Red velvet cupcakes from the Kiwicake's test kitchen

Today I needed to whip up some cupcakes for a friends birthday. Things had got a little crazy here at Kiwicakes and I was a little time poor. I decided to run with the Red Velvet Cake mix from Kiwicakes. And it's actually really quite tasty! (The mix made 26 cupcakes)

I selected the Le Petit Gateaux Papillion butterfly cupcake papers, as well as our limoncello stripe. I just love these papers, as they are grease resistant. (Cakes with oil in show less grease than cakes with butter - the cake mix uses oil). You can see from the photo above, after baking there is no grease showing.

To decorate I used white chocolate modelling paste, rolled out with a rolling pin and I cut and embossed the butterflies using fondant plunger cutters. I left the modelling paste butterflies sitting at an angle to harden a little.

On any give day, there's many new things I want to have a play with, so I did some in yellow papers - so I could use our new exclusive to Kiwicakes Sugar pearls (read all about them here)  I was thrilled to find today, when eating these pearls they aren't jaw breakers and are actually quite pleasant and easy to crunch through (unlike many I've tried). I thought the 4-5mm yellow looked nice with the 2-3mm rose pink.

My friend Ange is the lucky recipient of these later today, so I've popped them in to one of our cupcake boxes, to get them safely across town. And a couple-or-three got gobbled by the Kiwicakes staffers who agreed they were pretty tasty.

Sleepover Pyjama cookies

Last Friday evening my daughter's class at school had a sleepover at school. My daughter attends a small school here in Northland, just north of Whangarei. She's a year 6 and this year she's in with the year 7/8 girls class. Quite an honour for her and she's really enjoying the challenge. It's lovely to see her really enjoying her school work. Every year her teacher has a sleepover in the school hall with her class.

All Mum's, big sisters, Aunties, Nana's and female carers are invited. There weren't a lot of ladies joining the girls, but I volunteered to do so. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but ended up having a fun time. The girls (just over 20 of them) had a wonderful time, with lots of fun activities, games, amovie and even a midnight swim (well it was 10.30pm) Each family had to contribute a food item. I volunteered under the guise of "baking". And what better thing to make than "sleepover pyjama cookies". I used the Swimming trunks and t-shirt cookie cutter from the Kiwicake's catalogue.

The girls really loved them and I received many lovely compliments. Thanks room 8 for a fun time!

Tala now available at kiwicakes

Tala is now available at Kiwicakes - I can remember this brand from my childhood! - When choosing the icing items, I opted to stock them in the 1950's retro packaging as to me, that's what Tala is all about. The product and tool remains the same, but you get the iconic Tala presentation. 

Tala, originating from Taylor and Law, has been associated with baking and icing for over 100 years - since 1899.

They still proudly own catalogues ranging from the 1920's up until today, containing products which are still made in the same way; with lovely, English manufacturing.

Traditional methods are used to manufacture most of their products. This involves production by hand, by a small team of skilled people behind the high quality of each product.
A priority of Tala has always been to create products that are built to last. Take an icing nozzle manufactured in the 1920's, and it will still fit an icing syringe made today and vice versa. So they couldn't be more honest when they say you are using products that your mothers and grandmothers have always used

Kiwicakes branded non pareils & sugar pearls

When I started Kiwicakes nearly 7 years ago, I never dreamed I'd ever have Kiwicakes branded products. Today loaded to the Kiwicakes website is a new range of non pareils and sugar pearls (2 sizes) suitable for Vegans and Vegetarians and better yet they're gluten free!. But what's most exciting for me is they are Kiwicakes Sprinkles!

They're proudly manufactured in NZ and I'm pleased to be promoting them, as they are not simply the same sprinkles you see everywhere else repackaged by different brand names.

It's taken a ton of work - I had no idea how much!. Choosing a bottle size, lid cap colour - having stickers and ingredients labels made, photographing & loading to our website. But.......... seeing all of the little brown boxes, each box housing one of the 33 new non pareils or sugar pearl colours was quite exciting. And better yet these are priced at only 4.95 for 80g (non lustre) or 5.75 (lustre)

I'd love to hear what you think of the range. Click here to view them all