I launched my newsletter in January, and I offered a 500g sample of my delectable vanilla butter icing to 10 of the people who subscribed before the end of January and I was super stoked to have 52 subscribers!

I did a random draw using random.org, and here is an alphabetical list of the winners:

Bryn

Chipo

Gabrielle

Gina

Kumen

Marleen

Natasha

Rachel

Sharlene

Tamiya

Yay you all! Thank you for subscribing!

And do keep an eye on the newsletter everyone, I plan on having special offers up for grabs every month!

Yuppiechef had a Festive Cake Icing challenge this year and as is typical of me, I left my entry to the very last minute!

I had a concept as soon as I heard about the competition. I wanted to do Santa on a tractor inner-tube in a pool with a beer in his hand, his clothes lying on the paving, a spike-collared Boerboel with a stocking in his mouth, a bag with gifts in lying abandoned on the grass- duties abandoned to an irresistible pool, he enjoys our South African sunshine!

But because I left it to the last minute I didn’t get it quite the way I wanted it and I had to adapt it a tad because I didn’t leave myself enough time…

*FACEPALM*

Then I baked a chocolate cake, filled and covered it with ganache and then covered it with bright green sugarpaste “grass”. The Santa, the dog, the boots, the “stone” pool border, the gifts and Santa’s hat are all hand-sculpted sugarpaste. I wanted to do the pool water in piping gel but I didn’t get any in time so I had to make do with blue and white butter icing.

You can see the more than worthy winners here 2011 Festive Cake Icing Champs and I am very pleased that I got a special mention!

See the button on the left there that says “VOTE”!?

If you click it it will take you to the website to complete the voting process!!

Another beta test- thank you Rozz for trying these out- and its my last entry for the Food24 Cupcake Competition!

These are an absolute winner! The tang of the apricot is perfectly complimented by the sweetness of the cake. I can so see these served with whipped cream as a dessert!

Rozz reckons, after eating them, that they are an awesome winter treat after 10 seconds in the microwave!

Preheat oven to 180°C and fill two cupcake pans with paper cases.

1¾ cups self-raising flour

½ cup dessicated coconut

125g unsalted butter

1 cup castor sugar

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

1 cup apricot nectar (there’s enough juice in a BIG tin of apricot halves)

½ cup sour cream

tinned apricot halves in juice (drained)

¼ cup apricot jam

Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the coconut and make a well in the centre.

Melt the butter and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves (this takes a while) and remove from the heat.

Whisk the eggs and apricot nectar together, and slowly whisk it into the sour cream.

Add the egg and the sugar mixture to the well in the dry ingredients and stir together with a wooden spoon until combined.

Divide the mixture evenly amongst your cupcake cups and place an apricot half- cut side up- on top of each cup.

Bake them for 18 – 20 minutes, or until a cake skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a cupcake.

Leave them in the baking tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Heat the apricot jam till its melted and brush a little jam over the top of each cupcake.