Plants Vs Zombies cake for my wee friend Spencer

I get the pleasure of making my wee friend Spencer's cake each year, you may remember his 4th birthday cake I just came to the shock realisation he will shortly be 6, so I thought I'd best share his 5th birthday cake with you. I made Spencer a simple sheet cake. Which I covered in green Satin Ice fondant.

The I used a checkerboard stencil and dusted green lustre over the squares, to make the playing squares of the game.

I tore some areas of the fondant, and filled the holes with ground up oreo cookies (creme filling removed) to look like the holes the plants grow up out of.

The grass is piped with buttercream icing using tip 233

All of the plants, potatoes and zombies are made from Chocit brand chocolate modelling paste. I found this much easier to use than fondant for modelling such small pieces.

The no#5 candle is from Kiwicakes

The flower pot is made using this mould

The characters on this cake were a ton of fun to make, and in Chocit did not take long at all.

Frozen Snowflakes & Melted Snowman - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

These winter wonderland treats are right on trend and are particularly fitting for these chilly winter days we are experiencing. So much for living in the winterless north!

To achieve todays yummy crafts I cracked into some modelling chocolate, which tastes divine as well as having great stick-ability and moulding qualities.

This snowflake was handcrafted out of light blue modelling chocolate made with 1 part blue plus 4 parts white. It was rolled 4mm thick and snipped into shape with kitchen scissors then dusted with sapphire edible glitter. 

Although these look like cake pops we actually cheated and used ferrero rocher chocolates for the centres. It's an easy no-bake solution. Just unwrap, stab the ball with a cake pop stick then wrap with a circle of white Chocit. The red round cutter from this cookie cutter circle set is the perfect amount to mould into position. Just use clean dry hands to roll into a smooth ball. It seals the ferrero rocher in and adheres to the stick without any need for edible glue. Then the coated ball can be dusted with white edible glitter for some texture and shine.

Decorations like the blue snowflake stick magically when you press it gently onto the ball and they easily hold their shape! This is also true for the snowman decorations like his arms and all facial features. My snowman's hair is the only part that does not self-support for very long so he might need a quick hair touch up before serving. His nose is made from a wee bit of orange Chocit and it too sits proudly without wilting, I just used the end of a paintbrush to make a divet to press the carrot nose into. His arms, hair and other features are made using a little Brown Chocit rolled thinly and cut into strips. Rainbow packs are a great way to start your modelling chocolate collection. 

To make the melted snowman cookies, roll out your favourite cookie dough and make snowflake cut-outs to bake.This is a really effective shape! When cooled, top each biscuit with a rolled round of chocit, press into place and trim the base. 

Then gather his edible accessories, stack on top and smush into place to resemble the effect of melting!  

A snowflake also looks good in light blue or turquoise with a basic shape etched on top. This is where your flower modelling tools come in handy.

Finally the magic is completed with some edible glitter on the edges...

Chocolate Modelling Paste Digging Doggy - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

We made these cute (and tasty!) little doggies' backsides for SPCA Cupcake Day.

This little guy sits on top a cupcake in a foil cupcake wrapper and is surrounded by candy bones. He's made out of tasty chocolate modelling paste sold individually or in a handy rainbow pack.

The 'dirt' is made from crushed up Oreo-type chocolate biscuits, with any creme filling removed. 

Pop the biscuits into a snaplock bag and let loose with a rolling pin until you have the desired texture. 

The dog's bottoms are hand-shaped with white and black chocolate modelling paste. The magic of working with this medium is that no glue is needed to stick the components together, they just magically hold their shape nicely.

Begin by portioning your modelling paste, so that your figurines will turn out even. Cut white pieces for the bottoms, feet and tails. Roll mini balls of black for the pads.

To assemble, smear a sticky icing-like buttercream or ganache over the entire surface of your cupcake. Sprinkle liberally with the crushed Oreo dirt. Use a teaspoon to clear a spot in the centre for your digging doggy to be pushed into. The dog won't stick to the crumbs, so it's essential you make a hole in the dirt - this also creates a build up of dirt against the dog's body, which makes it more realistic looking.

