30 Sucks! (and cupcake stuff)

Yesterday we helped our eldest daughter celebrate a milestone birthday - nothing too fancy but we couldn't quite let it go by without making some kind of a fuss.  We usually have her and the kids to dinner every Friday which has become a really nice family time for us all but this week we surprised her with dinner out at the kids favourite restaurant.

We had secretly booked a table with balloons and everything but had just told her we would do something special at home - maybe order pizza or something for a nice change?  Well I didn't lie did I?  And when her dad stopped in town at the restaurant she still thought we were having take away cos she thought maybe he was collecting it himself.  He said they might as well come in with him instead of sitting in a cold car and SURPRISE!  There we were, waiting for her to arrive!  Don't ever tell me keeping secrets is a bad thing.

The theme was '30 sucks!' so for a bit of fun I had placed a pretty jar of 30 suckers (lollipops) in the centre of the table with the balloons.  She got way more excited about the jar actually (and yes I said she could keep it) but she also saw the funny side (phew!). 



It's impossible to see the pretty detailing on this jar - you'll just have to trust me that it's there but don't these suckers look lovely and colourful. There are actually 30 of them in there! Only thing spoiling it is my ribbon.  I have an absolute wealth of ribbons but nothing was quite wide enough and had I looked earlier I'd have had time to buy the perfect ribbon.  With Christmas so close and all those last month projects on the go her birthday usually gets 'thrown together' last minute so why worry now? LOL!  Poor Vic!  Good job she doesn't mind.

Besides being the kids favourite food restaurant we chose this one because it had a salad bar.  I'm pleased to say the grandkids all love salad and so do we so even though we had pizza more fuss was made over the salad - the kids were genuinely disappointed they couldn't go back for more - that's only in the lunch time guys!

And of course no trip here draws quite so much interest as the ice cream factory (well it was a special occasion) AND what goes perfectly with ice cream?

CUPCAKES of course!  Instead of taking a cake along to surprise her with I had made cupcakes with yummy fluffy frosting and pretty cake pokes.  Her dad actually baked these, and then I made up some frosting especially for her - she doesn't like the 'Fluffiest Frosting Ever' would you believe so I found an alternative for her.  It's actually the same recipe just a few extra ingredients and flavour but this version she loved (recipe below).  To make the cupcakes a little neater we baked them, took off the cases when they cooled and placed them into clean silver cases.  This little trick makes getting at your cupcake far less mess and keeps everything looking nice and neat too.

And before I share the frosting recipe I want to quickly show you how I transported the cupcakes to the restaurant in one piece.  I know we are beginning to see a few cupcake carriers coming onto the market but this one is from Lakeland Plastics and is so cool - I just love it. 



The base is the pan you bake the cupcakes in and then once cooled you can frost directly in the pan and simply attach the lid which locks into place at each side, grab the handles and GO!  How cool is that!  Only at Lakeland Plastics huh?  Ooops!  I made a mess trying to get a couple leftover cakes back into the pan to take this shot - they didn't look that messy first time around honest.

I am a big fan of sharing so we made sure we shared cupcakes with staff at the restaurant and turns out my daughter wasn't the only fan of the newer version frosting so today I'm dropping the recipe in to the restaurant.  I'm also sharing it here with those of you who follow my blog and you may remember the white version.  This recipe came from  Our Best Bites  and I also have a link/logo right here on my blog.  Check em' out regularly cos they have some of the yummiest recipes!

You can find the original version here

New Chocolate Version

2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup plain flour, 1 cup milk, 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 cup real butter, 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I raided the Christmas cupboard and used 1/3 of a large Galaxy chocolate bar - worked just as well (sorry Jess will get Mike another one).  This time of year my store cupboard is full of chocolates and sweets as stocking stuffers and package tie-ons.  I already ate a bunch of 'Cadbury's flakes' that I bought for hot chocolate mountains while we're at Jessy's so I have to buy more of those too. Shame on me huh?

Whisk sugar, flour, cocoa and milk together in a pan over a medium heat.  Whisk continuously until mixture thickens.  Actually recipe tells you to strain out lumps.  I say 'lumps! - what lumps!'  If you whisk smooth before cooking, stir continuously whilst cooking and then whisk frantically at the end as it  thickens you don't get any lumps!  You just get an arm ache LOL!  But it's sooooo worth it guys.

Set aside to cool while you melt chocolate chips in microwave in a bowl and set to one side.

Now whip butter into a frenzy using an electric mixer (aahhhh! arm relief) on high until light and fluffy.  Add completely cooled sauce mixture and whip even more (5 to 8 minutes) until light and 'mousse' like in resemblance.

Add cooled melted chocolate and whip up some more for good measure before placing into a piping bag and decorating cupcakes.

Unlike the first version which was to be kept away from the refridgerator for fear of seperating this newer version states any left over CAN be kept in the refridgerator and warmed to room temperature before using again.  We of course used up every bit of this frosting so I can't personally vouch for this - you'll just have to take their word for it.

It's also a larger quantity so it makes enough for an entire Betty Crocker Chocolate cake mix made into cupcakes.  Did I say her dad made the cakes?  Okay so he had a little help from Betty Crocker but he cooked bless him - it's all good and those cupcakes were SUPER moist.

If any of you are making chocolate 'Yule Logs' (or better still decorating store bought chocolate swiss rolls) with the kiddies this year - this makes a super light and fluffy version and would pipe on beautifully.  Give it a go - you won't be disappointed and now you have the lightest fluffiest frosting in two flavours!

Enjoy!