This was the first time I experimented with completely new recipes, and apart from the caramel I was rather pleased with the results!

The strawberry cheesecake cupcakes were a huge hit- and remain a favourite! They’re a “plain” cake base, filled with a little sweetened cream cheese and a whole strawberry, decorated with cream cheese icing. Mouth watering!

The other recipe I tried was a type of miniature apple tart in a cup! They were topped with glazed apple slivers and a home made caramel sauce. They weren’t perfect (according to the recipe) but they were rather tasty.

Shortly after Christmas we were on holiday in the Cape and staying with my boyfriend’s brother in Plumstead. I had promised him I would bake cupcakes for him while we were there, so on New Year’s day I baked red velvet cupcakes for Louis. He has a fabulous kitchen and oven so it was a pleasure to bake for him.

I decorated them with white butter icing and party themed sprinkles- stars and coloured vermicelli.