What I've been up to lately

This is probably my longest absence from the blog - the last post was in September and it's already December! Time really flies, and I can't wait for Christmas to arrive! I was swamped at work for the past two months, and in November, I was swamped with orders for cupcakes and cookies, thanks to the company's charity food fair which I chose to participate in. 

So here's what I've been up to lately, in pictures. 

I've been up to my eyeballs in cupcakes - I made cupcakes for a 1st birthday - chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla cooked flour frosting (really delish btw!). Although the focussing and lighting, as well as the posture of my mother's hands below are a bit off, I really like it because of the lines and veins that are visible. Reminds me that my mom's hands are aging and so is she! Ps: belated happy birthday mommy!

Also for the 1st birthday party, some safari-themed cookies! Some of them turned out pretty good, but I wasn't too satisfied for the monkey and lion cookies because the icing separated and there were visible bubbles! =X Those became food for my dogs instead. 

Next up, the food fair I was talking about. I was mighty pleased with myself, because I managed to sell approximately 300+ cupcakes (consisting of pre-orders) and more than 20 jars of cookies! That raked in $2000 of funds for the Children's Cancer Foundation! =D If only my mom were around to help me bake - if she were and if my grandma weren't sick, I could have definitely taken in more orders, but well...family first! I sold 13 flavours of cupcakes (on hindsight, I might have been a bit too ambitious) and the flavours you see below are salted caramel, peanut butter and cookies & cream. Initially, I taste tested almost every tray of cookie and cake because I wanted to be sure of the quality but I eventually got a really bad sore throat and I decided that I was confident enough about my goods not to need to try every single tray. The cupcakes were quite well received and I must say that I have become quite adept at making cupcakes and frosting - so much so that I can confidently say that I can manage 100 cupcakes of a single flavour in a couple of hours! 

Another gratuitous photograph. This photo, as well as the one before and after this was taken with my new lens, a 85mm 1.8. I must say that I like the depth of field, but the shutter speed is a little slow :/

How christmassy eh? ;p

And finally, here's some of the cookies I sold at the fair. Most of them were very welcomed - especially my earl grey sable, vanilla sable and chocolate sable! Recipes to follow (soon I hope). 

Because it's been some time, I've been finding it hard to write a proper recipe post - but I do have a great number of backlog recipes to clear! Stay tuned for the recipes to the pictures above soon! :]