Marie Antoinette was on to something...

I love parties! I think I even like planning more than I do attending. I love the anticipation and organising every last detail - which is ironic when you consider how incredibly disorganised I am.

But parties are different - they involve lists, hand-made invitations and lolly bags - all things I'm rather fond of. Oh and cupcakes, I'm very fond of those.

So you can imagine my delight when I recently stumbled upon these cupcake kits by Meri Meri. Holy crap they're cute huh? I think these would need to be reserved for really special parties with really special people who appreciate really special things. But which ones to pick?!

Me and my cousins and you and your cousins...

I'm not sure what's cuter - the gorgeous red polka dot cupcake stand my amazing aunty bought me or the very sweet looking cupcakes adorning it?

Okay, wait - I think this chief cupcake decorator out-cutes them all.

It was so much fun helping my little cousins decorate the cupcakes I quickly baked on Mother's Day morning. I took the cheat's option and bought a tub of Betty Crocker ready-made frosting and simply split it in half colouring one lot pink and the other blue. They then used some little marshmallows, musk sticks and fruit tingles to finish them off. Strangely enough they were more interested in decorating than eating - clearly not my children (I don't have any, for the record).

Sushi Cake- sounds gross, looks great!

Just spotted this at Coco Cake Cupcakes. Will keep this in mind for my boyfriend Mike's birthday as he loves sushi as much as he loves cake and salmon nigiri is his favourite. Don't worry, it's chocolate flavoured inside, not salmon. Genius! It could be pretty cute if you could make these cupcake sized and made all different varieties of sushi.

The sweets and treats of the Big Apple.

As a Sex and the City fan who happened to be on Bleecker St on a snowy New York New Years Eve, it would be remiss of me not to visit Magnolia Bakery, the very store where Carrie ate a cupcake sparking an enormous cupcake trend. We were lucky that the line wasn't too long and since I'd read reviews that said their cupcakes weren't that great I bought a Banana Pudding instead. Ooooh, good choice! The puddingy, wafery, banana creamy deliciousness was everything I hoped for and more. Here is a really bad photo of it:

Ok, so I'm guessing I'm not the first person to discover how fantastic Crumbs Bake Shop is since they have about 16 stores across the USA, but having been living under a rock in Sydney imagine my surprise and delight when I stumbled across their Madison Avenue store. This is where I satisfied my cupcake craving (3 times). The Baba Booey and the Smores cakes were out of this world. I hope they bring out a recipe book so I can attempt to recreate their amazing peanut butter cream cheese encased in chocolate cupcake at home.

I visited Dylan's Candy Bar on the Upper East Side full of fantastic random candies that I will include later in this blog, the Hershey's store in Times Square where I bought Reese's peanut butter chocolate sauce and the M&M's store with its wall of lovely coloured M&Ms where I ended up purchasing approximately 3 kilos of chocolate...oops!

All in all, I was sad to leave NYC but the extra 3 kilos I put on over only 6 days will be a reminder of the amazing tasty desserts I enjoyed during my stay. I heart New York, but I especially heart sweets!

The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

This is a recent purchase of mine. I have never been to the actual Hummingbird Bakery as it is located in Notting Hill, London. But these recipes look so delicious and I can't resist a book with a pretty cover, despite what they say.

The recipes include American classics like Key Lime Pie and Pumpkin Pie. I'm most looking forward to making the Banana Cream Pie. Sounds amazing!

Will let you know how I go.

How appropriate, you fight like a cow...

I was raised on a strict diet of Mario Kart and Monkey Island. This is back in the day when floppy disks were actually floppy, not those rather hard looking A drive disks. Anyway, I was quite the little geek and, considering my brother and I have owned every Nintendo console known to man (except the Gameboy Lite), I suppose there is no denying it has followed me into to adulthood.
But times have changed - I just don't catch up with Guybrush Threepwood as much as I should, and Bowser still has Peach captured in the castle at the present moment. I've started spending more time cooking and crafting, and I guess the gameboy just had to fall by the wayside. But who said that my new loves and my old couldn't meet in the middle? Hello Naomi sure seems to think they can. Step over Bakerella, I think we have a new favourite baker in town.
This girl can turn geek to chic, all on the surface of a cupcake. And really, is there a better place for the two to meet? Look at the ridiculously amazing Super Mario Bros and Pacman cupcakes! It's a my idea sugary heaven.

Check out more of Hello Naomi's work on flickr or if you're in NSW, order some of this geek goodness for yourself!