How to create antique or vintage shades of buttercream icing

The good folks at Sprinks have supplied these awesome colour charts, to show you just how easy it is to create vintage shades using buttercream icing and the Sprinks range of gel paste food colourings.

The Sprinks bottles come fitted with an eye dropper, so you can easily count the drops. You can find the entire range here at Kiwicakes.

Mini chocolate bars cupcake decorations

These cute little cupcakes were super easy to make. I'd been dying to get my hands on some of the limited edition Caramilk by Cadbury, as it had been a favourite of mine as a teen. I teemed it with a Millionaires caramel drizzle over vanilla buttercream

To create the drizzle, I popped a spoonful of Millionaires Caramel in to a disposable piping bag and zapped in the microwave for ten seconds, I then snipped off the end and drizzled over the cupcakes. The larger you cut the hole in the end of the bag, the heavier your drip will be, I did both fine and heavy drizzles, to test out which I liked better. Start small though, as you can't go backwards if you cut the hole too big.

These are super easy to make, each little bar weighs aprx 7 grams, so you get a heap from one block of chocolate. I used this mould -5-with-chocolate-printed-on-each-square I melted the caramilk gently int he microwave and spooned in to the mould, Tap underside of mould gently on bench to expel air bubbles

 Lots of cute little bars just waiting for their cupcakes.

Tinkerbell-inspired Florabunda Cake - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

A simple idea to jazz up the edges of your next edible image cake is to make a border of bright fondant flowers. This cake was inspired by Tinkerbell's surrounds in Fairy Hollow. A pinch of tylose in each colour will give strength for the flowers to hold their shape. Borrow all the cutters and silicone moulds you can from friends so you have a varied selection of flowers and leaves. Using veiners can give a realistic look. It doesn't matter if they are not botanically correct, the aim here is a random mixture of colours and sizes. These can be made in advance, just remember to keep pinky/purpley decorations covered from UV light (so they don't fade). A clean shoe box in the hot water cupboard works well. 

Once your cake is on its board you cover it in buttercream. Grape flavoured oil works nicely in this Tinkerbell icing. Applying it with a spatula gives it character and a rustic look. Alternatively you could use a buttercream smoother for a more precise finish. Peel your edible image and place directly onto the fresh buttercream so it adheres well. As well as selling hundreds of edible images for cakes, Kiwicakes can now print your own custom edible images in various sizes and styles to make a unique cake.

Simply arrange the flowers and leaves evenly around the edge of the edible image, placing the biggest ones in position first. The cut edge of the image should not be visible under the floral border. Cachous used in the centre of smaller flowers creates interest and gives them a lift. I find sugar tweezers easiest for applying these pearly type decorations.

Any additional flowers and leaves (even butterflies) can be enjoyed atop cupcakes. These are presented in straight-sided Tinkerbell cupcake papers that come with picks which add lovely height. A few drops of Apple flavoured oil is a fitting taste in green frosting.

Loaded Chocolate Celebration Cake - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Here is a simple idea for the next cake you have creative license with. Simply load the top with the recipients favourite chocolate bars and lollies! I made this cake with inspiration from my baby sister for her 21st birthday and was really pleased with the result.

Think about height and variation of textures when you are shopping for goodies. Position the biggest items first. Cut a shallow hole out of the cake where you will anchor each piece and press them firmly in. Turkish delight and Crunchie bars can be sliced to expose their colourful centers. Red licorice choc logs work well too. Remember that odd numbers look best with any creative endeavors like this. Somehow the cake looks most balanced when there are bars coming out on completely different angles!

Pipe some buttercream swirls in and around the base of your bigger chocolate bars to further cement them in. Top with a generous mixture of lollies and sprinkles to fill in all the gaps. I used some Glo Hearts and Sour Strawberries from Kiwicakes old fashioned lolly range as well as a chocolate transfer sheet to create the stunning chocolate shards with swirl effects.

Valentines day - open heart cupcakes

These heart cupcakes started with an idea from Glorious Treats (although my method was a little different). They are quick and easy to make and something a little different to a fully frosted cupcake.

Take your favourite cupcake and using a heart cutter press gently down, this will cut a heart in to your cupcake. You then need to slide a knife under the heart to remove a shallow piece.

I coloured my buttercream icing with pink progel colouring. I fitted my piping bag with a bismarck tip to make it easy to fill the cavity.

I coloured my icing sugar pink using Rainbow Dust colour (please note I used an edible pink, I've inadvertently photographed the wrong pink and shown a craft dust here)

Shake the two together and the resulting icing sugar is pink, this is dusted over the surface of the cupcake.

Numerical Birthday Cake & My Dreamy Dairy-free Recipe - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Recently we held my daughters 5th birthday party, complete with a disco light machine, glow-bracelets and coloured hair extensions for the party girls. They had a great time dancing and running around! 

I thought long and hard about how to produce some kind of 'dance' themed cake and really didn't come up with anything that grabbed me. So since turning five is such a huge milestone, my thoughts came full circle to produce a numeral 5 cake. I started by baking my favourite moist chocolate cake recipe 2 days in advance of the party.

I cooked a 9" round cake (with an upturned greased ramekin in the centre to make a ring cake) and an 8" square cake to achieve my number 5. I knew I was going to need two cakes to sculpt so I doubled the quantities in the recipie that follows...

Dreamy Dairy-free Chocolate Cake

Sift dry ingredients together in a big bowl:

2 c flour

2 c sugar

1 c cocoa

2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

Whisk wet ingredients together:

2 eggs

1/3 c oil

2 c tap water

2 t vanilla essence

Pour wet ingredients into dry mix and keep whisking until mixture is completely combined and lump-free. Pour into a greased and lined cake tin and bake at 150degrees C for 45 - 60 minutes. Cool completely before starting to decorate.

This mixture fills a 9" round tin and will serve 12-15 people. I often use this exact recipe for two dozen+ cupcakes and they come out soft and dreamy too, obviously they will cook a lot quicker though.

The dairy-free part of my cake stops right here! Again for this huge cake I doubled the butter cream icing quantities listed. 

Dreamy Butter cream

Whip together in your stand mixer for up to 5mins until pale and fluffy:

100g butter (softened but not melted)

100g sno creme vegetable shortening

1t meringue powder

40g milk

400g icing sugar

Colouring and flavouring to suit

Fill your large piping bag fitted with any large star-like tip. 

Place your carved cake pieces onto the board one at a time (this will save trying to pipe into teeny spaces!) I started from the bottom and piped individual swirls all over the sides and top of the cake. As long as they are consistent, any design will look nice!

Use buttercream to join the cake pieces together. If you're left with small holes between any of your swirls simply pipe a wee star into the gap. The addition of the meringue powder means your swirls will hold their shape nicely.

The result is a delectable moist cake that looks pretty and way more technical than it really is. Here is the finished product...

You may recognise the speckly white chocolate hairdressing set from an earlier blogpost. And finally here are my two favourite little people in the whole wide world (from a proud mummy!) Happy birthday and happy school-days darling X