Anyone who knows me knows that my passion in life is animals. I am the hugest fan of the RSPCA and would do anything for them to help them fundraise.

2008 marked the first year for the Cupcake Day for the RSPCA and I decided to bake up a storm and raise some cash at work.

Since my oven doesn’t work, I went over to see my parents and baked with their state-of-the-art wonderful oven. The recipe I used was the same one I have been using since I was about five – it’s a very simple, never-fail, vanilla cupcake recipe that always turns out perfect – fluffy and crumbly in the middle with a great texture and taste. I did however tempt fate by making a second batch and throwing in a good heap of Cadbury drinking chocolate to see what happened. What happened was I stuffed up the recipe and half of the chocolate cupcakes sunk in the middle so were un-sellable. They were still tasty and devoured by family however, so it turned out OK!

Batch number two goes into the oven.

Batch number one comes out – perfect!

Iced! Glorious sprinkled cakes with lemon yellow icing.

Chocolate with white butter cream icing and chocolate sprinkles.

Dispite some hiccups at my work, the day went off very well. Several other Googlers brought in treats they had baked as well, and together we raised $170 for the RSPCA. Google also gift matches any money we donate to charity, so it ended up being $340 we made in total. I hope to raise even more next year!