Eric the Valentine Emu Cupcake

                             Eric the Valentine Emu cupcake

Emu; second largest bird in the world by height, native to Australia. Covered with soft brown feathers, the emu male can reach up to a height of six foot six (201 cm) and has knife like nails. Emu's are curious and nosy animals.

Valentines Day in Australia is different than in the US, we don't buy make or buy Valentines for all our friends and family. Valentines Day here it's all about your boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife, lover or significant other; it's a time when men book "that" romantic restaurant, shop for lingerie, chocolates and red roses.

But I digress, it wouldn't be an "Australian animal" if I hadn't had at least one run in with one, so here goes...

The picnic grounds were crowded, the giant bird waited until the chubby little blonde girl was about to take the first bite of her Vegemite sandwich before confronting her.

The emu can't fly but the little girl had the "fight or flight instinct" and she ran. Her Mum was first one to yell "drop the sandwich", followed by a chorus of voices "drop the sandwich!", "drop the sandwich!" Try as she might the little girl couldn't drop the Vegemite sandwich that was now squashed between her clenched fist, she was too busy running. But eventually her legs tired and she stopped, dropped her sandwich that was quickly gulped down by the emu. 

What followed was reminiscent of a 'Law and Order' episode, you know the bit where they throw in a funny one liner over the corpse of the just murdered body; the chubby little girls parents, Ranger Tom and the Emu stood there laughing (well, the emu wasn't laughing but he might as well have been). Ranger Tom quipped "You're a lucky little girl the emu loves you, they can rip out your guts with those claws"... everyone laughed... it wasn't funny!!! 

Before you dismiss "emu love", take into account that after the female emu lays her eggs the male takes over hatching and raising the children; leaving the female free to find another male. Something to consider perhaps on Valentines Day when you open the fancy box your husband has given you to discover that "red satin sequinned thong"; just want you always wanted (NOT) when all you actually desired was someone to wash the dishes and mind the kids so you could go to yoga class. 

Eric being made with various batches of coloured fondant/modelling paste

Roll the fondant/modelling paste paper thin, I mixed the colours together. 

Use a small sharp knife to cut feather shapes, attach to your bird with cake glue or water. 

Happy Baking :)

You might also like to make a batch of raspberry curd this Valentines Day....

                    Raspberry Curd

To make simple raspberry curd heart cupcakes use a small heart cutter to cut a heart shape from the centre of your baked cupcake. Remove the heart, fill centre with raspberry curd & clotted or pure cream. Top with your heart cut out & dust with icing sugar.

Thor Cupcake

fondant and modelling paste bust of Thor cupcake

Thor's Hammer ;

The Prose Edda gives a summary of Mjöllnir's special qualities in that, with Mjöllnir, Thor:

... would be able to strike as firmly as he wanted, whatever his aim, and the hammer would never fail, and if he threw it at something, it would never miss and never fly so far from his hand that it would not find its way back, and when he wanted, it would be so small that it could be carried inside his tunic.

wikipedia

Short post today with this special cupcake for my stepson Dan. I'm so behind the times, Daniel kept talking about that his "dream cake" would be Viking metal and Star Wars combined. I thought that meant the "Vikings" would be metallic, but no... "Viking metal" is music apparently! 

Guess this means I'll have to learn the whole Star Wars saga whilst listening to Viking metal before I make Dan a cake ;)

rough torso and adding nonpareils to hammer

part way through working on the head of the Viking supported by a box of currants

almost finished painting

fondant and modelling paste coloured grey with americolor super black, painted with sliver food paint and finished with silver lustre dust.

Today's cupcake was my first attempt at a "human" head, l learnt a lot and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you in a future post, but for now I'm back to Christmas baking.

Happy Baking :)

Dippy Hippy & Makin's Clay Gun shapes

                                            dippy hippy cupcake

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I don't want to know you were too stoned to remember taking accounting at University, particularly when you are about to teach me the very same subject...

It started last month when my husband & myself were attending our first bookkeeping class at community adult education. We first sighted our teacher when he *skipped into the class room swinging a red riding hood basket. Seated at his desk he proceeded to unpack his basket; manuals, a bottle of filtered water, woven key ring and a brightly coloured crocheted pencil case. 

In retrospect all hope was lost already, but there we all were an expectant class room full of students. And then the teacher began to speak; we learnt that he dropped out of law, dropped out of medicine, ended up in accounting but can't remember anything about his time there because he was too stoned. After that he went backpacking around Europe, but can't remember that because he was still too stoned. Then coming back to Australia, met his wife at a forestry protest (where else!) in Tasmania, before returning to Melbourne and gaining a job as an accountant. Good to know in his second year of the job "it" (being bookkeeping) just clicked and he understood it.  

Forty minutes into the class now and the manuals are handed out. It's gets worse as the teacher tells us he wrote the manual himself and the class will not be accredited as he didn't want to follow to the governments criteria (that's right "stick it to the man") and we also don't need any paper or pens. I spoke up at this stage and asked "for the whole 8 weeks of the class we won't be writing anything?". "No" he answered but told me I could scribble notes in the margin if I wanted too. Somehow the subject changed to his father, as he bitterly spoke about his fathers success in business I scribbled "father issues" in the margin of my manual.

