Birthday Cupcakes and Don's Birthday

Todd, mum and Russ

Tam and Jules (sis-in-laws)

Dad-am and Jen (another sis-in-law)

Dons, Dad-am and Rochene (my sister)

Dion (bro-in-law) and Dons

Sister, Dons, Beau and Jules

Jen and my very naughty sis-in-law Tarn

Bro-in-laws Billy and Dion

Some of the kids...going feral

Rochene and her partner Todd

Russell and George

Bobby and dad-am

Dons and I

The platter of cupcakes

Sitting outside in the middle of winter in the warm sun

So last weekend was Dons birthday and as wehad had it arranged for ages, we had the family over for afternoon drinks and nibbles to celebrate. Even though both Dons and I had been sick we didn't want to cancel as after all your birthday only comes around once a year! We only did pretty basic nibbles but as usual there was loads to eat and tons leftover. I guess that's ok though as we both subscribe to the whole thing of people not going hungry and we figure that if there are things left over then we have catered properly. We are really lucky in that our families really like each other and all get on well together so family get togethers are fun and social. We also had the obligatory Karaoke but as I had pretty much lost my voice I couldn't indulge. Usually it's a fight to get the microphones off Don and I but this time that microphone was there for the taking!

The cupcakes I made were both vanilla dna chocolate and the recipes for these can be found here on my blog. I made a basic, but buttery and yummy, vanilla bean buttercream for the top which unfortunately melted a little as even though it is winter our house is pretty warm and the high, decadent amount of butter in the icing, meant that it did soften a little after I piped it. But never to mind it still looked pretty good. I got to try out my new cutters and a beautiful flower mold too. The bigger flowers sitting on top of the cupcakes were made with this mold and as Dons favourite colour is yellow I went with that for most of them. I also put some edible glitter in the centres of them to give them a bit of bling...not that Dons is a 'blingy' kind of girl. They did look lovely though and we only ended up with a couple left over so they must have tasted good too. I find that after making this sort of thing and playing with fondant for a while, the last thing I feel like eating is anything sugary or cakey so I didn't have any except a small bit to see how they tasted. As well as that these recipes I make all the time so I know they taste good and have a lovely texture.

Anyway I think everyone had a good time and most importantly Dons enjoyed herself too. Thanks everyone for making it a lovely day! xxx