Laura's favourite modelling tool - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

I began cake decorating using a sharp knife to tidy the base of my cakes but it came with the risk of creating unwanted incisions in the fondant and board.

Then I discovered this PME cutting wheel which achieves the tidiest of finishes and is a breeze to use. It is pictured here on blue marbled fondant for a fisherman's cake (to simulate water) that I made. You can see the precision lines it cuts when rolled through fondant icing. It is most commonly used in petal and leaf construction or for freehand shapes.

We also stock a fondant trimmer wheel which is great for those bigger cutting jobs.

Great new cupcake icing tips in stock now

For those of you that love your 1M piping nozzle, we now have 2M and 3M available for $6.50 each here
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Make your cupcake swirls bigger and better than ever before!

It's not just for cupcakes, the larger tips are great for other confections too such as pies!

Oh So cute reindeer pop - using heart mould

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This cake pop tutorial for reindeer cake pops comes from the manufacturer of the awesome cake pop moulds we sell. Look what an upside down heart can make!

Supplies you will need. 

In addition you might need a black candy colour (for the mouth) and red colour dust (for the cheeks) and a couple of chocolate melts (for the eyes).

Dip the heart into the candy melts and right before dry add pretzels then let dry.

The Bow is two jumbo hearts facing each other. A drop of candy melts in the center and stick on the green sprinkle.

New cake pop moulds

 I was thrilled to open the boxes that arrived today, which contained the new release set of cake pop moulds because they are just so darn cute! This is definitely my Christmas present to myself.

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New My Little Cupcake Pop mould

Kiwicake's is proud to be New Zealand's first stockist for the My Little Cupcake Pop mould 

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Just in time for Christmas priced at $12.95 This mould is attractively packaged, it would make a super cute gift of it's own.

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 It's for birthdays too!

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It takes a bit to get me super-excited!

I shall try to refrain from using too many superfluous exclamations while raving about this new product. But I am so terribly super excited it may be a little difficult. The lovely Annabelle from Simmer Catering introduced me to this new product last week, I told her right away, it was something I wanted to share with you all. Well I won't beat around the bush............ I will get on and tell you about it.

This amazing range of fruit powder and freeze dried fruit, is a taste explosion in your mouth. It tastes divine, it looks wonderful and the moment I saw it, what seemed like a thousand ideas started rolling around my head.

These whole/sliced fruits and fruit powders are made from high quality, ripe and sweet fruit and then freeze-dried to produce intensely flavoured fruits and powders. Add the powders to icings, to your favourite brulee mix or smoothies. Chocolate dip the whole/sliced fruits, crumble them over ice cream, add to your cereal or just eat them as they are. There are 10 flavours in the retail range and they are all packed in re-sealable foil bags. The colour is intense and the strawberries when used in things such as rocky road, keep their wonderful sliced appearance (no mushing like fresh fruit)

These wonderful fruits have recently appeared in Gourmet Traveller magazine's Hot 100, Cuisine magazine, and they even featured on NBC's today show in the USA as a hot new product - which is no small feat for this wonderful product from li'l ole NZ.

Whilst I had a heap of ideas racing around my head - the very first thing I wanted to try was raspberry buttercream. I frequently make raspberry buttercream, I usually use frozen fruit (with or without seeds). It takes a little while to mash the frozen berries through a sieve for the seedless variety and the juice makes it a bit messy. This in comparison was a breeze. I found the buttercream intensifies slightly in flavour overnight, which in my opinion was great. I loved it in the evening and adored it in the morning. (photos to follow of my icing on cupcakes)

I am keen to also give the raspberry meringues a go, the recipe comes from Meredith's Restaurant and is available on a recipe card for anyone wanting to try this.

Which fruit do you fancy?. What would you make?

4 new designs in the clikstix range

For those of you that love our clikstix cutters, you'll be pleased to know today I've added the 4 new releases to the Kiwicakes range. These are multi circles, multi squares, sports & multi bows.

 If you've never used a clikstix cutter before, you don't know what you're missing - the strip cutters have a built in ejector, so that if any icing does not immediately release, you can press the ejector and it drops clear of the cutter. Click here for the new clikstix designs.

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Is anyone making shortbread for Christmas?

This year Christmas day celebrations will be held at our house, as the family comes to us. Which means I will be making shortbread. For anyone that remembers this post it will be that recipe I follow, and I will be sure to use Grandad's shortbread mould for at least one batch, but this year I'm pretty thrilled with my selection of Shortbread moulds, all new at Kiwicakes for 2012 - I might have to give another shape a try. Deciding which will be the hard part. Maybe I'd better let the kids choose. 

Our range of moulds are used to shape the dough, you wouldn't normally bake in them, but if you prefer to, they are oven safe.

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New Metallic edible food paints are here - 14 colours

These metallic food paints have actually been years in the making - I've been waiting with baited breath all this time and they are finally here! The best bit is YOU WASH YOUR BRUSH IN WATER - no pricey isopropyl alcohol required for brush cleaning.

• Radiant Metallic Paint
  
• Ready To Use
  
• Easy-to-clean your equipment after use
  
• Once dry the lustre pigment is sealed within the surface - no dust or smudges!
  
• Apply with a brush for fine detail work
  
• Apply with an EasyCover sponge for large area coverage (may require 2 coats)
  
• Use with an airbrush for a smooth finish (No need to thin)
  
  
  Coverage Guide: Using the EasyCover Sponge, we used half a bottle (approx 12ml) of paint to cover an 8 inch round cake (3 inch deep) which was sat on a 10 inch drum, also covered in sugarpaste. We applied 2 coats to get an even metallic finish.

