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?

Martha Stewart & Nordic Ware Turkey pan

Wowee! I just love this new Martha Stewart Turkey pan by Nordic Ware. especially imported from the USA by Kiwicakes. Priced at 94.95

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Check out Martha Stewart making corn bread in this pan, on the Martha Stewart Living show.

Tunnel of Bundt from Nordic Ware - cool new creation!

Check out this awesome new creation from Nordic Ware - the tunnel of BUNDT!

Create beautiful bundt cakes with filling in the center! Simply place the tunnel on the cone of any Bundt pan while baking, and remove when cake is done. You'll be left with a tunnel for your favourite filling. Priced at $45, (purchase price does not include bundt pan)

Product Dimensions
Length: 7.5 in (19.05 cm)
Width: 3 in (7.62 cm)
Height: 7.625 in (19.38 cm)

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:1 3/4 cups butter or margarine, softened

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

6 eggs2 cups powered sugar

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa2 cups chopped walnuts*

Glaze:3/4 cup powered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons milk

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 12 cup Bundt Pan.

In large bowl beat margarine and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add powdered sugar; blend well. By hand, stir in remaining cake ingredients until well blended. Spoon batter into prepared pan; spread evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 58-62 minutes**. Cool upright in pan on cooling rack 1 hour, invert onto serving plate. Cool completely.

In small bowl, combine glaze ingredients until well blended. Spoon over top of cake, allowing some to run down sides. Store tightly covered. 16 servings.

*Nuts are essential for the success of the recipe.

**Since this cake has a soft tunnel of fudge, ordinary doneness test cannot be used.

Accurate oven temperature and baking time are critical.

High Altitude - Above 3500 feet; Increase flour to 2 1/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons.

Nordicware receives awards for being GREEN

Nordicware receives awards for being GREEN

Check out Nordic wares sustainability practices They've won both city and state wide awards for their practices, as they strive to reduce their carbon footprint. Check it out and see just how little waste is created in the production of a BUNDT pan.

Nordic Ware has been awarded the Green Business designation by their city the past three consecutive years and was recently featured on the news for thei efforts in reducing their environmental impact
Following Energy Star recommendations, they have installed energy-efficient lighting throughout their facility
They heat their factory and process their products using natural gas, the cleanest of conventional fuels available
They practice energy conservation by reducing energy usage in all forms when areas of a facility are not in use. Heating systems have been updated with high efficiency equipment
Nordic Ware consistently exceeds US federal, state and local standards for wastewater, solid waste treatment, and disposal
They request no idling of trucks at ther shipping docks to reduce air emissions
Obsolete or "second" quality products are donated to local charities rather than thrown away

Kiwicakes is proud to be a stockist of Nordic Ware in New Zealand

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

Have you got yours?

I've got my SPCA tea towels. Have you got yours?

Only 14.95 for two from the SPCA - go on support a worthy cause!

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

Hot new dress cookie cutter & Impression mat from Autumn Carpenter

This dress coookie cutter & impression mat set from Autumn Carpenter is stunning!

Decorate cookies using the texture mats for a simple way to get an elegant, professional-looking design, or enhance and embellish the textured cookie with flowers or icing.
Formal dress set includes one cookie cutter, 4" in height, and three texture mats. One mat has an general design that can be used with the included cutter, other cutters or cupcakes. Cookie recipe included.

