Edible icing images not just for cake tops

 

Here in NZ my daughters birthday fell during level 4 lockdown. Luckily a few gifts had been purchased earlier in the year, so we still had something of a celebration. Although turning 17, I decided to turn it in to a treasure hunt (as she'd loved this as a child. And lets face it, I had to do something to fill those long lockdown days)

There were 4 of us at home, so I decided to make a small cake. I'd taken home some supplies on our last day of work prior to lock down.

I'd printed an edible image of our wee dog Kenzie. then trimmed the background so it was the exact height of the cake.

Whilst we are used to seeing edible icing images used on cake tops, I really enjoyed the different look of this one on the side of the cake

If you'd like us to print an edible image for you check that out here

Happy Father's Day

Happy Fathers Day to all the awesome dads out there 

This cake is a surprise for my husband. I’ve been asked so often “how do you do what you do?” 

Well without my husband, I simply couldn’t. Whilst I’m away on cake assignments - he keeps the home fires burning. And is often both mum and dad to our kids.

He’s a lot like Mr. Snuffleupagus (from Sesame St) not often seen, doesn’t want his picture taken/shared. And for those who don’t know us well, they wonder if he really exists. (Just like Mr. Snuffleupagus)

My kids really lucked in with their dad. He’s 100% devoted. With current jobs including taxi driver, chef, soccer and table tennis coach, driving instructor, tutor for maths, physics, chemistry, biology and English, amongst other things. 

This is a lemon poppy seed cake, which will pair nicely with his Father’s Day present of NZ made gin from Lammermoor Distillery which I can totally tell you about today, as he’s not on social media, so won’t see this post.

Supplies purchased from Kiwicakes of course!

 

Colourful candy range at Kiwicakes

At Kiwicakes our candy range has had a huge makeover. With close to a tonne of candy being delivered. The photos below are just the tip of the ice berg. We've a huge range of single colour candy such as jelly beans, chocolate gems/drops, choc balls, shaped candies and more. perfect for cake decorating and drip cakes. Along with baby showers, candy buffets for weddings and party favours You can check it all out here

I'll leave you with just a small snapshot of what we have a vailable

 

Baby figuring cake topper tutorial

This great fondant baby tutorial comes to us from the uber talented Lisa Hansen. You can click to blow up each page and print off for future reference. It requires little in the way of equipment and is suitable for all skill levels.

Print your own alcohol label for your cake

Our graphic designer has come up with some new options for you for edible image printing. Choose the birthday persons favourite tipple Rum/Whisky/Bubbly/Whiskey or vodka. And have their birthday year/name added to the bottle. Them make them an awesome cake to put it on. Which is your favourite?. I am a bubbly girl, so that'd be my choice

Details on how to order are here

 

Happy Mother's Day Grandma Kiwicakes

Happy Mother’s Day to Grandma Kiwicakes. 

Our family has been lucky enough to have Grandma Kiwicakes in our bubble since level 4 lockdown. 

Like all mums she’s always been there for me. But you guys are lucky to have her too. As she helped me get Kiwicakes off the ground, and put hundreds (who am I kidding thousands) of unpaid hours in to get us where we are today. 

This Battenberg cake is her favourite- but lucky us. We get to help her eat it tonight

A tool I cannot live without - pastry blender

 

My lovely hubby swears I’ve too many baking gadgets but sometimes the right tool just makes everything easier 

Instead of getting my hands in and rubbing my apple pie pastry for a few mins (pain to clean greasy hands). Today I got in with my pastry blender and was done in under a minute. 

You can find this indispensable item on the Kiwicakes website of course. Because when I love something I want you guys to have access to it too

Cream Cheese Guava tart

INGREDIENTS
1 large egg
1 tsp water
180 grams cream cheese at room temp
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 1 1/2 cup fresh guavas depending on size
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 square sheets frozen flaky puff pastry (allow to thaw)

I made this tart in a 13.5x4.25" fat daddios quiche pan

Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan bake

Start by lining your pan with one square of pastry, you will then need to shop a piece from the second sheet of pastry, to finish the end of pan. The top of the tart should be cut to the same size of the base of the pan.
Leave the edges of pastry 1"/2.5cm jigher than the edge of pan, these flaps will be folded over the lid.
Whisk your egg together. Remove 1 tbsp to a separate dish, adding the 1tsp of water, this will become your egg wash for the top of finished tart.

In a food processor mix your cream cheese, lemon juice, egg, brown sugar and vanilla. Remove 2/3 of the mix and spread over pastry lined tart tin. Cover with 2/3 of your whole guavas.

add 1/3 of your guavas to the remaining mix in your food processor and blitz until a smooth paste. Spread this over the guavas in your tart.

