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.

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

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.

Batman Boys Party - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Our eldest recently turned 7 and he requested a superhero party with a batman cake. Decisive children sure make party planning easy! I decided to buy a bat cutter to make my life easier, safe in knowing that I could use it multiple ways for maximum value. You can copy my spider man tablecloth idea with a similar spider web table cover we stock here at Kiwicakes.

On the party morning we pressed bat shapes out of a loaf of fluffy toast slice white bread and put them back in the airtight bread bag. Just before the party we spread them with a thin layer of softened butter and sprinkled with 100s&1000s. These would have looked extra awesome with yellow sprinkles instead. Mind you, the plate was clear in seconds so they must have had kid appeal as they were.

We used the bat bread off cuts to make our kids french toast for breakfast before the party began. I love the looks of pure delight they reward us with for the simplest things!

For his cake I baked two 9" chocolate cakes and sliced off their dome tops. I sandwiched them with a generous layer of orange buttercream made simple using orange flavacol (or you can buy pre-made coloured buttercream to use). Then I crumb coated the cake exterior with the same buttercream using a spatula and covered it in orange pettinice. I trimmed the excess but didnt need to be too picky making the base beautiful as it was to be covered up anyway. I used the bat cutter yet another time for the black logo stuck on top.

I used refill paper to mock up a cityscape and moved them all around until I was happy. I used them as pattern pieces to cut out black fondant buildings, which I stuck around with sugar glue. Little yellow fondant squares (made simple with a square plunger cutter) look like evening lights when placed randomly. Tall black candles completed the look.  

Here is the happy superhero with his birthday cake!

Yet another way I used the same bat cutter was creating iced cookies for take-home gifts. Little superheroes-in-the-making sure need loads of food for sustenance. I used my alphabet cutter set to personalise the cookies with our birthday boys name.

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

St Patrick's day chip n dip

The idea for this chip n dip started with firstly a need to create something for St Patrick's day

And secondly because our basil plant was reaching the end of the road, as it always does in summer - which always means it's pesto making time. (pesto recipe at bottom of blog post)

I found these great Farrah's Garden spinach wraps to make my own chips using a little mini shamrock cookie cutter

Simply cut the little shamrocks from the wraps. I got 24 per wrap

Spray with cooking spray or oil and shake over garlic salt, or just salt if you prefer. Bake 7 minutes at 180C, you do need to set a timer and watch them, they burn very easily.

The centrepiece for my chip n dip bowl, was a refreshing pesto sour cream. To get a pesto shamrock follow these simple steps.

Place your cookie cutter in the centre of your pesto sour cream.

Pack with pesto. Lift off. Chill immediately to solidify your shape.

A heaping great spoonful of pesto is mixed in to sour cream to create this super tasty dip. I mix in the container, so I can then spoon in to my clean bowl

To make my pesto, I pack my food processor bowl with basil leaves, add 2 cloves of crushed garlic along with the juice of 1 lemon (qty's need not be exact). Along with a 100g pack of parmesan and a good couple of handfuls of toasted nuts (pine nuts or walnuts whatever you have is fine). I turn my food processor on and down the shoot drizzle olive oil - I never use a fixed amount, just until the consistency looks right 

If ever there was a time to break out the retro "chip n dip" bowl, this would be it. Pile it up with your home made tortilla chips and you're ready to party. My hungry hordes declared these "A taste sensation!"