The Kreativ Blogger Award

Look at what we got! An award!!

Oooooooo!

Our first one! I was so excited when I found out and told Howard right away. He wasn't jumping up and down like me - I don't know how he manages to contain his excitement.

Thank you to January Asia and Steven Hui from The Caffeinated Globe! Here is the post where they passed on the award to us. Thank you!! It feels nice to win a creative award.

The Kreativ Blogger Award comes with these responsibilities:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the award logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

I did numbers 1-3 already, so here are 7 things that you might (no promises) find interesting about me:

1. When I get called a "foodie" I scrunch up my nose. Don't get me wrong, I love food, but I don't think that I know enough about it to be called a foodie. I'm a baker!
   
2. I like watching shows/films that have some form of publishing in them. Examples: Ugly Betty, Being Erica, Lipstick Jungle, Post Grad and The Proposal. It amuses me because publishing looks really glamorous on screen.
   
3. I don't get the Food Network at home. It is really sad.
   
4. I collect postcards and scope out cupcake bakeries when I travel.
   
5. I don't have fancy photo shoot equipments. I use a white bristol board and a point-and-shoot camera.
   
6. I'm afraid of traveling on airplanes.
   
7. Even though I adore colour, most of my clothes are black or shades of grey.
   

In turn, I will nominate the following 7 bloggers (alphabetical order by blog name):

1. Bonita at Bon Eats
   A fellow publishing friend and I was lucky enough to try her cupcakes. =)
   
2. Lyndsay at Coco Cake
   Take a look at her fondant work and you'll know why! So cute!
   
3. Suzanne at Gleeks United
   I am a gleek and proud of it. Plus, she's a major cupcake fan!
4. Karen at Mad Baker
   Yummy, yummy photos! She's mad about cake, pastries, and all things baked.
   
5. Sarah at Milk and Honey Cafe
   More yummy photos and recipes! I like the simple style she does.
   
6. Heather at The Scootabaker
   She delivers baked goods on her scooter!!! Enough said!
   
7. Michelle at Une-deux senses
   I love her sense of fashion and food!
   

Congratulations to everyone, it was pretty tough narrowing my choices down to 7!

Humming Scooters

Yayyy Civic long weekend! What did you do? We did a day trip to Buffalo, celebrated a couple's new house and engagement (congratulations again Kurt & Diana), and I made cupcakes.

Hummingbird cupcakes! I was missing pecans from this recipe, so I don't know if that makes it less of a Hummingbird? Hopefully not! Oh, and one more change to the recipe. I didn't have enough sugar. I know, me without a fully stocked bag of sugar? So, instead of 2 cups of sugar, I did brown sugar and granulated sugar. The result? A not so overly sweet cake that balanced with the sweet frosting pretty well.

Above left, going clockwise: Cream cheese frosting on Hummingbird Cupcakes; fresh from the oven; cupcake batter; batter up for the oven!

I did manage to crack myself up while cracking the eggs. I attempted to do it one-hand style like the chefs on television. I did it once before and thought I could do a repeat performance. Nope. I think I'll stick to two-hands egg cracking from now on.

Hummingbird Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from the amazing Chockylit
(Makes about 24 cupcakes)

3 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup of vegetable oil
1-1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 8oz can crushed pineapple, with liquid
2 mashed bananas

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and have all ingredients at room temperature. Also have your cupcake liners and pans ready.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt in a good sized bowl.
3. Beat the eggs.
4. Add oil and vanilla to the beaten eggs and mix until somewhat combined.
5. Add egg/oil/vanilla mixture to flour/sugar/baking soda/cinnamon/salt mixture.
6. Mix together the pineapples and bananas.
7. Add the pineapples/bananas with the previous mixture and mix well.
   
8. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden and a cake tester comes out clean.
   

The cupcakes are in between a cupcake and a muffin. I can see this being very good for breakfast, especially if they're fresh from the oven. They smell very much like banana cakes to me, perhaps my 2 mashed bananas were larger in size? It also has a nice chewy texture from the bananas. Yumm.

Cream Cheese Frosting
(Makes enough for about 24 cupcakes)

3 cups of icing sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 package of cream cheese
1 stick of butter

1. Cream the butter until smooth.
2. Add in the icing sugar and mix. Include the vanilla extract.
3. Add in the cream cheese and mix until smooth.
   

I also made two small scooters out of fondant. Yes, two. I am insane sometimes. A yellow one and a red one. My mom randomly gave me the fruit to accessorize my photoshoot. Please note, the only fruits in this cupcake are bananas and pineapples!

I would like to dedicate the yellow one to the Scootabaker!

Her shout-out on twitter and her blog made it so worth it!

The red one goes to Jen and everyone else who loves scooters. <3