Sunflower Cupcakes and Black Caviar's 24th Win

On Friday night, I went with my friends C and V to Moonee Valley racecourse to watch Black Caviar, an Australian racehorse, run in the William Reid Stakes.  This race was special because if Black Caviar won, it would be her 24th straight win.

There was around 20,000 people at the racecourse to watch Black Caviar, and it caused some tension (me included) as people jostled for space to catch a glimpse of the racecourse for Black Caviar's race.  Here is Black Caviar in full flight, as seen on the big screen from the top of the public grandstand:

Many people were dressed in Black Caviar's salmon with black spots, and the anticipation would have unnerved a human being.  However, luckily for Black Caviar, she did not understand a word of the hype that was being built up around her, and she romped comfortably to her 24th straight win, in her last race on Victorian soil.  Good luck to you Black Caviar - you are a magnificent mare.

Wednesday last week was my last Pilates class with my instructor of almost 3 years, Emilia.  She is off to have her first baby.  To wish Emilia farewell, I baked her these sunflower cupcakes:

The base cakes were the Old-Fashioned Cupcakes from the Back in the Day Bakery Cook Book.  You can also find the recipe online here.  The recipe is unusual because the flour is added at the start and beaten with the butter.  These cupcakes were quick and easy to make, but these won't be replacing my favourite recipe, as I found them to be just a tad drier than my usual recipe.

Instead of using buttercream, I iced the cupcakes with white chocolate ganache, then placed fondant (coloured yellow using gel colour) sunflowers on top (stuck on with apricot jam syrup) and black cachous, similar to the one I made at CW Cakes.

I gave the best half a dozen out of the nine cupcakes that I made to Emilia, and shared the rest with a couple of work buddies. 

Everyone enjoyed eating these cupcakes, and my Pilates class was impressed - although these cupcakes were super easy to make.

Best wishes to Emilia and her husband on the pending birth of their bub.