Preparation: Rinse the sponge under tap water and squeeze dry. It will become soft and ready to use.

How To Use: Pour the Rainbow Dust Food Paint on to a paint pallet and gently press the sponge in to it. Now simply apply to your surface with a gentle dabbing motion. Leave to dry (approx 30mins) and build up with more coats to achieve the required finish. (2 coats is usually enough)

Cleaning: Simply wash the sponge under warm water. The dye from the paint may stain the actual sponge but this will not effect future usage.

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New Monkey cookie cutters in stock at Kiwicakes

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I just adore these new monkey face ccokie cutters in stock at Kiwicakes. Special thanks go to Lisa from The Whole Cake & Caboodle for the photo of cookies she made using these cutters.

Satin ice fondant colour mixing chart

Click to enlarge & print this awesome colour mixing chart for Satin ice fondant. Make a huge range of awesome colours from the standard Satin ice range.

How I colour my paua shells

I frequently get asked how I colour my paua shells (made using the paua shell moulds specially commissioned by Kiwicakes), after having explained it at length many times, I thought a photo tutorial might be quicker. If you need to know how to use a silicone mould see here

--> . The photos above have white hologram glitter on top of brown sugar, to look like twinkling sand on a hot sunny day.

My paua shells above I made using Dark Chocolate Satin Ice Fondant (you can use any colour, although colours don't show up well on white, or you can use melted chocolate and wait for it to set.) I greased my moulds with crsico, so I wouldn't have cornflour to dust off the dark colour fondant, this gives them a nice shine too.

I start with at least 5 colours of lustre, 1 blue, 1 green, 1 pink, 1 purple and the essential secret to making them come alive 1 gold (I often use more colours, but 5 is the minimum)

I line my paua up, open any colour of lustre and cover all of the pauas in random splats of that colour.

I repeat this process until of the paua are completely covered in splats of colour. At this stage, they look ridiculous.

Taking a large brush, sweep all of the dust off in one direction only, this blends the paua colours in one quick swift motion. I find the paper towel works well to stop excess floating around.

They are so quick and easy to make for cupcakes or cakes

They look good placed among other seashells & corals

And when required, even look good in paler tones, to match other colourways

The Daisy collection makes all these great flowers

The newly arrived Daisy Collection cutter sets, makes all of these great flowers from FMM. Better yet, you can download their instruction sheet here on how to make them all.  This set is great value at only 14.50

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Satin Ice fondant is here in New Zealand!

SATIN ICE is a ready to roll fondant icing. It is available in White, Ivory, and Pre-coloured. All varieties have a lovely vanilla taste. There is also a dark chocolate flavour/colour. In New Zealand we also know this icing to be called under different brands or names

- Plastic Icing

- RTR Icing

- Pettinice

SATIN ICE also makes a Gum Paste (known as modelling paste or sugar flower paste in NZ) which sets hard.

The finest cake shops, bakeries and patisseries use Satin Ice products to complete their works of edible art...from birthday, wedding and special event and novelty cakes to cupcakes and cookies or as stand-alone sugar figurine displays.

Some of the world's renowned cake designers and sugar artists call Satin Ice their brand of choice for rolled fondant and gum paste. Satin products can be seen on a multitude of cable and satellite TV food shows such as "Ace of Cakes" (Food Network), "Cake Boss" (TLC), "Food Network Challenge", "Ultimate Cake Challenge" (TLC) and more. The finest cake shops, bakeries and patisseries use Satin Ice products to complete their works of edible art . . . from birthday, wedding and special event and novelty cakes to cupcakes and cookies or as stand-alone sugar figurine displays.

Zero grams trans fats, Zero grams Cholesterol

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free

Contains no animal-derived ingredients.

Certified Kosher Pareve

Made in the USA and are highly profitable to the baker.

Signature Features

The signature flavour is unmatched: Mellow, Smooth & Creamy NEVER chewy.

The chocolate fondant, with its "Tootsie aroma" and flavour, is a favourite.

Excellent elasticity when rolled out, easy to handle and seemingly unbreakable.

The satin-fine texture allows it to be rolled very thin.

Made in the USA, ensuring a fresh, consistent product.

Satin Ice is Certified kosher pareve, providing access to a broader market.

Dependable Performance

When modeling decorations, your pieces will dry just as you intended. Satin Ice will not overdry and crack.

Seals the cake, keeping it moist and fresh and increasing the shelf life of the cake.

Your finished cake may be refrigerated or frozen once covered.

Satin Ice exclusive Gum Paste formula adds even more decorative possibilities. Use alone or as an add-in to your Satin Ice fondant to create stronger pieces where you need them.

 

Click here for video Testimonials from Buddy Valastro (Cake Boss), Ron Ben-Israel, Anne Heap (Pink Cake Box) & more.

Click here for heaps of instructional "how to" videos from Satin Ice

I'm in love with this new shoe cutter set

Just landed today and I'm in love, with this new shoe cutter set.

Includes Sole Former, Heel Former & Shoe Cutter. The kit comes with 16 stage by stage pictures/instructions, along with shoe sole cutter and a former to allow your sole to dry in a glamourous shoe shape!

The heel mould is made of high quality silicone and features locking buttons, to ensure your 2 halfs of the heel match well. The plastic former allows you to get the perfect shape when drying the sole.Templates are included for the different shoe styles which makes the BEST SHOE on the market!

THE SIZE OF THE FINISHED SHOE IS APPRX 12CM LONG AND 5CM HIGH