Hikurangi School has the best kids!

I had the pleasure of taking my daughters year 3 & 4 class for cookie decorating a week or so back. Prior to arriving I was just quietly terrified, I've never thought of myself as teacher material. They were so well behaved, the class is a credit to their teacher Miss Caroline Trevillian or "Miss T" as she is known.

When I offered Miss T the chance to do this with her class, she suggested gingerbread men, as the class is currently working on self portraits and lots of activities surrounding this theme. I baked each child a gingerbread boy & girl, so they could make themselves and one of someone they loved. Their work was amazing. I even learnt a wee tip from a young girl named Trinity - the way she applied her fondant hair to her cookie was something I am going to have to use in future. Miss T even managed to take a photo of every child with their finished cookies.

They surprised me the next day with a handmade card from every child. Each card had their photo with their finished cookie. According to my daughter Poppy the cards took all afternoon. It certainly looks like a lot of effort went in to them. It was funny what each child told me they liked about doing the cookie decorating. I got "you must be the best Mum in the whole world" (Poppy might disagree with that) and many other superlatives. I adore my cards and think I will hang on to them forever.

We even made the school newsletter.

Chablon mats in use

Today I received this photo from Rachel at http://www.cupcake.co.nz/ I was thrilled to see how she made use of the chablon mat for creating round circular discs of chocolate to top her cupcakes. Rachel is based in Auckland and runs a cake & cupcake decorating business there. She also has a great blog

Chocolate transfers on fondant

I received these wonderful photos from Kiwicakes member Rachel Pilcher. She tells me it is her first attempt at a wedding cake. I was thrilled to receive these photos, Rachel did a great job. The middle tier has a chocolate transfer applies to the fondant. Rachel tells me, she iced the middle tier, then placed the chocolate transfer directly on top, covered with a layer of baking paper and then with a very cool iron, ironed the fondant. Taking care not to leave the iron in one place for too long. This is a technique I have been meaning to try for quite some time myself - I even had my eye on the same transfer. Thanks for sending this in Rachel!

I have the best job in the world!

Especially when wonderful customers such as Lisa from Denheath Desserts surprise me with a wonderful box of goodies like these. There are so many scrummy things in this box, I hardly know where to start, 2 delectable custard squares, a wonderful SQUARE chocolate eclair HOW DID THEY DO THAT? asstd cheescakes, oh my oh my I am in heaven. Currently I have scoffed 1 custard square and taste tested the square chocolate eclair (which Grandma Kiwicakes polished off) as well as the triple chocolate cheescake. Not bad for a mornings work. Roll on lunchtime and afternoon tea.

Now wouldn't you like to open a box and find this wee gem inside?

The wonderful carton fits perfectly inside it's polystyrene mini chilli bin - it has been incredibly well thought out, the box when opened folds flat, to allow for easy removal of the tasty goodies.

Such a cute little ice pack and it's partially frozen, even after it's long trip from Timaru.

I am already planning just who I can send one of these wonderful collections too. Rest assured they taste GREAT and the reliable overnight courier service, that ensures your gift arrives in immaculate condition means you can rest easy. Go on get some today! http://www.denheath.co.nz/

The newest friend to join Kiwicakes

I was thrilled today to see the prototype of some Pukeko cookier cutters I comissioned arrive. Handmade right here in NZ, I'm pretty proud of what I've achieved. Priced at $12, I think that's a pretty good deal for a handmade cutter. Here's an example of how you can ice the finished cookies.

Great fun was had by all!

I wanted to share with you all, this cake I completed - from a weekend course at Millys in Parnell with the wonderful Kirsten (our tutor). I have made many many cakes in my time, but I freely admit, I have never really piped flowers and I was keen to learn how to do it properly. The flowers are made in Royal icing, the cake is buttercream. The blue butterfly is there for my daughter Poppy (her favourite colour is blue), whilst it doesn't match the cake AT ALL - it was made solely for her (she is only 6).

I learnt some great tips from Kirsten, things I hadn't ever had to worry about, or didn't think about too much before. I wanted to share some of them with you

1. Royal icing is affected by grease, if you have piped royal icing flowers using tips or bags that have grease from buttercream in them OR, you place in a plastic container (plastic is porous and can absorb grease) that has had greasy things in it - this can cause your flowers to wilt & go mushy - meaning when you try to pick them up they squash.

2. The problem described above is actually a bonus when placing on a cake, as you can see from my photo, the flowers are placed on a buttercream cake (which survived a trip back from Auckland just fine), yet they absorb the grease from the buttercream, meaning when you go to cut the cake they are soft and can be cut right through with a knife and are easy to eat.

3. This next tip is nothing to do with the cake in question, but I learnt it this weekend - if you want to mix neon orange icing, use orange food colouring with lemon yellow, it will really make your colour pop.

4. As I haven't done a lot of royal icing work, beyond cornelli on fondant and using royal icing to glue components of a cake together. (i.e - I use it to do the work and then toss out the remaining icing), I was surprised to see royal icing that has been left to sit covered for an afternoon, takes on a marshamallow texture, and needs to be remixed, to be able to use it.

5. I love working with Wilton's colourflow mix, flooding cookies is SO MUCH EASIER than I thought it was.

My good friend Lisa often jokes, I started Kiwicakes, becasue I couldn't find enough of the tools & equipment I wanted to indulge my hobby in NZ and now looking after Kiwicakes I haven't enough time for my hobby - so it was great to get some hands on time actually making cakes, instead of just talking about them in theory and sharing a fun weekend with like minded people.