Aqua and Yellow Wedding Dress Cookies

Tools and Ingredients
formal gown cookie cutter texture set
aqua fondant
yellow fondant
aqua royal icing
yellow royal icing
parchment cone or a pastry bag with a #1 tip
small flower blossom plunger cutter
mini daisy plunger cutter
Baroque dress: Lightly spray baroque dress texture mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll aqua fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Cut off top and bottom part and attach to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Roll yellow fondant to approximately 1/8” thickness and cut narrow band to fit between aqua pieces. Roll aqua and yellow fondant very thin and cut a yellow daisy and an aqua daisy. Make a two layer flowers by attaching the smaller flower inside the daisy with a dot of royal icing. Attach flower to cookie with royal icing.
Scrolling dress: Lightly spray scrolling dress mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll aqua fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Use yellow royal icing, thinned with a bit of water to pipe dots on raised dots. Roll yellow fondant very thin and cut 2 yellow daises. Use a small ball of aqua fondant to make flower center. Attach to cookie with small dot of royal icing.
Flower dress: Lightly spray flower dress texture mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll yellow fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Cut off top part and attach bottom part to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Roll aqua fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Cut off bottom part and attach top part to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Roll blue fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness and cut narrow band to fit between pieces. Roll yellow and aqua fondant very thin and cut several small blossoms. Attach to cookie on top of raised flowers with small dots of royal icing. Add centers to flowers with opposite color of thinned royal icing.

Shades of Pink Wedding Dress Cookies

Tools and Ingredients
formal gown cookie cutter texture set
light pink fondant
medium pink fondant
deep pink fondant
white fondant
white royal icing
medium pink royal icing
parchment cone or a pastry bag with a #1 tip
pearl spray
ribbon and bow mold
Baroque dress: Lightly spray baroque dress texture mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll medium pink fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Lightly spray ribbon and bow mold. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Press white fondant into mold, remove and shape bow. Attach to cookie with royal icing. Spray with pearl spray.
Scrolling dress: Lightly spray scrolling dress mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll light pink fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Use white royal icing, thinned with a bit of water to pipe over all raised scroll designs. Spray with pearl spray.
Flower dress: Lightly spray flower dress texture mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll deep pink fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Cut off top and bottom parts and attach to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Roll light pink fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness and cut narrow band to fit between pieces. Use pink royal icing, thinned with a bit of water to pipe over all raised flower petals. Use white royal icing, thinned with a bit of water to pipe centers in the flowers and leaves. Spray with pearl spray.

Black and Red Formal Gowns

Tools and Ingredients
formal gown cookie cutter texture set
red fondant
black fondant
white fondant
red royal icing
black royal icing
white royal icing
parchment cone or a pastry bag with a #1 tip
Baroque dress: Lightly spray baroque dress texture mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll red fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Cut off top part and attach bottom portion to a baked and cool dress cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Roll red fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Cut off bottom part and attach top portion to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Roll black fondant to approximately 1/8” thickness and cut narrow band to fit between red and white pieces.
Scrolling dress: Lightly spray scrolling dress mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll black fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Use white royal icing, thinned with a bit of water to pipe lines on top of raised scrollwork. Pipe on top of raised dots with a combination of red and white thinned royal icing.
Flower dress: Lightly spray flower dress texture mat from formal gown cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll black fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Cut off top and bottom part and attach to a baked and cool gown cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Roll white fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness and cut narrow band to fit between black pieces. Use white royal icing, thinned with a bit of water to pipe petals on top of raised flowers, use red royal icing to pipe centers for each flower.

Awesome new Autumn Carpenter cookie cutter & impression mat set BUTTERFLIES!

Yet another great design from Autumn Carpenter! - Butterfly cookie cutter & impression mat set

Cookie Cutter Texture Set- Butterflies
Decorate cookies using the texture mats for a simple way to get an elegant, professional-looking design, or enhance and embellish the textured cookie with fondant or icing accents. Details can also be painted with food colour pens or food colour thinned with water.
Butterfly set includes five butterfly cookie cutters ranging in size from 2" to 3-1/2", and two texture mats. Each texture mat has 5 designs. One mat has five traditional butterfly designs, while the other has five whimsical butterfly deisgns. Use the mats to create fondant accents for cakes and cupcakes too! Cookie recipe included.

Shades of Orange Cookie Butterflies

Tools and Ingredients
butterfly cookie cutter texture set
5 shades of orange fondant
gold lustre.

Lightly spray whimsical mat from butterfly cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool butterfly cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Dustlightly with gold lustre. Repeat with all different colours of fondant.

