Cute fondant Penguin figurine tutorial

How cute are these penguins?. This tutorial was designed for us, by Lisa from The Whole Cake and Caboodle. Click on the photos to enlarge, and you can print the pages, for step by step how to.

Isomalt Snowflakes with Cake Lace

Whether you are making snowflakes for a Frozen cake, or for a Northern Hemisphere inspired Christmas cake, Cake lace trapped inside isomalt is just so pretty!.
The photos speak for themselves, however if you're wondering how it was done

(1) spread cake lace on to snowflake lace mat and allow to dry

(2) Pour melted isomalt over lace snowflake slowly, so that your snowflakes don't join together. Allow to cool
(3) spritz with glitter if desired

(4) peel away from mat - spray with edible glaze, to help fight the humidity

Fun holly cookies Christmas tutorial

Stamp out and bake holly cookies using the cutter from this set using your favourite non-spread sugar cookie recipe.

Cut out using the same cookie cutter a thin green holly shape from fondant icing. Glue to the cookie by brushing the cookie lightly with edible glue or a sugar syrup. Sugar syrup can be made by microwaving/cooking equal quantities of sugar and water together until melted.

Mark the veins on the leaves as shown using a flute and vein tool  

Using the end of a piping tip 1A or similar  cut three berries to fit. Or you can pipe berries using red royal icing. Make some royal icing to your own recipe or by beating 1 size 6 egg white and approx. 1-1.25 cups of icing sugar together. I beat the egg white until foamy then add the icing sugar in two lots. This used about 1 cup but if you wish to have a stiffer mix to hold piped ruffled shapes you will need to add a little more.

Leave finished cookies as is or arrange in a wreath on a large plate approx. 50-60 cm in diameter. If arranging in a wreath place holly berries after cookies have been arranged. I have glued cookies lightly with small dots of royal icing to hold them in place on both the plate and laying them on each other.

Further decorate with a ribbon bow or a handcut cookie bow. Also add cookie ornaments if required.

Tutorial - Cute Gingerbread Cupcake toppers for Christmas

Today we have the final installment of Christmas cupcake toppers - the gingerbread man. From Lisa at the Whole Cake and Caboodle.

Roll stiffened fondant (with tylo) or gumpaste  out to a depth of around 4-5 mm thick. Overlay with a piece of gladwrap and stamp out required amount of heads using an approx. 4-5 cm round cutter. The gladwrap softens and rounds the edges. You don’t need to do this, its just a nice effect.

Mark mouth low on the face using the end of a scallop/arc/similar tool  and dot the ends of the smiles with a pointed tool to accentuate them.

Dust a circle on the cheeks using a small amount of Rainbow Dust Rose (or pearl blush pink for a lustre effect)

Dot eyes in the centre of the face using some black gel-paste and a toothpick. The toothpick dipped into the gel-paste then poked gently into the face gives even and controlled dots. (see earlier snowman tutorial for picture) Make some royal icing to your own recipe or by beating 1 size 6 egg white and approx. 1-1.25 cups of icing sugar together. I beat the egg white until foamy then add the icing sugar in two lots. This used about 1 cup but if you wish to have a stiffer mix to hold piped ruffled shapes you will need to add a little more. Pipe squiggly lines as shown - I have used a disposable bag with a tiny hole cut at the end. Cut some holly using the smaller of the threeleaf holly ejector plunger cutter set and glue to the face.

Indent the holly with a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush/whatever is handy, this is to help stop the berries rolling off the leaves when it comes to placing them Put a small amount of edible glue in the indent  and drop in a few red non-pareils between pinched fingers. Alternatively roll small balls of fondant for berries and place instead of the sprinkles. Another option is to pipe small red royal icing balls and in this case you don’t need to indent the leaf. If you have placed too many sprinkles use a dry brush to flick off excess or push into better positions.

NOTE : You can use normal fondant for all but fondant stiffened with tylo will make your work so much easier as it will easily keep its shape while working and dry quickly. You need to use enough tylo to get a bluetack feel to the icing.

Christmas drip cake from Kiwicakes

Recently I received a gift of a lovely Kiwicakes Christmas topper from the uber talented Stacey at Design@409 Which of course meant I needed to make a cake for it right away.

I settled on this drip cake design, which uses the Kiwicakes Christmas sprinkle medley  The cake is covered in white Bakels truffle, to which I added Rainbow Dust whitener to make it truly white. The drip is Bakels Chocolate Truffle, which is super easy to apply to a chilled cake

I used Rainbow Dust metallic paints to colour my macarons. I used mine in my airbrush, if you don't have one of these, you can paint or sponge on the colours. There's 22 shades of paint in the range. This was such a fun cake to make.

