One of my SPCA cupcakes

Here is one of my SPCA cupcake day cupcakes. I had the best intentions in the world, of creating more dog cupcakes as well, like the ones I did earlier this month, for the SPCA photo shoot for the newspaper (see earlier post). But I simply ran out of time. Trying to keep the business running and look after the children, there was simply no time left last night. However I'm pretty pleased with what I did pull off. I'm just back from having dropped a box off to Poppy's school, for the teachers staff room. I'd been wanting to try making Baileys irish cream icing for a while. So this is what I topped them with. The round circle is made using white chocolate on a transfer sheet, just befor eit set, I cut out circles with a round cookie cutter. The black cat is fondant.

I couldn't resist using my new SPCA teatowels for the photo backdrop. Who said stripes on stripes didn't work?

Check out the SPCA cupcake day creations

Check out all the cupcake creations submitted to the SPCA cupcake day website

http://spcacupcakeday.co.nz/competition/2-competition/2-most-creative-cup-cake

I'm making my cupcakes tommorrow, and will be uploading pics on Monday

Rainbow Dust is Halal and Kosher approved

As you all know by now, Kiwicakes is the NZ distributor for Rainbow Dust products. The range consists of edible silk lustre dusts, glitter shapes, matt dusting powders and non toxic sparkle dusts. Here is a link to Rainbow dusts food safety certificates for Halal & Kosher, as well as this, Rainbow dust is nut & gluten free, they are also suitable for vegetarians.

http://www.rainbowdust.co.uk/news.php?article=33&osCsid=f1299eba0dc9135a3f30d68b97d5c2d6

Kiwicakes & SPCA cupcake day

Well you've all already heard how I'm making cupcakes for the SPCA on cupcake day, and for every cupcake I sell, Kiwicakes will be matching the purchase price. Well here I am in the local newspaper, along with Andrea fromt he SPCA (that's Andrea with Armani the cat). Not the most flattering photo of me, but then, don't we always think that?

I had fun making the puppy cupcakes.

Autumn Carpeneters new designs

I was thrilled to receive an email today, from the oh - so talented Autumn Carpenter, she's added Kiwicakes, as a stockist to her website, and congratulated me, on a blog well done. I am pleased to be able to say, we have all the new AC designs on the way, these should be loaded in aprx 1 week. If you'd like to see everything Autumn offers, check out her website www.autumncarpenter.com

Haute couture cupcake wrappers

Kiwicakes is proud to be the first stockist in New Zealand of these gorgeous haute couture cupcake wrappers. These are this weeks "favourite thing!" All have such pretty names. Lulu in black & white would be perfect for a black & white themed wedding. Olvia, is just perfect for those incorporating Koru in to their event. And Hannah in chocolate brown and blue(my personal favourite) is just perfect for ANYTHING! really.

Bella Cupcake Couture offers posh and chic textile-inspired cupcake wrappers. These boutique-style designs are exquisite and offer a sophisticated elegance to any special occasion; weddings, baby and bridal showers, birthdays, celebrations, and just because.

Where cupcakes meet fashion. The chic textile-inspired patterns mix elegant hues like chartreuse, chocolate brown, citrus or soft pinks, making every cupcake look stunning. Each design encourages you to enjoy simple pleasures and savour the sweet life.

Wrapped in Style. The designs come in a variety of styles including floral, swirls and damask. Each wrapper is available in a pack of 12 or 50 and measures 3.25" wide and just under 2" tall. These cupcake wrappers are for presentation only and not appropriate for baking. Each design is printed with soy inks on recycled paper.

That's haute! Make the moments in your life extra special, creative and stylish for you and those you care about. Simply bake or buy your favourite frosted cupcake and set inside wrapper for an elegant finish. No matter which type of cupcake you enclose it around; red velvet, lemon drop, double chocolate, plain vanilla... it is sure to be adored!

A quick cake I made for Janet

I made this cake for my dear friend Janet. I go to body combat exercise classes twice a week with Janet. She invited me and some of the girls to her birthday at our local Thai restaraunt. We had a great night and I was out dancing until 12.30. For this Mum of small kids, that's a major accomplishment! - especially when I realised I hadn't been dancing since before my eldest was born (and I love dancing!).

Janet didn't know she was getting a cake, it's always so nice to surprise someone. The cake was chocolate fudge, with a Baileys Irish creme buttercream under the white chocolate slabs, which had a design of stripes, using chocolate transfers.

Apologies for quality of photo, it was taken in failing light and the only place I got get a halfway decent photo, was on the deck outside

Tools I can't live without! #3

I often get asked - what tools I can't live without. I get asked by curious customers as well as people buying for the cake decorating fan in their life. So I thought I'd begin to share a few of my all time favourites with you. In no particular order - here goes #3 Piping or decorating bags OK OK, so we all use them. But there are uses beyond the obvious. I favour a 12'' bag for my piping work, I can get enough twist at the back end, to stop my icing going out backwards (a rubber band, also helps in this department). And no matter how tempted you are to put heaps of icing in the bag, the less icing you have in the bag, the faster you pipe, saving you more time in the long run (a good guide, is enough icing that you can comfortably squeeze in your hand, icing should not be up higher than width of your palm).