Place lid on top of filling and fold over flaps of pastry. From your remaining pastry scraps, use a blossom plunger cutter to add pretty shapes.

Brush with egg wash and bake until golden brown aprx 18 mins.

No Baking staining on your cupcake papers with Wilton Colour cups

Today I baked our new white chocolate mud cake mix. I was curious to see if the white chocolate flavour came through. 

These bake low and slow (for cupcakes 30mins at 130c) not long after this photo was taken, I devoured this cupcake. I’m pleased to say I could smell and taste the white chocolate (I used 100g of Whittaker’s white chocolate) 

And a shout out to Wilton Colourcups!. I love these cupcake papers. They’re my all time go to, as they ALWAYS look this good after baking. Even at higher temps.

 

Rainbow coloured chocolate curls

 

These awesome curls were made by layering Wilton candy melts up in a plastic container (allow each one to cool before adding the next colour). Once set pop out your block - and curl away with your vege peeler 

This was part of a recent candy melt/chocolate demo at Kiwicakes

Changing the face of birthday cakes at Kiwicakes

New licensed character cake kits

We have a great new range of birthday cake kits, as well as candle sets available separately.

We've got creative with what we can offer customers, as we no longer sell edible images of licensed characters (there's no license available in NZ
to print them anymore). We were disappointed to lose them, but we hope our new alternatives will prove just as popular. It's an opportunity to try something new. We have over 50 popular
kids themes to choose from click here to view (Popular themes to name just a few are Paw Patrol, Frozen, Disney Cars, Spiderman, Avengers, Disney Princess, Tinkerbell etc)

We still have a great range of edible icing images available in classic themes such as unicorn, pirates, animals and more. And of course we can print your own photos, adding text if required. We can print photos of your child dressed as their favourite superhero or princess. Think outside the square, like reading their Harry Potter book or playing with their favourite toy. See our website here 

New range of edible images from Kat at ibicci

What happens when Sandra from Kiwicakes teams up with stencil guru Kat Rutledge from ibicci? A new range of edible images is born.

Using Kat's amazing stencil designs and awesome graphic design skills, Kiwicakes is now offering a range of edible icing images that feature graphics used in Kat's stencils.

We have 4 inch cake strips available that are printed on A3 icing sheets. Simply cut the two panels using scissors and they are ready to wrap around your covered cake. They can be applied directly to Buttercream, fondant or ganache (an instruction sheet accompanies your purchase).

You'll also find on our website fun designs for cake tops, cookies and cupcakes. More new designs are on the way.  Check them out here

How to make your own custom chocolate bars, to make your cakes really pop

 Making your own custom chocolate bars is quick, easy and fun! And they will really set your cakes apart from store bought chocolate bars.
The examples above use chocolate moulds from Kiwicakes . You can either use pre-coloured candy melts OR colour your own white chocolate using candy colour oil based colours or powder colour. (You cannot use gel paste or liquid food colouring, as this will cause your chocolate to seize and make it unsuable)

You can mould them with or without sprinkles. As a single colour or marbled. The choice is yours.

A finished bar weighs less than 100g, making them quite economic to make.

Bars like this are often referred to as "bark" this is the Wilton Happy Birthday Mould, you can find them in other seasonal designs (which are not always bar shaped - but do consider other shapes). Simply melt your coloured chocolate, spoon in to mould, tap on the bench for a good ten taps, to ensure any bubbles trapped are popped. Then lightly sprinkle over your sprinkle medley and allow to cool. They will release easily once set

To create the marble colour simply place your dominant colour in the mould first, then add small blobs of other colours, and stir gently (I use a lollipop stick to do this).Do NOT use your candy colour to do the marbling, as once removed from the mould, the swirls of colour can come off on your hands.

If you're after a traditional bar shape. And you want sprinkles on the side that would normally have the lines where you break the bar apart, take care to look at the example below.

You cannot add just a little sprinkles to the mould, if you do, you will get the result as shown in my photo. as the melted chocolate allows the sprinkles to move around.

You need to pack them right in there and fill it right up.

The bars can be bagged and given as a gift, just like thy are. When placing on a cake, I find they look best at differing heights. You can simply break off a piece of one bar, to make it shorter. It is important when placing on the cake, to cut a narrow aperture for the bar to be pushed in to. If oyu push down in to solid cake, you risk breaking the bar. 

These little bars make an affordable take home gift, from your party, and can be made to match the birthday cake.