Passionfruit Crunchies a childhood favourite biscuit

Passionfruit Crunchies are an absolute favourite from my childhood. Probably because only 1 or 2 batches were made every passionfruit season. Then you had to wait until next year.

Mum (AKA Grandma Kiwicakes) made them every year. This year Grandma Kiwicakes passionfruit vine failed, as ours had taken off prolifically, I decided it was time I gave them ago and asked for the recipe.

Grandma Kiwicakes tells me the recipe was from "the Truth cookbook - an old scandal rag" - seen below without a cover. These recipe books certainly already expect you to know how to cook - with instructions like, "sandwich together with passionfruit icing" I used butter/icing sugar and 1 passionfruit to make my icing.

I doubled the recipe, and used larger than teaspoon sized balls, as mum always made them BIG. This resulted in two oven trays, with 34 halves, resulting in 17 biscuits when sandwiched together. You can make them any size you like.

I baked at 180C

Cookies for a Cat Lover

A friend who is a great cat lover was having a birthday what better than cat cookies. Here at Kiwicakes we have a great range of items for animal lovers including lots of cat cookie cutters

 A dilemma which one to choose  I finally settled on this one a Sitting Cat

I used this biscuit mix we stock, it keeps its shape very well and doesn't spread during baking.

All directions are on the packet and it is very easy to use.

I used half a packet and that made a full oven tray of biscuits . I cut the biscuits out as instructions and thought I knew better and shifted some of my biscuits to fit more on the tray which distorted my shape slightly.I would not recommend this, I would use two trays next time .

The biscuits are baked at a low temperature and hold their shape well. Instead of Icing I used Renshaws Marzipan. I put this on while the biscuits were still warm to help it stick.

I chose this cat wafer paper. We have an extensive range of wafer paper printed designs at Kiwicakes

I  traced round the cutter and stuck the wafer paper down using Sugar Glue

All bagged up and ready to go with the cutter tied round the neck of the bag as an extra gift should the birthday girl like to make more cookies for herself.

I think they got the seal of approval from the birthday girl's cat Phoebe, here she is keeping warm on this cold Winter day.

I hope this inspires you to try your own cookies We have over 600 cutters etc click here  for our full range

Pretty unicorn cookies

 This lovely step by step tutorial comes to us from Lisa at The Whole Cake and Caboodle 

Using a unicorn cutter from Kiwicakes. Lisa baked sugar cookies, to which she added fondant horns, shaped by hand. Painted with Rolkem Super Gold, mixed with a little rose spirit to form a paint 

Using the cookie cutter. Cut out fondant icing unicorn, then remove the horn and mane using a knife.

Glue the fondant to the cookie using  edible sugar glue and mark the ear and nose hole with a veining tool. The line for the mouth is cut with a knife.

These photos show the steps to pipe the mane. They are random squiggles of royal icing (which sets hard allowing cookies to be bagged) using Wilton tip #16

The eye can be drawn on with an edible marker pen, or painted with a brush and edible black paint.

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.

Cute Easter Bunny cookie tutorial

This delightful Easter bunny tutorial is a quick and easy solution when you've loads of cookies to do and hate doing faces! - it's great to do with kids too. Click on the photos to enlarge and print

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.

Cookie Fun For A Rainy Day - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Here are a few covered cookie ideas to inspire. I find that cookies always go down well with the recipients and its a double-win because nothing beats creative time to yourself

Visitors to the recent Cake and Craft shows may have seen these being demonstrated on the Kiwicakes stand. All of the fondant toppers were stuck to the cookies with a little swipe of edible glue.

This little rocket was made with a rocket cookie cutter . A little turquoise and yellow fondant was used and impressions were highlighted with pearlescent yellow and midnight blue metallic food paint.

This crown wouldn't be out of place at an Alice in Wonderland high tea party. The cookie is covered in ivory fondant then a printed card suits wafer paper topper. I pressed the cookie cutter onto the wafer paper to make an indentation then cut around it with kitchen scissors. It is adhered to the fondant with the tiniest amount of sugar glue.