Disposable bags are great for piping chocolate, I piped the white chocolate coral on plastic sheet, simply by filling a disposable bag with white chocolate, then I snipped the end of the bag, to reveal a very fine hole - then hey presto, pipe with a wiggling action and you have coral, Freeze 2-3 mins and peel back plastic sheet. (Coral is overdusted with sparkle dust)

Although I had seen a large piping bag used to fill small cakes on cooking shows, I NEVER COULD HAVE IMAGINED HOW GREAT IT WAS!!! - until I tried it. Not only did I not get drips over the edges of my paper cupcake cases (which look ugly when they are cooked), I filled the cupcakes in no time flat. To fill bag - place over an open necked vessel, tip cupcake batter in to bag, twist off back end and proceed to fill cupcakes, just bend tip of bag up with 1 finger to stop flow in between cupcakes. If you follow this method, you will not be sorry. Bag can of course be used for icing too.

Tools I can't live without! #2

I often get asked - what tools I can't live without. I get asked by curious customers as well as people buying for the cake decorating fan in their life. So I thought I'd begin to share a few of my all time favourites with you. In no particular order - here goes #2 rotating cake stands or turntables I wouldn't be without them. Gone are the days, where I contort my body to reach the back side of a cake, or try to move a cake board across the bench, only to slip & stick my finger in my beautiful icing. I own both a tilting turntable & a low flat one. The tilting turntable I find gives me extra height, to get the cake closer to me, when I stand at the bench, as I don't like to bend down (after 3 hours, I suddenly find my neck & back are sore). My low flat one, is great for taking photos of my cake, from all sides. I also use it when presenting the cake to the birthday person, as no matter where they choose to sit at the table, the cake can always be gently turned to face them, with ease.

Tools I can't live without! #1

I often get asked - what tools I can't live without. I get asked by curious customers as well as people buying for the cake decorating fan in their life. So I thought I'd begin to share a few of my all time favourites with you. In no particular order - here goes #1 TIP COVERS Oh my goodness, where would I be without them. The pop right over the top of a Witon coupler and decorating tip. Meaning if you stop for lunch, or to take a break, your icing doesn't dry up in the nozzle. At only $4.50 for 4, these would have to be one of the best value for money around.

How To Make a Topsy-Turvy Whimsical Cake

This is my last rave about http://www.cakecentral.com/ for the day. I urge you all to join (it's free) and go check out the wonderful tutorials they have on offer. Whilst many of us, are prepared to give any cake a go, by looking at a picture in a book, the topsy turvy cake, is one cake, where we could all use some instructions. This technique is a fun optical illusion that makes your cake appear topsy-turvy. Check out the full tutorial for this cake at http://cakecentral.com/articles/6/how-to-make-a-topsy-turvy-whimsical-cake

How to make a royal icing tiara

http://www.cakecentral.com/ is the font of all knowledge, I urge you all to sign up (it's free!). Check out this great tutorial for how to make an icing tiara.

http://cakecentral.com/articles/129/how-to-make-a-royal-icing-tiara

How to make realistic butterflies for your cakes

http://www.cakecentral.com/ is simply one of the best how to websites check out the video tutorial for how to make reaslitic butterflies for your cake. I want to try it!

http://cakecentral.com/articles/76/how-to-make-realistic-edible-butterflies

interesting facts from ecostore

I received my monthly newsletter from ecostore today. I've bought ecostore products for a long long time (currently in our house we use the dishwasher powder, dishwashing liquid, soap, laundry detergent, baby shampoo, bath gels, shower cleaner, insect repellent - and there's probably more I've forgotten ANYHOO, this is what made such interesting reading today.

"What's happening to laundry powders?
You may have noticed that mainstream laundry brands have been reformulating their washing powders into 2x concentrated powders or solutions. As you may know our laundry powder has always been highly concentrate and still is much more concentrated than the new ultra concentrated versions of conventional brands. A 1kg box of ecostore laundry powder gives you 32 standard washes - which is almost 40% more value than competing brands, which offer only 23 standard washes. As well as saving you money, less packaging required in the ultra-concentrated formula also means less waste for the environment, and we all like that!
What's really exciting for us though is that we've recently done some calculations and worked out that over the last five years alone, people using ecostore laundry powder, instead of mainstream brands, have helped prevent 4.4 billion litres of nasty chemical laden grey water from going into our water systems. That's enough for 1 million people to shower daily for 3 months. A fantastic effort all round! It's nice to know that small things can collectively make a big difference."

As well as

"The bottom line on bubbles
Did anyone see the Target story recently about dishwashing liquid? A common misperception is that the more bubbles a dishwashing liquid or powder produces, the better the cleaning result for their crystal glasses, cutlery and plates.
However, as some of you may know, the presence of soap suds has no bearing on how well a dishwashing product is cleaning your dishes. ecostore's dishwash liquid won't produce a lot of foam because it doesn't include toxic foam-boosting chemicals. As far as we're concerned, that's just another pollutant down the drain our waterways can do without. It still cleans your dishes just as effectively, with no harmful chemical residues to worry about."

How to pipe a buttercream rose

Wilton have added a nifty instruction video to their buttercream rose instructions. I find it so hard to find written instructions for rose piping, so maybe this will be of help to some of you too!

http://www.wilton.com/videos/video_popup.cfm?id=DC6593B2-1E0B-C910-EA17F0E6859F62B3

Red Velvet Cake

Red velvet is cake is gaining in popularity here in NZ. For those of you that do not know what it is, it's cake that is coloured, you guessed it RED. Orginally it was coloured with the juice of beets, but this has long given way, to artificial colouring with most people.

Most recipes call for a small amount of VINEGAR.

Vinegar is integral to this recipe and should not be skipped - Vinegar combined with cocoa produces a faint red colour, greatly enhancing the redness of your cake.

When colouring your cake red, opt for one of the "no taste" red colourings, to avoid the metallic taste, many red colourings add.