Friendly reindeer Christmas fondant icing tutorial

Continuing on with our cool fondant cookie tutorials, brought to you by the lovely Lisa from the Whole Cake and Caboodle here in Whangarei. Today's tutorial is the friendly reindeer

Roll stiffened fondant with tylo or gumpaste  out to a depth of around 4-5 mm thick. Overlay with a piece of gladwrap and stamp out required amount of heads using the reindeer head from the Wilton set of mini Christmas cookie cutters The gladwrap softens and rounds the edges. You don’t need to do this, its just a nice effect. The glad wrap will more than likely distort the antlers but they are to be removed. Using the end of the cutter  as shown remove the antlers and soften cuts if needed.

Using a medium snowflake plunger cutter  cut out some black snowflakes and cut in the positions shown into three pieces each snowflake. You don’t need to emboss the detail on the snowflakes. Glue to the back of the reindeer head as shown.

Using a knife press down in the position shown to accentuate mouth/jaw

Using the knife tip mark ears as shown and mark mouth on the jaw using the end of a scallop/arc/similar tool 

Glue a rolled ball of red for his nose quite low on his face near his jaw (approx. pea sized) . I have slightly squashed mine into a oval shape which isn’t essential – just my preference. Dust cheeks right at their edges using a small amount of Rainbow dust rose (or pearl blush pink for a lustre effect) 

Dot eyes using some black gel-paste and a toothpick. The toothpick dipped into the gel-paste then poked gently into the face gives even and controlled dots. I have dotted mine close to the nose and close together. The closer they are the cuter they are.

Cut some holly using the smaller of the three leaf ejector plunger cutter set and glue to the face and indent the holly with a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush/whatever is handy. This is to help stop the berries rolling off the leaves when it comes to placing them

Put a small amount of edible glue in the indent  and drop in a few red non-pareils between pinched fingers. Alternatively roll small balls of fondant for berries and place instead of the sprinkles. Another option is to pipe small red royal icing balls and in this case you don’t need to indent the leaf. If you have placed too many sprinkles use a dry brush to flick off excess or push into better positions. See snowman friend photo above for how to do this.

NOTE : You can use normal fondant for all toppers, but fondant stiffened with tylo will make your work so much easier as it will easily keep its shape while working and dry quickly. You need to use enough tylo to get a bluetack feel to the icing.

Kiwicakes blog mentioned in NZ House and Garden Magazine December 2016

It's great to know all of the time spent preparing blog posts is worth it. When something like this happens!. Kiwicakes blog got a mention in Small Bites by Sally Butters in the Christmas issue of NZ House & Garden magazine for our Chocolate transfers tutorial.

Here's a link to the tutorial Sally Mentions (shown above)

Here's a link to a tutorial using chocolate transfers with strawberries - I find these perfect for the CHristmas dessert table, as they're a light alternative when you're feeling full, yet still fulfill my sweet requirement whilst looking amazing.

Here's a link to a tutorial for those wanting to put chocolate transfers on moulded chocolate shapes

And last but not least here's a link to a tutorial showing how you can make shapes using a chablon mat and chocolate transfers

Minions 3d Christmas cookie tutorial

This fun tutorial was put together for you, by the uber talented Lisa of The Whole Cake and Caboodle here in Whangarei. Click on each photo to blow up the steps and you can print them off.

Tutorial Tuesday - Snowman figurine in fondant icing

This super cute snowman figurine topper has been created for Kiwicakes by Lisa at the Whole Cake and Caboodle. There's a number of steps to creating this wee snowman, but followed step by step, it's actually quite easy.

I tend to build my figures on a cake dummy/polystyrene block if doing them in advance. Here I use a long kebab stick as support and poke it into the dummy. Make sure it moves by pulling it out and poking it in to the same spot a few more times…nothing worse than finishing your figure and finding the support is stuck. You can wreck it all in the process of removing it.

 Step 1: Get a large piece of white gumpaste or well stiffened fondant about 6-7 cm round. I have shown it in my palm for size against a polyball. Roll into a ball and then elongate into a more teardrop shape about 8cm tall. Place on stick and squeeze in chest a little at the top to give him a more pronounced tummy if you wish

Step 2: Roll a long sausage shape around 1cm thick. Hold against the body and decide how long you want the arms. Fold the sausage in half and cut two arms the same length. Flatten the shoulder ends a little so when they are attached they aren't bulky. Flatten the hand ends also and cut a thumb (per photo below). Then gently round the edges with your fingers and check the fit against the body. I have curved these at the moment as I wish them to be bent but will straighten them out. If they are too long cut them shorter.

