maple syrup, golden syrup, fruit and ice cream. (Ok that last bit is mine...)

Ta - da!

Now THAT is a pancake stack!

Enjoy your pancakes everyone :) I'm off to start on mine.

Lucy xx

Lemon Drizzle Guglhupf

2011-02-19T14:11:00.000Z

I can't believe how long it's been since I updated my blog. It's awful! I am so busy, which is great, but means I don't have much time to blog. However I tried out a non-cupcake related recipe/project yesterday so thought it was a good excuse to blog :)

My family from Austria arrived on Thursday and bought with them some mini guglhupf tins or as you may know them, bundt tins. So I took this opportunity to try out the lemon drizzle cake recipe from 'The Great British Book of Baking' which accompanies the tv series The Great British Bake Off. Now, the actual cake recipe turned out great, it was lovely and moist and had a nice zingy flavour. However, the cake was too moist for this type of mould. Next time I will try a denser cake.

Here's the recipe:

For the cake:
200g Unsalted Butter
250g Caster Sugar
3 Medium Eggs
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
250g Self-Raising Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
100ml milk

For the topping:
100g Caster Sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
Zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/350 fahrenheit. Put the butter, sugar, eggs and lemon zest into a large mixing bowl. Sift the flour and baking powder into bowl then pour in the milk. Beat with a wooden spoon, or an electric whisk on medium speed until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

Transfer the mixture into the tin(s) and spread evenly. Bake in the oven until cake is a good golden brown and firm and a cocktail stick comes out clean - 50 to 60 minutes (I cooked these for 25 minutes).

Meanwhile, make the topping. Mix the sugar with the lemon juice and zest to make a runny glaze. As soon as the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and stand the tin on a wire cooling rack. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cocktail stick, then quickly spoon the lemon topping over so that it trickles down into the holes. Leave to cool completely before removing the cake from the tin(s).

It looked great in the tins....

However they didn't want to come out!

This one came out the best:

BUT, it tasted great so I will definitely be making it again. Just not in guglhupf tins!

If you want to buy the book (which I would definitely recommend if you love baking, it has some great traditional recipes), it is available on amazon:

Great British Book of Baking

First Post of 2011

2011-01-09T19:05:00.000Z

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely break over the Christmas holidays. I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last 6 months. 2010 was a tough year personally but it was also a very good year because I think I found my calling - baking and making beautiful little pieces of edible art. It is amazing how quickly my little one woman company has grown and I am very excited about what is to come in 2011 because I know it's going to be fab!

And for my first order of 2011 I got a very fun brief, it was for a 30th birthday and featured the birthday boy's favourite things: James Bond, Port & Stilton, Tennis and Guiness! All are hand made and hand painted.

I wish you all a very happy, healthy 2011; may it be filled with joy and cupcakes, lots of cupcakes!

Happy Christmas

2010-12-23T21:37:00.001Z

I've been terrible at updating my blog recently, things have got very busy over the last month and a half for me - not that I'm complaining. Just wanted to stop by and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and in case I don't get to update before hand... a very Happy and healthy 2011. Long may the cupcake craze continue!

Here are a selection of my Christmas cupcakes:

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Light Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Mini Apple Strudel Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Christmas Rainbow Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes

Giant Christmas Madeira Cupcake

Happy Christmas!

Review: Cake Stand from CSN Stores

2010-11-18T20:19:00.001Z

A few weeks a go I received an email from the people of CSN Stores asking if I would review one of their products.Well,I couldn't choose just one because they have so many fab things to buy. But my favourite was this beautiful Victoria & Albert Museum cake stand. It's very classy and perfect for afternoon tea. They have a range of different cake stands from the V&A and let's just say this isn't the last one I will be ordering :)

Here's a picture of it on its own.

And with some yummy cocktail cupcakes on! Check out their website for more great products: http://www.csnstores.co.uk/