My 10th Wedding anniversary

Wow it's hard to believe I have been married for ten years. For quite some years, I had always intended to make a miniature version of our wedding cake to celebrate. However I realised a few weeks ago, to do this and keep it a surprise from my husband, simply wasn't going to be possible. So I asked the lovely Lisa from The Whole Cake & Caboodle if she would make it for me. She kindly agreed and this is the result. It is a small cake with a 5 and 3 inch cake inside those gorgeous wraps. It is gin & lemon (my husbands favourite from the 4 flavours we had)

Here is a photo of the orginal From March 4 2000 (Made by the City Cake Company in Mt Eden Auckland). It was 4 tiers. The smallest cake is on the bottom and the largest on the top. It was quite a feat of engineering. Our 4 flavours were chocolate mud, orange & almond, gin & lemon & fruit. what was quite funny, was it tasted so darn good, many of my guests actually ate 4 pieces (1 of each flavour) It's quite funny, I've always been a cake fanatic, this cake cost more than my wedding dress.

Ballet Tutus using the Formal dress impression mat set

I was just thrilled when I received an email from one of my customers, Phaedra Cochrane showing me how she used the Autumn Carpenter formal dress cookie cutter & impression mat set, to create the ballet tutus. I think she did an amazing job and I was happy she granted her permission to show them to you.

Flirty fuschia female flamingoes for my flickr friend Tracy

I was asked to take part in a cookie swap by Lisa from "The Whole Cake & Caboodle" with some of the cake & cookie girls on flickr (within NZ). Lisa made a draw of all our names & I got to swap with the lovely Tracy (Sweet Treacle) from Auckland. I decided to make flamingoes for Tracy, as I'd viewed the flamingo cookies she made, after she had visited Auckland Zoo, (she posted them on flickr). This coincided with a recent trip with the children to Auckland Zoo in the school holidays for my family. I also just got a brand new flamingo cookie cutter in to stock.

The flaminoes are one of my favourite things at the zoo, I'm always still standing there looking at them, long after everyone else has moved on. My daughter Poppy asked me, at the zoo "Mum if you were a zoo animal - what would you be?" I chose the flamingo. Maybe it's the skinny legs that appeal?

One thing that intrigues me, is the intensity of pink, of flamingoes in the wild (owing to the amount of shrimp they eat). I wanted mine, to be REALLY pink too.

The cookies are almond flavoured sugar cookies. The rolled icing on top is a marzipan/fondant blend 70% marzipan/30% fondant. It makes the marzipan a little more pliable and helps stretch this expensive medium a little further. I was struck by how little colour is required to colour marzipan, as opposed to fondant, the black gave a very nice black, and very quickly too.

I love receiving customer photos

I especially like receiving them late on a friday afternoon - it really makes my day. I just received this stunning photo of an orange cake, made in the Nordicware banana bread or "monkey" bread pan my lovely customer Elise kindly agreed I could show it to you all. I think she did a great job. It was made for her sons birthday. It is yet to receive it's orange drizzle icing, which is currently being mixed up. I adore Elise's suggestion of Grand Marnier syrup for an adult version.

How to use Silicone CHABLON moulds

These stunning new silicone chablon mats are a brand new release from Autumn Carpenter. Prices at 59.95, they will take all of the hard work out of creating even sized shapes. Available in square, round and scalloped, they are in stock now!

How to use - To Create Shaped Pieces

Step 1. Lay chablon on chocolate transfer sheet.

Step 2. Pour approximately 2/3 pound melted candy coating or melted and tempered real chocolate over the chablon, fillling the first row on two sides.


Step 3. Smooth with a confectionery blade or other straight edge, spreading at an angle.

Step 4. Slide transfer sheet with chablon onto a cookie sheet and place in refrigerator for 5 minutes.

Step 5. Invert and remove transfer sheet.

Step 6. With gloved finger press gently to remove chocolate pieces.



Truffle Sandwiches

Step 1. Create shaped pieces following directions above.


Step 2. Mix truffle recipe below.


Step 3. Pack truffle mixture in pastry bag fitted with a #21 tip.


Step 4. Pipe truffle mixture on top of one shaped piece.


Step 5. Place a shaped piece on the piped truffle mixture.

Truffle Recipe
•2½ cups (¾ pound) finely chopped real chocolate
•1 cup heavy cream
•¼ teaspoon salt
•¼ teaspoon vanilla
•Melt chocolate. Cool at least 98°. Whip cream until it holds a soft peak. Add chocolate, a little at a time, to whipped cream, stirring with a spoon. When all chocolate is added, stir in salt and vanilla. Chill in refrigerator until mixture is firm but not stiff (5-20 minutes). Beat with a spoon until fluffy. Do not overbeat

Stunning Easter chocolate moulds in stock

Following on from the fantastic Christmas moulds range, we have the latest release Easter moulds in stock NOW. Each mould in the range features an "I can do this!" instruction card.

