I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this cupcake cookbook—The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook—it is by far the best cupcake recipe book I have in my collection. And I have A LOT of cupcake books on my recipe shelf (I really should take a photo of my cupcake bookshelf and my cupcake supplies storage box—there’s a lot!)

The story behind the Crabapple Bakery sounds normal enough – Melbournite Jennifer Graham starts selling cupcakes at the local markets and ends up doing so well she set up a cupcake bakery. Googling the bakery it becomes obvious that things turned pear-shaped and there seemed to be complaints of stale cupcakes and even cockies in the display window! The company has re-established itself as Crabapple Cupcakes and Supplies and is back at the Prahran Markets.

From the moment my sister gave me this book in September last year, I have been in love with it. There are so many helpful things that have become treasured cupcake-making tips (like, New Zealand butter has a higher fat content and therefore is nicer to bake with) and even a list of suppliers for decorations and equipment to make the all-important perfect cupcake.

The only thing with the recipes is that they say they make 24 cupcakes—and the cupcakes must be the size of Tassie because I can’t fit the full mixture in my Kenwood Chef bowl! The first time I made cupcakes from the Crabapple book I made 48 of my regular-sized cupcakes (more like the old-school pattycake size, slightly smaller than the traditional cupcake/muffin size that’s popular today). So all of the recipes have been halved so that I make a manageable number of cupcakes. Although,the full recipes will be handy when I’m making the next big batch for a friend’s 30th birthday.

I knew I was onto a  good thing with this book when my friend Nicky from Yummie Tummie Catering told me that she uses this book exclusively for the cupcakes she makes for catering orders. You know it’s good when someone who cooks for a living uses these recipes

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