Un anniversaire merveilleux!

Having celebrated my 23rd birthday earlier this week, I thought I would post a brief update on some of the cupcake-related festivities that occured, and a couple of the exciting gifts that I received relating to my culinary passions. I had a fantastic day (spending most of one's birthday at the hospital may sound rather grim to most people, but for this med student, being surrounded by many of my closest friends was a definite plus), and I was really spoilt with some amazing baked goods made by my friends (very nice to be on receiving end of baking!), including delicious vegan chocolate brownies made by both Narada and Vanessa. In spite of Narada's own skeptical estimation of his dairy-free baking abilities, his brownie was amazingly light and full of cocoa flavour. Vanessa's incredible offerings (inspired by a classic Donna Hay recipe) were delectably moist and packed with juicy, sweet raspberries. Stay tuned for a future post on creative approaches to vegan baking, a subject close to my own heart!
 
In my tute, I was further indulged with Caroline's incredible mini banana vegan cupcakes and lots of other edible goodies.

Caroline's scrumptious mini banana-flavoured cupcakes, complete with a birthday candle!

My black forest gateau cupcakes also made their debut appearance this week, and I was particularly delighted to find a birthday cardigan that matched the cherry theme!

My black-forest gateau inspired cupcakes deserved a suitably coordinated look!

I was thrilled to see my love of cupcakes and baking was very manifest in some of the presents that I got - a renewed subscription to Donna Hay Magazine will definitely keep my innundated with a steady stream of culinary inspiration over the next year (thank you Daniel!). I am also being sent to a chocolate making course which promises to add new dimensions of technical accomplishment to my cake decorating abilities and hopefully a new hand-made gift to my repertoire. 

One of my favourite signature chocolate-inspired cupcakes, my 'rocky road' cakes - hopefully my chocolate-making course will be the start of many more cocoa-based delights...

In other topical news, I was slightly alarmed by an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald titled 'Cheeky BYO surcharge is icing on cake for restaurants'. This article discussed the growing trend for restaurants to charge patrons 'cakeage', a surcharge for diners who bring their own cake to eat at the end of the meal. As someone who virtually never goes to dinner without a tupperware filled with dessert, I have mastered the art of surreptitiously using side plates, napkins and even chop sticks to serve out my own cakes, and I hope that 'cakeage' is a passing fad which vanishes as rapidly as it has arisen! (On a side note, I did appreciate the several cake-themed puns and metaphors used in the article, particularly the more alarmist allusion to 'double-chocolate thuggery' and the repeated references to the new surcharge 'taking the cake'!!)

Vanessa and I with some incriminating evidence of my 'cake-smuggling' habits...I am glad to report that we were not charged 'cakeage' for this particular meal!

Amidst my rather absorbing studies of renal pathophysiology, I am currently planning some exciting new cupcake ideas for my next post (my desk is virtually covered with well thumbed copies of my two current favourite reads - Donna Hay Magazine and Australian Family Physician, my life in a nutshell!!).

xx
Anne