Pastel Swirl and Dots Butterfly Cookies

Tools and Ingredients
butterfly cookie cutter texture set
purple fondant
blue fondant
pink fondant
yellow fondant
green fondant
purple royal icing
blue royal icing
pink royal icing
yellow royal icing
green royal icing
parchment cone or a pastry bag with a #1 tip
Lightly spray whimsical mat from butterfly cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool butterfly cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Repeat with a different color of fondant for each size butterfly. Use the corresponding color of royal icing to pipe a body on each butterfly. Use all the colors of royal icing to pipe symmetrical dots on each butterfly.

Simple Pastel Cookie Butterflies

Tools and Ingredients
butterfly cookie cutter texture set
purple fondant
blue fondant
pink fondant
yellow fondant
green fondant
pearl lustre
Lightly spray traditional mat from butterfly cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool butterfly cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Repeat with a different colour of fondant for each size butterfly. Dust with pearl lustre.

Pink Butterfly Cookies with Gold Accents

Tools and Ingredients
butterfly cookie cutter texture set
5 shades of pink fondant
pearl luster

old gold lustre dust
lemon oil
fine brush
Lightly spray whimsical mat from butterfly cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool butterfly cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Repeat with a different color of fondant for each size butterfly. Mix gold luster dust with a few drops of lemon oil. Use a fine brush to paint all the raised details on each butterfly. Dust with pearl lustre.

Painted Traditional Butterfly Cookies

Tools & Ingredients
butterfly cookie cutter texture set
purple fondant
blue fondant
red fondant
yellow fondant
orange fondant
pearl spray
black food marker
white royal icing
blue royal icing
yellow royal icing
red royal icing
parchment cone or a pastry bag with a #1 tip
Orange butterfly: Lightly spray traditional mat from butterfly cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll orange fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool butterfly cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Spray with pearl spray. Use a black food marker to color the edge of the wings, the body and all the recessed lines. Use white royal icing, thinned with a bit of water, to pipe dots in the edge of the wings and a few on the body.
Yellow butterfly: Lightly spray traditional mat from butterfly cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll yellow fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool butterfly cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Spray with pearl spray. Use a black food marker to colour the edge of the wings, the body and all the recessed lines. Use yellow royal icing, thinned with a bit of water, to pipe dots in the upper edge of the wings. Use blue royal icing, thinned with a bit of water, to pipe dots in the lower edge of the wings. Use red royal icing, thinned with a bit of water, to pipe one dot on each side of the lower edge of the butterfly.
Blue butterfly: Lightly spray traditional mat from butterfly cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll blue fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool butterfly cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Spray with pearl spray. Use a black food marker to color the edge of the wings and the body.
Red butterfly: Lightly spray traditional mat from butterfly cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll red fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool butterfly cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Spray with pearl spray. Use a black food marker to color the body and all the recessed lines. Use white royal icing, thinned with a bit of water, to pipe dots in each corner of the wings. Once the white icing has hardened use thinned blue royal icing to pipe three small dots on the upper wings and one large dot on the lower wings and use thinned red royal icing to pipe one dot on top of each lower blue dot and in the middle of the upper white dot.

Autum Carpenter Snowflake cookie cutter & impression mat set

Yet another exquisite design from Autumn Carpenter. - Snowflakes Cookie cutter & impression mats set.
Decorate cookies using the texture mats for a simple way to get an elegant, professional-looking design, or enhance and embellish the textured cookie with fondant or icing accents. Details can also be painted with food colou pens or food colou thinned with water.
Snowflake set includes five snowflake cookie cutters ranging in size from 4.75cm to 8.5cm aprx, and two texture mats. Each texture mat has 5 designs. One mat has five traditional snowflake designs, while the other has five whimsical snowflake deisgns. Use the mats to create fondant accents for cakes and cupcakes too! Cookie recipe included


Look at all the wonderful things you can do with this set!!

Silvery Blue Snowflake Cookies

Tools and Ingredients
snowflake cookie cutter texture set
white fondant
gray fondant
3 shades of blue fondant
pearl lustre
Lightly spray traditional mat from snowflake cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to a baked and cool snowflake cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Dust with pearl lustre. Repeat with all different colours of fondant.

