How I colour my paua shells

I frequently get asked how I colour my paua shells (made using the paua shell moulds specially commissioned by Kiwicakes), after having explained it at length many times, I thought a photo tutorial might be quicker. If you need to know how to use a silicone mould see here

--> . The photos above have white hologram glitter on top of brown sugar, to look like twinkling sand on a hot sunny day.

My paua shells above I made using Dark Chocolate Satin Ice Fondant (you can use any colour, although colours don't show up well on white, or you can use melted chocolate and wait for it to set.) I greased my moulds with crsico, so I wouldn't have cornflour to dust off the dark colour fondant, this gives them a nice shine too.

I start with at least 5 colours of lustre, 1 blue, 1 green, 1 pink, 1 purple and the essential secret to making them come alive 1 gold (I often use more colours, but 5 is the minimum)

I line my paua up, open any colour of lustre and cover all of the pauas in random splats of that colour.

I repeat this process until of the paua are completely covered in splats of colour. At this stage, they look ridiculous.

Taking a large brush, sweep all of the dust off in one direction only, this blends the paua colours in one quick swift motion. I find the paper towel works well to stop excess floating around.

They are so quick and easy to make for cupcakes or cakes

They look good placed among other seashells & corals

And when required, even look good in paler tones, to match other colourways

Her magazine profile

What a surprise I got today when I opened up my latest Her Magazine and found myself profiled towards the back of the magazine. And I'm in good company for this issue, there's an article on cakes which features cakes from BJ's, Custom cake designs, City Cake Co, Iced & Rosebowl. Over the page is a great article on the lovely ladies from Bite me Cupcakes. There's even a lovely ad for Annah Stretton featuring loads of CUPCAKES! Great to see all things cake getting such good coverage in a magazine devoted to fashion & business.

A quick and easy fern leaf using the FMM cutter

This quick how to make a fern leaf, using the FMM fern leaf cutter came about, because a customer is having trouble with the fern cutter. I thought some of my other beginners might enjoy it too. I am not an overly experienced flower & leaf maker. In fact there are many in NZ that specialise in teaching this art and I'm not one of them. This "how to" is merely meant to convey the steps required to create a leaf for those who aren't familiar with how it is done.

I coloured some Satin Ice Gumpaste

-->  using  green gel paste I rolled it out very thin and created a thicker vein up the middle of the paste. This can be done using a grooved rolling board, or by simply rolling from the centre outwards, first from one side, then the other, leaving a vein in the centre, that you never roll over.

If your paste is thin enough, the item you've cut should stay right there on the board. My first cut left a little paste in the gaps, I just flicked it out with my scribe. If you're worried your paste will stick to the cutter, you can over hang the bottom end of the cutters fern stem 2mm past the bottom edge of the paste, this allows you to pop your scribe in to the gap and flick your stem out of the cutter, this works well as it is the thickest part. In my case, this was not necessary, but can often be helpful if your paste is a bit hot or sticky.

Using a ball or dog bone tool on a foam pad, soften the cut edge of the fronds, to take away the sharpness of the cut.

I heated my wire in a flame and inserted it in to the thicker stem of the fern at this stage, as I wanted the wire to adhere immediately, so I could move forward with photographing the steps.

Once your fern has dried you can dust it with dusting powders or lustre, to give it's finished colour. And wire in to your finished floral spray.

How to use a silicone mould

This short tutorial shows how to use a silicone mould. I am using a silver fern mould, but the principles are the same, no matter what shape your mould.

The first step is to make a size guide for your fondant icing, that you will use to fill the mould. After some practice you can skip this step, as with time, you begin to be able to eyeball the amount of fondant required. It is much quicker to use the correct amount of fondant to fill the mould, than to try to trim it afterwards.

Quickly press down in to mould, to see if the amount you have is too little or too much.

Once you have the correct amount of fondant for your mould, roughly shape it in your fingers to the shape of the mould

Then dust the fondant (not the mould) with a little corn starch, potato flour or icing sugar.

Press to fill the mould, you only need press gently. If your icing if very soft & squishy, it may stick. If it does, it is far quicker to start again, thean to mess about trying to unstick it. knead a little corn starch or icing sugar in to your fondant if it is very hot & sticky.

To release the shape from the mould, turn over on to a work surface or the palm of your hand, and peel from one end, moving along the length of the fern. The finished shape may show some cornflour on it, this can be brushed off when the shape is dry, or you can use a little clear alcohol on a brush (NOT WATER!)

However if you wish to cover in lustre, such as I have here (I've used starlight comet white) there's no need to even worry about brushing the cornflour off, as you'll never see it.

Our full range of silcione moulds can be used with fondant icing, melted chocolate or gumpaste. I mostly use fondant, as it's works best on cupcakes & cakes. If oyu need the item to stand up and set hard, then you need to use gumpaste or add a hardener such as tylose or gum trag to your fondant.

If you use chocolate, it will have a matte finish, as the interior of the silicone moulds is not polished. However for items such as the paua shell this doesn't matter, as the entire surface is covered with lustre.