FIGHT! FIGHT! I didn't have to be bored for too long because an argument between the teacher and the truck driver student broke out about shelf companies, Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch (yes, I know that has nothing to do with bookkeeping but you weren't expecting that were you?). My money was on the aggressive big truck driver and if I was the teacher I wouldn't have called him a criminal for owning shelf companies. 

The arguing continued, the woman next to me decided she would back the truck driver and entered the argument. And so it when on and on and on until at 10pm we were set free! Never learning anything about bookkeeping and never to return to bookkeeping class.

On to a readers email question:

Ahlam wrote

I'm considering buying a clay gun for cake decorating and was wondering if you have one and what are all those discs are for?

Hi, Ahlam, yes I do have a clay gun. Mine is a the green Makin's Ultimate Clay Extruder with 20 metal disc shapes, I've extruded all 20 shapes for you to see below. Two extension packs of disc shapes are also available.

Makin's clay gun with O ring. Barrel measures 14-cm (5 1/2 inches) long. Easy to use, insert a "sausage" of fondant into the barrel and wind the handle. It may be necessary to soften your fondant/or modelling paste with a little Crisco or glycerine before using.

Round shapes are used for making fondant hair, laces, plaited and twisted borders, faux pasta or noodles, straw and floral stamen. Larger round shapes can be used for arms and legs, logs etc.

The half round, triangle and other shapes can be used for wood, logs, pillars, borders or cut into small shaped pieces to use as noses, beads, trim etc. 

In Australia I bought mine from Clay Princess, but since your in the US Ahlam your try local art supply store or from Amazon..Makin's Professional Ultimate Clay Extruder

Thanks Ahlam for the great question :)

* he didn't really "skip", but he was swinging his red riding hood round wicker basket with cloth topper! I did feel sorry for him, all sad and teaching community classes for extra money. 

'Dippy Hippy Cupcake' as seen on Cupcakes Take The Cake 

Golden Apple

apple & raspberry cupcake, raspberry pink glacé icing and golden apple topper

The myth of the golden apple...

Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. Left off the guest list was Eris (goddess of discord), and upon turning up uninvited, she threw or rolled a golden apple into the ceremony, with an inscription that read: καλλίστῃ or, "to the fairest." Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.

Zeus deemed Paris as the judge as he knew that Paris would be a fair and equal judge. He gave the apple to Hermes and told him to deliver it to Paris and tell him that the goddesses would accept his decision without argument, and so the goddesses appeared. Each of the goddesess offered Paris a gift as a bribe in return for the apple. First approached Hera who offered to make him a famous, powerful king; next came Athena, who offered to make him wise, above even some of the gods; and last of all came Aphrodite, who said she would give him the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife, Helen at that time, of Sparta (later to be titled Helen of Troy). Paris chose Aphrodite, which would ultimately lead to the start of the Trojan war. Paris soon went to celebrate the marriage of Helen and Menelaus with his brother. They spent the night there, and Menelaus was called to Agamemnon, and thus Helen and Paris were left alone. In this time they made love, and Helen left Menelaus and sailed to Troy with Paris, thus initiating the Trojan War.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter break with family & friends, back to cupcaking today with beautiful Golden Apple toppers. I've always thought of the Zeus myth when creating these apples, but when I went to get the story from the net today the first Google results showed 'Golden Apple' as being a brothel in Sydney. That gave me something else to think about ;)

I've made these apples (& pears) in the past to surround a large Christmas cake, they work equally well topping a cupcake. Super easy to make, start with by rolling balls of white fondant or modelling paste to create your apples in a size appropriate for your cupcakes, set aside for 30 minutes and get your stalks ready. I used the dry parts of mint stalk pieces from an unsprayed mint plant, and insert pieces into the centre of the balls to create a stalk. Set aside to dry for 24 hours.

The leaves; I used tiny sprouting mint leaves to create an imprint on modelling paste. Pick your leaves, lay them out with the rear side facing upwards. Press and shape a small piece of modelling paste onto the leaves. Set aside for 30 to 60 minutes (don't leave it on any longer or the moisture from the leaf will dissolve the modelling paste), gently peel away the leaf. There will be a slight discolouration from the leaf, but that will be covered by the edible paint. Set aside to dry.

 

finished dried and painted leaves can be stored long term in a sealed airtight container

cake decorators edible paint available in nail-polish like bottles in metallic shades from cake decorating stores

Next day, paint your apples and leaves with edible food paint, I use light gold. Set aside to dry.

Attach your leaves to the stalks with a tiny pieces of modelling paste, this is a bit fiddly but not difficult. 

Set aside to dry, paint the seam where you have joined the leaves to the stalks. Next... you guessed it... set aside to dry!

All finished and ready to use as cupcake toppers.

*Any edible unsprayed leaf can be used as a template. Make sure your 'stalks' are from the dried woody part of the herb/flower plant.

golden apple myth wikipedia 

You might also be interested in...how to make glacé icing