This cookie is made using the same cookie cutter as above but has more of a princess tiara feeling due to the strategic placement of shimmery cachous. Baby pink fondant covered the biscuits and was impressed with a press ice tool (pictured in yellow). You can get these in cool zigzag, diamond and drape designs as well as other polka and ribbon effects. They make decorating patterns a breeze, especially adding detail to the side of a cake evenly.

The impressions made with the tool are little dimples that can be touched with a drop of edible glue using a really fine brush. The large pink and small white sugar pearls are added with the help of sugar pearl tweezers that save you handling them all individually.

This medieval castle is covered in grey fondant and was impressed with a crocodile skin rolling pin. The grand drawbridge door is made with a little brown fondant and the shape was cut out using the same rocket cutter used above! It was impressed vertically with the tree bark mat and double handles were added for focus. 

This delicate floral shoe was made with a cherry blossom wafer paper design that I cut out following the shoe cutter template. Another yellow variation on a shoe is shown below to show you that anything goes! This one has awesome texture as it is covered in yellow edible glitter. The photo doesn't do justice. A sole was suggested by a string of silver rice shape dragees.

We hope this gets you inspired to include cookie crafting in your next rainy day activities!

New mini kiwi cutter designed and produced for Kiwicakes

I am thrilled to announce the release of a new mini cookie cutter we've had made exclusively for Kiwicakes. It's stainless steel and you can purchase here for just $5. So cute as mini cookies, but I think they'd also make cute cut outs for cupcakes.

Whatever your passion Kiwicakes will see you right

Did you know we've an ENORMOUS range of cookie cutters. Whether your passions, is owls elephants horses or anything in between we've got you sorted.

Bugs - Oh Baby magazine

Exciting!. Today I just got the latest copy of Oh Baby! magazine. And Kiwicakes is featured as the cookie cutter supplier for this awesome bugs party.

I wish my kids were small

Cowboy boot & hat cookies

Todays fun post comes from my American friend Autumn Carpenter. Autumn designs and manufacturers a broad range of cake decorating supplies, which I'm proud to stock at Kiwicakes.

I adore these cookies, I own quite a few pairs of cowboy boots (they often feature on my birthday cakes see here and here and here for pictures)

Tools and Ingredients

boot cookie cutter

hat cookie cutter

dark brown fondant

light brown fondant

white fondant

black fondant

turquoise fondant

brown luster dust

silver luster dust

flower and scroll embosser/cutter

small flower cutter

FabricTexture Sheet Set - crocodile texture

Boot: Bake and cool cookies. Roll dark brown fondant and texture with crocodile leather texture mat. Use the cookie cutters to cut out pieces and then trim with pastry wheel. Attach to cookie with piping gel. Paint with brown luster dust mixed with lemon oil to add shiny look. Roll out white and black fondant. Cut with cookie cutter and then trim with pastry wheel to fit around textured fondant. Emboss white fondant with scrolls and flowers. Paint embossed areas with brown luster dust. 

Hat: Bake and cool cookies. Roll out light brown fondant and cut out with hat cookie cutter. Attach to cookie with piping gel. Roll dark brown fondant and texture with crocodile leather texture mat. Use pastry wheel to cut thin strips. Attach to cookie with piping gel. Paint with brown luster dust mixed with lemon oil to add shiny look. Roll white fondant thin and cut with small flower cutter. Use small circle cutter, knife and pin to texture flower. Mix silver luster dust with lemon oil and paint piece silver. Attach to cookie with piping gel. Attach small turquoise fondant dot in center of flower.

Tutorial Tuesday - Halloween Cookies

This awesome tutorial comes has been created for Kiwicakes by Lisa at The Whole Cake & Caboodle

Step1 These are the cutters I used but you can use similar substitutes. The round shape is a 5.5cm circle from the round nesting cookie cutters set. The bat and ghost are from the Halloween mini cookie cutter set. The tombstone is actually the centre of the handbag cookie cutter which comes in two pieces but you could use a small rectangle shape also. The square can be substituted for rounds, rectangles, or any shape you like or hand cut something if needed. Bake the amount you need. Everything is baked exactly as its cut by the cookie cutter - except the round shape which has a small portion cut off the base, with a knife to allow it to stand. There is no exact amount that you need to trim but about 1 cm up from the base of the circle works well

Step 2 Make a sugar syrup at a ratio of half sugar/half water. I used 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup of sugar which will give you more than enough for dozens of complete cookies. This was then microwaved for about 2-3 minutes (or until boiled and dissolved), you may need to stir this during this time to mix in the sugar. If you wish you can also use piping gel as a glue

Step 3 Cover the moon and ghosts with white fondant rolled to the thickness you desire. I use thickness guides to ensure its even but you can always use kebab sticks or ice block sticks as well (new ones of course!) 