Step 3: Using required colour for a cardigan roll out fondant to around 2mm thick. Then using an impression mat if you wish emboss the fondant. I roll away from myself but before you do so ensure your icing isn't going to stick to your work area by adding a light dusting of cornflour as the added pressure when embossing can cause it to do so. Cut two 10cm x 5 cm rectangles (per photo below).

Step 4: Using a slight brush of glue on one rectangle adhere like so to the body with a slight overlap at the top. Gently pushing in excess around neck using a touch more glue if necessary. Straighten arms and place on the lightly glued second rectangle and roll up. You can cut the rectangle in half and roll each separately if you wish but doing it this way doesn’t distort the pattern. Both arms should be covered by icing fabric but pull them gently apart to give it a light stretch if they aren't. Cut the 'fabric' and check that the joins are neat then bend the arms a little if you wish them to be in that position (see photos below). Gently squish the top of the sleeve together. Mark a bend with the back of a knife like so if you wish more definition and glue lightly to the body.

Step 5: Roll another smaller ball of white fondant about 4-5 cm in diameter. Using your finger push down at the front like so and then squeeze in at the sides like so. This gives him more definition for cheeks and where his eyes will go. Push it down on the stick to check size and shapes are pleasing. It doesn't matter if the hole goes all the way through as it will be covered. Remove and using the side of your finger indent a little to make more defined cheeks. Then using the ends of your fingers or a ball tool make indents where his eyes will be then gently smooth into a soft cheek outline. Using the end of a paintbrush or a small ball tool mark a nose position and using the end of a large piping tube make a mouth (as per photos below)

Step 6: Using a toothpick dipped into gel colouring mark the eyes by gently pushing into the head. Don’t push in to far otherwise you will make a huge hole. Eye position is best close together and close to the nose for the cutest look. If you put them to high on the head or to far apart they can look weird…just saying! The toothpick gives you a nice round controlled spot that is hard to obtain with a paintbrush. I use the ends of paintbrushes also but it can be too big. Practice on a spare bit of fondant first if you aren't confident. Using a light peach or pink dust your cheeks (as per photo below). I always put a touch on the brush and then remove the excess by brushing in the lid of the pot so you don’t over colour your item. I used Rainbow Dust Pink Candy. Using a pea sized bit of not too bright orange fondant roll a teardrop shape and lightly score lines in random spots to make it look more carrot like. Don't make your carrot too long. Place head on body and glue in place and glue nose in indent. I decided to tilt my snowman's head slightly to the side.

Step 7: Roll and emboss another rectangle about 12 x 5 cm and cut like so. It doesn't have to be exact but the top shorter length is now around 6cm. Before gluing check that it fits around the snowman's head, adjust size if needed. Glue on in this position gluing joins, fold the top ends in lightly like so then bend back lightly like so 

Step 8: Using a piping bag or disposable piping bag pipe on royal icing eyebrows and an edge on the hat, jacket, jacket sleeves and a larger ball on the end of the hat. I piped in a wiggly zigzag motion. It doesn’t have to be exact or perfect its just to give it a bobbly effect. You don’t need good piping skills. You can mix up your own using an eggwhite beaten and then adding enough icing sugar to make a stiff pipable icing or buy a mix 

Step 9: Using a slightly darker colour roll out a length of icing around 30cm. Emboss all along the length. If your embossing mat isn't that long do a length then line up the mat again giving it a slight overlap of 5cm and then reroll the next bit. Start pushing/rolling a little away from the edge like so of the mat so you dotn create a line. You should have a continuous strip with a negligible join. Cut a scarf about 1 cm wide and around 25cm long and fringe both ends (as per photos below)

Step 10: Wrap up your snowman. I have started gluing the scarf like so, covering his neck and any joins, make sure its not to high around his mouth. At the front make a little fold and flatten and mark as so to simulate a knot. Drape and glue the end of the scarf where required

NOTES

Finish him off if you wish with a snowflake on his hat, or in his hands. I have lightly painted the woolly edging with Rainbow Dust pearl white and painted his scarf with a Rainbow Dust royal blue dust mixed with vodka and Rainbow Dust Paint-It spring green to add extra interest.

Fondant must be stiffened with cmc/tylose, in some cases gumpaste can do with a little extra stiffening as well. If your figure is slumping or wrinkling it is not stiff enough.

You can remove the kebab stick once your figure sets a little if you wish. I like leaving them in as the part that is in the dummy will then extend into your cake to make the figure more secure so it doesn’t topple over. Always let your recipient know when there are inedible supports