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I wanted to impress Jarod & Liz (.com) this afternoon with my giant cupcake skillz.

Even though it was such a success last week, I think I got a bit cocky this morning… and ended up with this:

And this is improved, because it’s at least decorated and hides the burnt outsides and the so-uncooked-it’s-still-runny insides. The nude version was UGLY. Trust me. It even needed a spatula to move it from the cake airer because the uncooked batter fused the damn cake to it.

It was easily the biggest baking disaster I’ve ever created.

Jarod and Liz picked the icing colours, and the decorations. We popped a mini cupcake (made from batter leftovers) on top in a vain attempt to minimise the horror.

Liz made chocolate hot cross buns and they were much better than my dismal attempt at baking.

I’m thinking I might branch out into the world of professional cupcaking. What do you reckon?

Last week I wrote on That’s Noice about my love of the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook and mentioned that the company had gone out of business and found there had been more than a few negative reviews about the poor-quality of the cupcakes and the bakery itself.

I’ve since discovered that they are up and running again as Crabapple Cupcakes and Supplies.

It will be interesting to see if Jennifer Graham will be able to renew the Crabapple name to its former glory. I hope she does, because those recipes in the book really are fantastic.

If you haven’t been to Cupcakes on Pitt and have been wanting to – DON’T.

That is, unless you’re planning on being disappointed (like I was).

I’ve been strangely curious about Cupcakes on Pitt; more than a handful of friends have had half-hearted opinions of their wares and I’ve been debating for a long time if I wanted to find out for myself. But the very brave Leigh took me to the Parramatta Cupcakes on Pitt store.

I’ve never been to the Bondi store or the flagship store in the city so don’t know if it’s the norm to not have any decent seating, but I was surprised that there were only about 4 barstools in the shop, and no tables.

While I was choosing which 2 cupcakes to buy, the woman behind the counter kept yelling flavours at me. It was like I was in the middle of Paddy’s Markets or walking through Kings Cross. At least the prices were down to $2.00 from the original $3.50. All the cupcakes looked impressive but I managed to decide to buy a lemon meringue and a passionfruit.

I have to give credit to the packaging; my little bundle of cupcakes made it home in one piece after being lugged around multiple laps of Parramatta Westfield.

The cakes themselves were dry and plain. The passionfruit icing was fake-tasting and the meringue was rubbery. The nicest part was the tiny amount of lemon under the meringue.

Overall, a thoroughly disappointing experience. If you’re looking for a nice cupcake cafe in Sydney, then Cupcakes on Pitt is not the place you’re looking for!