These moulds make a great gift for the beginning chocolatier on your life. And yes, we have the check cupcake papers featured on the front of one of the moulds too. Priced at just $6 each, these are a great buy.

Have you tried the taste of yellow?

Have you tried the taste of yellow chocolate bar yet?. It was released for sale today, at Foodtown, Woolworths & Countdown supermarkets. I've been following the taste of yellow. I sampled the taste of yellow quite some time back. I've been dying to taste the finished bar. It was surprising in that the actual bar was yellow. I had expected creme filled dark chocolate, simply because, this is what the samples were. The bar has a groovy wrapper. It reminds me a lot of Josh from Telecom.

Inside the gold foil, is a little card, with the story of Josh's journey to create the taste of yellow chocolate, mine was stained bright yellow from the chocolate. The bar is moulded using an elaborate design. The bar in my photo has lots of popped air bubbles on the surface, which probably doesn't bother a huge proportion of the chocolate eaters out there. But as I've moulded chocolates myself, I immediately thought "look at all those bubbles"

Whilst I can 100% say "it tastes like yellow". I'm still not sure I like it. I bought 4, so I've still got time to decide. I really loved the french toast sample, I was desperately hoping it would make the final cut for the taste of yellow, so this may have biased my opinion.

Overall I think Josh did a great job, getting it in to the stores in such a short time frame with no background in chocolate making. I feel sorry for all those people that fall in love with the taste of yellow, as it's a limited time release, once it's gone, you won't be able to get it again EVER. But that's life I guess.

Have you bought a taste of yellow bar?. Do you like it?

A wedding cake to knock your socks off

This stunning wedding cake was created by Alice St. Agathe from Antigua. This wonderful lady requested the coral silicone mould be manufactured specifically for this cake. I'm so glad she did, I just love the mould and it's a welcome addition to the kiwicakes range.

Photo reprinted with permission.

WOW 18 new silicone moulds!

The manufacturer of these silicone moulds, for which Kiwicakes is the sole NZ distributor has outdone themselves. 18 new moulds! Too many to show you all here, but here are some of my favourites coral, claddagh, jandals & butterflies, do check the full range out here.

Kiwicakes 4th birthday cake competition

Following on from last years highly successful competition. I am pleased to announce the launch of the Kiwicakes 4th birthday cake competition. Click here for last years winning cake Or click here for last years entries

1st prize is a $500 goody box of cake decorating supplies for the winner.

How to enter
I'm asking anyone interested to design a birthday cake for Kiwicakes 4th birthday party. Your cake should echo what you feel epitomises Kiwicakes. Your design ideas can be sent to me in any form, for example, a sketch or even a photo of a previous cake you've made, feel free to add written notes describing how you might alter the cake from your photo, or what elements in your sketch represent. The winner will be required to bake & decorate the winning design.

Be sure to include what flavour(s) the cake will be and the approximate size of finished cake.

Where to send it
You can email your ideas to me at sandra@kiwicakes.co.nz or post to me snail mail at Kiwicakes, Po Box 4441, Kamo, Whangarei. Entries close March 31st 2010. Please include your telephone number with your entry.


The details
There are no design limitations for your cake, you can make it as big or as small as you like. However there is a limit of $50 for cake ingredients. I felt by limiting the cost of ingredients, this would allow design talent to shine through, rather than lots of expensive ingredients. The winner will be reimbursed for ingredients, to the value of $50


The winner will be required to make bake & decorate the winning design, during the month of April, at a time to suit them. I will then arrange for the cake to be collected from their home town for delivery to Kiwicakes.

I'll be loading the entries to the Kiwicakes blog (without the entrants names - so you can all remain anonymous) so that anyone interested can check them out.

Terms & Conditions - Kiwicakes 4th birthday competition
Prize is $500 worth of cake decorating supplies, chosen by Kiwicakes - delivered to the winner, at a destination within NZ. Prize is not exchangeable for cash.
Winner is required to bake and decorate the winning design during the month of April 2010 to receive their prize.
Cost of ingredients up to the value of $50 will be reimbursed by Kiwicakes.
Competition is open to all residents of New Zealand (pick up address for cake must be within New Zealand).
The winner agrees to their name & photo of cake being used for publicity purposes.
Entrants designs will be loaded to the KiwicakesNZ blog.
Winner will be posted to Kiwicakes blog and will feature in a future edition of the Kiwicakes newsletter.
Entries close March 31st 2010

A quick cake for Christine

This is a quick cake I whipped up for the birthday of my friend Christine last week. I only had less than 24 hours notice. I baked the cake after my cake guild committee meeting on Wednesday night at 10pm. Its a chocolate mud cake. Then when I got home with the children at 2pm on Thursday afternoon, I asked if they could be extra good for a couple of hours while I made some shells and decorated it. Thankfully, they were little angels and I was able to make finish it, in 2 hours. This style of cake that relies totally on moulds, lustre & trickery is my fall back plan, when I haven't got time to mould or create something from scratch. This seashell cake is a variation on one I tried once before, it worked so well the first time, I wanted to have a play again and changes things just a little.