Etsy Picks - Donuts!

1. Don't Forget the Donuts Print by Noosed Kitty
2. Earrings - Delicious Donut Twists by dirt road south
3. A Chance of Sprinkles and Partly Doughnutty Tee by Apple Noggin
4. Donut Sticker Set by Sweet Surprises
5. Sweet Mini Donut 4 Pack by LoveLee Soaps
6. Sprinkles Card - Vanilla by caged tomato
7. Original or Chocolate Glazed Donut Key Chains by moogu
8. 6 Delicious Felt Doughnuts by Bugga Bugs
9. Pink Donut Ring by Baby Loves Pink

One year blog birthday and a giveaway!

It almost went by without me noticing - but yesterday was The Red Deer's one year blog birthday! So I celebrated in style today with a sprinkle doughnut and one big red candle. I like to think that this blog has come a fair way since its humble beginnings - the look of it has been revamped, I have my regular weekly features now to keep me on track and I am loving my A.. B.. Cupcake project. I still think there is a lot of room for improvement on my little blog and so to both celebrate my first birthday and to come up with new blogging ideas I am holding my first giveaway.

Check out the totally awesome prize that you, wonderful reader, could win:


That is right, a copy of The Australian Women's Weekly - Mix cookbook, a packet of Jelly Belly jelly beans and some lovely chocolate coins. If you would like to be in running for this giveaway this is what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment and if you feel inspired tell me what you would like to see as a regular feature on The Red Deer.
2. If you want an extra entry follow this blog (if you are already a follower you will already get an extra entry).
3. Finally if you feel so inclined post about the giveaway on your blog to get another extra entry.
   

Entries will be open until July 23rd 12pm (ACST).

Good luck everybody!

Baking Mondays - D is for Doughnuts

Doughnut cupcakes filled with raspberry jam, topped with a doughnut glaze and sprinkles.

This week I was on a mission to make doughnut flavoured cupcakes. I scoured the blog world looking for a suitable recipe and I came across this recipe from Coconut & Lime. Looked good so I thought I would give it a try. I decided to double the recipe so that Mat would have enough cupcakes to take to work and there was my first mistake. Here is a simple mathematics question - what is a quarter of a cup of butter doubled? I can tell you that it is not 1 cup of butter - which is what I accidentally put in. Thankfully the cupcakes still turned out alright even though I doubled the amount of butter in them. While the Coconut & Lime recipe suggested using icing sugar on top of the cupcakes I decided to make a glaze that was on Bakerella's website - wasn't quite what I was looking for, but oh well.

Now the ratings...

Me - 6/10, the cake tasted good but not amazing - and it didn't taste much like a doughnut at all :(
Mat - 6/10, he wasn't sure why there was a need for lemon zest in the cakes. He thinks I should of consulted him on the flavour of the cake and that I need to try again :P

ETA - If I had actually put in the right amount of butter I'm sure these cupcakes would of been great - note to self: redo the batch if I make a mistake like that again (sorry Rachel from Coconut & Lime for not mentioning this earlier).