White Piped Snowflake Cookies on Blue Fondant

Tools & Ingredients

snowflake cookie cutter texture set
blue fondant
white royal icing
parchment cone or a pastry bag with a #1 tip
Lightly spray traditional mat from snowflake cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll blue fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with each corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to each baked and cool snowflake cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Use white royal icing, thinned with a bit of water, to pipe over all the raised lines on each snowflake.

Shimmer Cookie Snowflakes with Pearls

Tools and Ingredients

snowflake cookie cutter texture set
blue fondant
white royal icing
3mm ivory pearls
parchment cone or a pastry bag with a #1 tip
Lightly spray whimsical mat from snowflake cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll white fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with each corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to each baked and cool snowflake cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Use a small dot of royal icing to attach each pearl at the tips and intersections points on each snowflake

Winter Snowflake Cupcakes

Tools and Ingredients

snowflake cookie cutter texture set
blue fondant
cupcakes
buttercream icing
pastry bag fitted with #8B
white edible glitter
pearl lustresnowflake cupcake wrappers
Lightly spray traditional mat from snowflake cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll blue fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with each corresponding cookie cutter from set, using only the three smallest cookies. Dust with lustre. Pipe swirl of buttercream icing on each cupcake. Sprinkle with white edible glitter. Insert fondant snowflake into icing on cupcake when fondant has hardened (may take up to 24 hours). Place decorated cupcake in snowflake cupcake wrapper.

Blue Glitter Snowflake Cookies

Tools and Ingredients

snowflake cookie cutter texture set
blue fondant
piping gel
blue glitter
fine brush
Lightly spray traditional mat from snowflake cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll blue fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with each corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to each baked and cool snowflake cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Use the fine brush to brush piping gel on all the raised designs. Sprinkle glitter over cookie and turn over and tap off excess. Use clean brush to brush away excess glitter if necessary.

Painted Blue on White Snowflake Cookies

Tools and Ingredients

snowflake cookie cutter texture set
white fondant
blue food color
fine brush
pearl lustre
Lightly spray whimsical mat from snowflake cookie cutter texture set. Wipe off excess with a paper towel. Roll white fondant to approximately 1/8" thickness. Place texture mat on fondant. Firmly roll over the mat. Remove mat. Cut textured fondant with each corresponding cookie cutter from set. Attach to each baked and cool snowflake cookie with piping gel or a thin layer of buttercream. Thin blue food color with water. Use the fine brush to brush blue food color paint on top of all the raised designs. Allow to dry. Brush cookie with pearl lustre

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.

My latest favourite thing!

Wowee!, aren't these new cupcake papers awesome!. I was thrilled when these arrived. Can't wait to make something with them. Just $7.50 for 50 papers. Click here to buy Superstar or Carnival

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

How To Stencil On Cookies, buttercream or fondant Video – Great For Monograms!

I saw this at http://www.cakecentral.com/ today - you have to check it out. In this “how to” guide, you will learn how to stencil royal icing directly onto a cookie. You will see how quickly and easily you can make the most intricate and amazing designs directly on your cake. You may also want to see the “How To” video for stenciling on buttercream or fondant.
Photo credit: SweetDreamsAT - CeRae Speidel

http://cakecentral.com/articles/140/how-to-stencil-on-cookies-video-great-for-monograms

There is also a great video for how to stencil on to fondant covered cakes

http://cakecentral.com/articles/138/how-to-stencil-on-a-fondant-covered-cake-video

As well as Buttercream cakes

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

Gorgeous Auckland Cupcake Website

Take a look at this lovely Auckland Cupcake business http://delishcupcakes.co.nz/ they have a snazzy website, with some amazing photography of their work. They were asked to do the birthday cake for the "food Show" in Auckland recently. This neat cake & cupcake tower featured on One News http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/record-numbers-attend-food-show-1-36-2882771news/record-numbers-attend-food-show-1-36-2882771

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.