170 Little Cupcakes for Nespresso

So the D-day was yesterday and I'm delighted firstly that I was able to successfully deliver my cupcakes for my first mid size catering event (280 people) and secondly that the feedback was super!!! As I walked through the crowd with trays of cupcakes, people were fighting over them while being indecisive of which one to pick as the cupcakes looked so lovely and were decorated in different ways and colours...

As promised, I am posting the pictures here...

170 Cupcakes for Nespresso

Slightly stressed but super excited to have the opportunity to supply my little cupcakes to Nespresso for the launch of their new coffee machine, U, in Zurich this Thursday... Looking forward to baking 1-7-0 cupcakes (that's right!!! 170 cuties).  Pictures to follow after the event...

The Lavender with Vanilla cream cheese frosting

Inspired by a stroll in the Lavender fields of rustic Provence

The Sweet like Chocolate....

Pure indulgence...

The classic Red Velvet

Based on my favourite Hummingbird Bakery's recipe

The B for Butterflies

With fresh cream... For summertime lazing in the park with a glass of bubbly

The Victoria

Inspired by my old time favourite, the Victoria sponge cake-tres British!!!!

Cupcakes & Babies

On Sunday, I was invited to a family affair with lots of babies. After a long and tiresome Saturday night at the Street Parade (which Wiki says is “the most attended techno parade in Europe”), I still had the energy in the morning to bake cupcakes for Candice and Nick (who by the way does the best Texan BBQ brisket in town).  They came out so cute and lovely that the guests were kind of sad to eat them. 

Great compliments from everyone..thank you!!

The Cupcake Affair

Few articles down, I mentioned Cupcake Affair, a little cupcake shop in the Zürich old town. Laura (again) and I decided to take a stroll in the Altstadt last Friday to take a look at the boutique.  We tried a litchi cupcake with pastel green vanilla frosting. Damn sweet!!!

Looking forward to eating more of Cupcake Affair when Natalie moves into her new apartment up the road…

NYTea

Last week, I wrote about this bubble tea place in Zurich (near the Opernhaus) called NYTea, well my friend Laura and I went to check it out this weekend. We opted for the Soho Fruity Bubble- which was lemongrass tea with mango bubbles.  How refreshingly good!!! You can build your own tea there, you have a choice of either milk tea (chai, almond, black tea, coconut, white chocolate, coffee or caramel, etc...) or fresh tea (lemongrass, green or ginger) and you can also choose your bubbles (mango, passionfruit, lychees or strawberries).  Great choice of beverages indeed! Yum...a must on a warm summer evening!!!

Refreshing teas

Bubble tea used to be my favourite drink when I was living in Hong Kong.  The tea would come with fresh fruits (loved the mango ones!!), tapioca bubbles, jelly or even with birds' nest.  Bubble teas are usually either fruit teas or milk teas that you can either drink hot or cold. They are served with tapioca balls (most commonly known as pearls).

I was pleasantly surprised when I came across the quirky Bubbleology cafe in London (pictures below) a few weeks ago whilst walking the boutiquey streets of Soho (I later found out that Bubbleology has other cafes in Notting Hill and Harvey Nichols). I opted for the coconut pearl tea with additional strawberry pearls. It tasted divine!!

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Migros had opened a bubble tea take out store called, NYtea, near the Zurich Opernhaus by Stadelhofen station.  It made me happy. They are planning to open 2 other stores in Kreis 5 and in Oerlikon.  Watch this space!!!

Perfect summer evening cupcakes

Yesterday we held a small apero at La Zoupa Deli in the city centre to celebrate one month since the opening.  It was the perfect summer evening so I decided to make cupcakes with fresh strawberries cream cheese frosting-ideal for the weather! My friend Nathalie mentioned there is a nice cupcake shop by the name of Cupcake Affair in the old town- a definite must to check it out immediately!

Chocolate decadence

Strawberry love

About this Little Cupcake Project...

Hi I’m Darshana, property reinsurance underwriter by day with a penchant for baking, cooking, entertaining, and decorating things to make them look good. I live in Zurich, Switzerland, having moved here after a long stay of 9 and a bit years in London and about a year in Hong Kong. I decided to start this blog a few weeks ago (or in June twenty twelve) when I baked cupcakes for the first time for a friend who just opened a little deli called La Zoupa in Zurich.  The idea behind me making these cupcakes was to give them away as a small token to the first time customers and I thought what a brilliant idea it would be to start this little cupcake project.  That's when began my cupcake craze!   Coming from a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean (or nowhere), Mauritius, I had my first encounter with cupcakes when I was studying in London. I  always remember going to my favourite cupcake shop, The Hummingbird bakery, not far from where I used to live in South Kensington in London, and the famous Magnolia Bakery in New York City (and a lot of others in between) to stock on my sweet treats but I never knew baking these sweet little things could be so much fun, more so the last stage of the process which involves decorating them, which I have to admit I enjoy the most given my artistic and creative skills.  It almost felt cruel to eat these cute pastries after having decorated them so I started photographing them as each of them was individually unique.  The idea behind the blog is hence to showcase my collection of beautifully decorated cupcakes (photographed by myself and sometimes enhanced through Instagram), which my friends describe as "made with love". This new passion for baking (especially cupcakes) also led to my-soon-to-be-discovered interest in cooking.  Nowadays my free time is spent baking, cooking, painting and photographing.

Food has always been a constant in my life, especially deserts and everything else sweet. Much of I what I do is centered around eating and I have to admit my forever love for cakes. I enjoy discovering new bakeries, quirky cafes, patisseries and eateries especially when travelling. But there is more to me as well.  Art, fashion, travelling, design especially interiors are also very close to my heart.

Although now a devoted baker I am not completely ready to abandon the reliable world of reinsurance for the high-stakes game of owning a bakery and a cupcake shop hence why this is just the beginning of a little project. The creativity and the switching off of my mind whilst baking and decorating is just an outlet for me to escape from the hectic day to day life. I just love to experiment when creating these cute little things by bringing my artsy side to it. Last but not least, I thrive to live a triple life as a full-time professional, baker and blogger.

I hope you like this blog and your cupcake obsession as well as mine keeps on growing. Enjoy!!!