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Newsflash: The Dinosaurs are Extinct - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

This morning marks the start of a new school term, so there are probably many parents breathing a sigh of relief. I start this term with anticipation at the many new and exciting changes for my budding family. My partner started a new job today, my son happily started preschool this morning and my daughter has her school visit morning. Phew!

Being welcomed with a school Powhiri in the glorious sunshine was a lovely start to the day. During the formality my preschoolers were exceptionally well behaved. Then they decided to compare belly buttons as we were centre stage - that sure got some giggles! Talia was confident so I left her there with her new teacher and friends to get settled in. Next stop was preschool for the other kids. My wee man got straight in amongst it and happily waved mum goodbye.

This morning's activities meant that I was a little late to work today. So instead of turning on the oven I thought I could give you an update on the Curious Chocolate Dinosaurs that I made a couple of weeks ago for Talia's preschool leaving cake. Here is the finished product...

My plan to sit the dinosaurs atop a dirty, messy chocolate cake was extinguished by the nearly-birthday-girl who preferred a 'lemon cake please mum'. How could I say no to those lovely manners?! So the cake was bright and it drew gasps from the preschool children. They were eager to name the dinosaurs and to have a taste! I used a grass tip #233 to squirt out the green butter cream randomly on top and more condensed around the base. I popped a candle into the dinosaur's backs, sprinkled them with mini m&ms and it was easy done. At Kiwicakes we have a huge range of candles to suit any occasion so it's worth having a scroll through when ordering your other cake supplies.

I found that my modelling chocolate dinosaurs kept perfect colour and shape just sitting in my winter pantry waiting for their debut on a cake. This picture was taken at preschool 3 days after I modelled them at work and the remnants of the last surviving dinosaurs kept impeccably in my pantry for at least a week afterwards. This is such a cool medium to work with and I am impressed with its keeping qualities. However, our bright dinosaurs are now all extinct!

I would recommend to play it safe and do as I did, sitting the figurines on the butter cream just before serving. They may be less inclined to be volatile against a fondant-covered cake, but that is just my guess! If anybody has already tried this pairing with success I'd love to hear about it.

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Curious Chocolate Dinosaurs - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

This week marks my daughters last day at preschool. Its hard to believe my baby is off to school so soon! I remember looking forward to my last day at kindy because there was always a playdough 'cake' with candles to blow out - so this edible farewell cake sure will be a step up! 

Talia's preschool have been studying dinosaurs this term so I thought I'd stick with that theme for her send-off cake. I was also inspired by the Dinosaur Diorama cake on page 35 of the Wilton 2014 Yearbook. It is glossy and full of new and fun ideas - a great birthday present idea for a crafty friend.  .

Here are my finished chocolate dinosaurs. Today I decided to try working with chocolate instead of fondant for a change. I used a pack of Rainbow Chocolate Modelling Paste and within that I had every colour I needed to get creative! A real advantage of working with this medium is that you don't need anything extra above the basic tools that cake decorators start out with. And the taste is divine!

You can also purchase single blocks of Chocolate Modelling Paste from our range of 11 pre-coloured chocolate.

I figure that my cakes audience are going to be harsh critics because boy do those 3 and 4 year olds know their dinosaur facts! I chose to model 5 different animals as she is turning 5 and odd numbers of cake decorations do seem to work best anyway. Before I began playing with the colours, I made a quick plan including the distinguishing anatomical features that they would be looking for in each dinosaur. It may not be pretty (I am no artist!) but it gave me a plan of action to turn into simple shapes...

Using chocolate paste for the first time was a breeze! It moulds well simply with the warmth of your hand and has a nice glossy finish. I created the extra colours I needed (like orange, purple and green) by mixing the existing colours from the rainbow pack together. Eg. Yellow + Blue = Green.

I am planning on constructing a messy, muddy, maltesers-covered chocolate cake base for these bright dinsaurs to inhabit. And hopefully it will go down well with the pre-schoolers! Here are my characters...

Pterodactyl 

Stegosaurus

T-Rex

Triceratops

Long Neck Fantasy Dinosaur

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.