To adhere the fondant to the cookie brush the cookie lightly with sugar syrup. You should see a glisten as it sits on the surface.

Step 4 Once you have covered the moons turn them over and trim off the excess fondant from the base

Step 5 Mix a small amount of black into some white fondant lightly in a pulling twisting motion. This makes it mottled and gives a marbled effect to use on the tombstones

Step 6 Cut out required amount of tombstones, you can use the jagged edges of the rolled fondant to give a worn look to the tombstones or add your own cuts

Step 7 Either leave blank the tombstones blank or write words or names on with a food pen.Or stamp the tombstones with letters to spell out "HELP" or "RIP" or whatever takes your fancy. The press set I used here is the tiny alphabet message press set and you need to remember to put each one in backwards as shown so that it stamps correctly

Step 8 Using the sugar syrup glue ghost cookies to tombstones either in front, or behind, or in whatever position takes your fancy. Support them for an hour and they will stick well together. This can be done while you are making the rest of the cookies.

Step 9 Dust the edges of the moons if you desire. I used a smidgeon of black dust and a mix of a thin coat of yellow and then a touch of blue. Some were dusted also with a pearl white for shimmer.

Step 10 Glue bats to the moons in a pleasing position and glue black fondant to them. They look just as good plain or you can add detail as follows. Eyes can be marked on the bats with the end of a paintbrush as can the mouths on the ghosts. The bats eyes can then be further filled with small white fondant balls or piped with white royal icing. The wings of the bat were also marked to give more detail. You can also handpaint smaller bat shapes to give the illusion of a group in flight

Step 11 Eyeballs can be dotted in on both the bats and ghosts using a marker pen or a spot of black gel colouring on the tend of a toothpick. This gives a nice dot shape. You need to let the royal icing dry first in the bats eyes before marking the eyeball/pupil

Step 12 Take your base cookie and some fondant. Any colour can be used but I have used chocolate brown both for the taste and to simulate dirt. You need enough to provide a base for either the moon or tombstone cookie to sit in so judge according to the size of that cookie. Of course you can always use more and cover the whole cookie if you wish! Glue this in a blob to the cookie It needs to have a little depth of about 0.5-1.0 cm for support depending upon how much fondant you want to use.

Step 13 Take your tombstone or moon cookie and press the base into the chocolate fondant. This creates a pattern of the shape where your cookie will sit. Indent this with a tool to create a deeper trench almost to the base of the cookie for the moon or tombstone to sit in like so

Step 14 Use a touch of sugar glue in the trench (don't drown it though!!) and push the required cookie in. It should sit straight and be well supported but if it doesn’t feel secure or wobbles then gently push the fondant at the front and back up against the cookie or add some extra fondant balls to create a higher ground support. Glue all your cookies together in groups you are happy with. There should be room for at least two items on one base cookie if needed

Step 15 Mix up some green royal icing or you can use butter cream if you wish. I have used a leaf green gel colour with a few drops of brown to make it more khaki coloured, but use whatever colour you wish. A lime green looks very Halloween like!

Step 16 Randomly pipe grass using a small grass tip over the base cookie. It doesn't need to cover the whole cookie and doesn't need to cover the chocolate fondant either. Make long tufts in places or just small patches scattered. The royal icing when dry will help to further support the upright cookie if it is against this but isn't overly necessary as the chocolate fondant will give it more than enough support when dry. I made some zombie hands out of some fondant to break through the ground. I also scattered a few bones sprinkles.

Step 17 Use small cookies in amongst finished 3 dimensional scenes to create a great Halloween display, have a frightfully fun time.