New glitter shapes in time for Christmas

Just landed these wonderful new glitter shapes. Priced at $18 vial, there's literally hundreds in every pot, if not thousands. Two new designs - green Christmas trees and Dark silver stars (joins the existing range of silver stars, pink/red hearts and gold stars)

The tastiest peppermint brownies I have ever tasted

Ever since I saw this post on peppermint brownies from Lady Katherines' Tea parlor, I have wanted to make them. One thing stood in my way, finding the peppermints here in NZ. However an email to my American foodstuffs supplier some months back, resulted in a a lovely big bag (7 1/2lb to be exact 636 peppermints) arriving this week.

After reading the full post several times, I was slightly daunted by what COULD happen. However I equipped myself with my Mario Batali pizza cutter for cutting the finished peppermint. Honestly if you hate your pizza cutter, or are in the market for a new one, you simply cannot go past this one. I love mine so much, I have even bought it as a gift for others (no I don't sell them).

I used the same spacing for my peppermints as Lady Katherine

After 6 minutes of baking as suggested, mine looked more like her finished product, but the candies had not yet formed one solid sheet. She indicated her oven was old and I might need to bake longer, which I did. My finished product was had more swirl to the red than hers, but I was still happy with the finished product.

I quickly scored the peppermint several times, I would say it took 3 swipes of the pizza cutter over the same line, before the candy did not properly melt back together. I just eyeballed it, I didn't plan what size to cut the pieces to - as this was simply a trial run.

I applied the peppermint to the top of a baked pan of brownie. In this case, I had decided to use a silicone bake tray, so I could pop the finished brownie from the pan before cutting but it wasn't really a problem. A metal pan would have been fine. I used a layer of chocolate buttercream to adhere the peppermint to the brownie.

The finished brownie was a taste sensation. Biting through the fine layer of peppermint gave a satisfying crack, through to the unctuous fudgy brownie below. This is definitely a new favourite. Grandma Kiwicakes tells me it is her "new favourite latest find".

If you'd like to make this peppermint brownie for yourself - be one of the first to whisper "peppermint" in the comment section of the Kiwicakes website, when placing an order and I'll be sure to send you enough peppermints, to recreate this treat. I only have just over 550 peppermints left, so you'll have to be quick, first come first served.

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Finally the recipe I promised you all for Pink Champagne cupcakes. It is the recipe I used for the SPCA cupcake day cupcakes I made. I've had many people that ate the cupcakes ask for the recipe and everyone says they never knew it started with a cake mix SHHH! don't tell.

Pink Champagne Doctored Cake Mix

Ingredients

1 box Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix

3 eggs

115g butter, softened

1 1/4 c. Pink champagne (let the bubbles go flat, stir it if you have to, to accelerate this)

4 drops Lorann Champagne Flavouring oil

Pink food colour

Instructions

Place butter into mixer and beat until smooth with paddle attachment.

Add remaining ingredients, and food colour to desired shade of pink. I did a light pink

Mix according to directions on box, scraping bowl at least twice.

Bake according to directions, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

 

For the icing, I used the standard Wilton buttercream icing recipe (double batch), I substituted pink champagne for the liquid and added about 6 drops of lorann flavouring oil.

Some great shots from the party

For those of you, that have followed with interest my nomination for the the "Next New Zealand Woman of the Year awards" (Won by Dr Emma Parry). I wanted to share with you all the photos that appear in the October Next magazine. I only took along my point & shoot camera and in the dim light of Fables (the venue), I din't manage to grab any good photos.