Hummingbird Bakery 1.02

Episode two of cooking from the Hummingbird Bakery was a bit of a wake-up call. Mainly because I hadn’t expected last night to be such a big night. However, there’s nothing more comforting after a night out, next to a greasy breakfast that is, than to be in a kitchen that smells of delicious baking.

Our menu for today had a savoury twist to it with Ham and Mushroom muffins, Spinach and Cheese muffins, Peanut Butter cookies and Ginger cupcakes on offer.

Caro and I learned our lesson from last time to try and balance the sweet so we wouldn’t be overwhelmed! The day went very smoothly and I think it was a combination of a few factors – Caro and I were a bit more organized with our method, Gaspar seemed hungry less often than last time (he still tapped Caro out though! ha ha!) and the biggest factor was the most helpful helper in Meline, Caro’s cousin, who was great with helping out with washing dishes, some chopping, mixing and managing the oven! Thanks Meline for helping out with the day! Nathan too was helpful with babysitting duties. 🙂

The only thing we need to improve is the icing on our cupcakes. Still haven’t managed to get it quite light and fluffy yet ..

Ham and Mushroom muffins and Spinach and Cheese muffins

Peanut Butter cookies

Ginger cupcakes

The finished products:

The day went so well that we even had time to fit in a movie (Confessions of a Shopaholic)! Not Nate’s first choice but with three girls against one guy (two if you count the little one) he was a bit outnumbered. Heh heh.

Gaspar was a little disappointed that he didn’t get to indulge however:

But he’s growing so big so quickly that won’t be long before the little cutey is joining us!

Hummingbird Bakery 1.01

Everyone I know who has had a cupcake or cake from the Hummingbird Bakery is totally in love with the bakery. Not only are their goods pretty to look at they are pretty nice to eat too. They now have a cookbook out and its as pretty to look at as the Bakery’s cupcakes.

Caro has had the book for a couple of weeks and she’s tried out a couple of the cookie recipes already but somehow we came up with the idea of a baking day. I wanted in on the action! I was definitely up for it as it would be a nice way to catch up and spend time but also a way to indulge in some sinfully delicious baked goods!

Although the recipes in the book are all extremely tempting we did have to limit ourselves. The book is filled with all sorts of recipes so our first and biggest dilemma was narrowing it down to just two or three! Ha ha. We settled on a menu of Coconut and Pineapple cupcakes, Black Bottom cupcakes (basically, chocolate cake bottom, cream cheese filling and cream cheese frosting) and Pecan pie (this last one was to make Nate happy.)

Before baking though was an all important breakfast. Caro cooked us up some lovely poached eggs with oven baked mushroom and goat’s cheese. Delish.

Soon enough though it was time for work! Although actually it wasn’t work so much as making a nice big mess in the kitchen so it was fun-work, not work-work.

Here are some pics of how the day went.

coconut and pineapple cupcakes

black bottom cupcakes

pecan pie

If there is one thing I learned about our baking experience today is that the hummingbird bakery sure like sugar in their recipes! After one cupcake the sugar high was almost too much to even think about trying another. Almost. Two was pretty much my absolute limit. Next time around Caro and I are going to make sure we cut down the sugar content.

The only thing missing from the day … a dish-washer. Heh heh.

Thanks for Caro and Nate for putting up with the baking day in their house.