Bubblegum Ice-Cream - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Make ice-cream in minutes using easy frost powder! Here it is presented in a dotty ice cream paper cup to match the shimmer pearl powder blue gumballs atop.

Simply measure 100g easy frost and 100ml water into a plastic screw top jar and shake to combine. Add 3ml bubblegum flavour and shake again. 

At this stage you can either pour it into your ice-cream maker and press start or simply beat with a handmixer for 1-2 minutes until it looks like whipped cream and freeze for 3 hours. Serves 2.

Rainbow Valentines Love - from Kiwicakes Test Kitchen

Today's rainbow coloured heart cookies are based on traditional cutesy valentines sweets. With the romantic day approaching we want to inspire all you bakers to get inventive and show your love through your craft!

The magic tools I used were LorAnns punchy flavoured oils and droppers, Progel food colouring, Heart Cutter  and most importantly the tiny alphabet Message Maker.

To make 6 coloured cookie doughs the total quantity of ingredients you will need is:

250g block of butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 tin condensed milk
6 cups flour + extra for dusting
baking powder, flavours and colours.

It is a big yield of 100+ cookies. It'd be too difficult to work in smaller quantities but you could reduce the number of coloured doughs you make. I figure you can never have too many cookies anyway and these freeze beautifully in snaplock bags for whenever you are ready. 

This project is not light on prep time, but don't let this put you off as the results are so worthwhile! A stand/hand mixer is essential. As a day-off activity this is the perfect way to show your love! Here is the finished product again for some motivation...

Rainbow Valentines Cookies (x6 mixtures)

Cream together: 75g softened butter, 1/3c sugar, 65g condensed milk, 6 drops LorAnn flavour oil and a small squirt of Progel colour.

Mix in: 1 scant cup flour and a rounded 1/4t baking powder to form a dough.

Repeat 6 times and wrap individual doughs in clingfilm until ready to use. Cookies take 10 mins to bake at 175`c.

The message maker is fantastic for personalising messages on any of your baking and cake decorating projects. The letters are 6mm tall so could be inconspicuous if you want them to be! I found that a pair of nail clippers worked well to snap off the joining tabs between the letter and alphabet pieces. It'd be worthwhile doing this job in advance to add such a versatile piece to your sugar craft kit. Also remember to enter the words you desire back-to-front in the stamp for a mirror image on your cookies (or fondant).

Roll your dough out onto a well-floured board til it is 1cm thick. Dust generously. Cut out heart shapes with the cutter but leave in their cavities. The surrounding dough will support the shape when a message is punched into it.

Stamp messages one line at a time. I found it easiest to line my two index fingers up with the extremities of the message to make sure they were centralised on each cookie. Use a long spatula to transfer cookies easliy to a lined baking tray.

Another hint is if you do your batches in a logical order, you wont need to wash your bowl or mixing blade or spatula in between colours!! I recommend starting with 1.Yellow 2.Tangerine 3.Pink 4.Purple 5.Ice Blue 6.Bright Green.

Here are the individual combinations I made - there are some AMAZING flavours available!

THAT SMILE - Ice Blue colour Progel with Lemonade flavour LorAnn Oil

4 EVA - Tangerine colour Progel with Mango flavour LorAnn Oil

TWEET ME - Yellow colour Progel with Banana Creme flavour LorAnn Oil

YOU ROCK - Pink colour Progel with Cotton Candy flavour LorAnn Oil

LETS KISS - Bright Green colour Progel with Pistachio flavour LorAnn Oil (Kiwicakes girls fav!)

YES DEAR - Purple colour Progel with Pomegranate flavour LorAnn Oil

These lovely treats are perfect paired with flavoured milk. Ours is presented in a cute glass milk bottle with a matching retro pink paper straw.

You can go crazy with the messages you personalise! My advice is to keep them short and sweet. Here are some other ideas...

CUTE STUFF - IM IN LOVE - FRIEND FOREVER - CALL ME - DREAM - HOPE - PEACE - MY  MAN - WRITE ME - HI LOVE - ANGEL - CUTIE PIE - MY WIFE - MARRY ME - ITS LOVE - CALL HOME - BE TRUE - HOME SICK - SMILE - THANK YOU - TRUE LOVE - YOU & ME - UR A TIGER - ONE KISS - DARLING - FIRST KISS - PUPPY LOVE - DARLING - BE MINE - ONLY YOU - LOVE LETTER - CUTE - HINT HINT - FOR EVER - HUG ME - LOVE BIRD - MAGIC - DARLING - LOVE IS SWEET - CUP CAKE - DARE YA - LOVER BOY - SWEET TALK - I WONDER - SWING TIME - TWO HEARTS - SOUL MATE - FRIEND ME - TEXT ME - XOXO - CRAZY 4 U - EMAIL ME - IM YOURS - FRIENDS - BFF - TRUE LOVE. 

Vanilla Cupcakes with raspberry buttercream icing - Kids in the kitchen

Many of you who follow my blog regularly will know my ten year old daughter Poppy loves to bake &  cook. These school holidays she's been taking every opportunity to get into the kitchen. The cupcakes above were made solely by Poppy, the only exception being I took them out of the oven for her and I was there to offer a small amount of advice (but only when asked!)

She seems to have a knack for subbing in-and-out ingredients and a good eye for when things are properly cooked. Although she started with a recipe, it's been changed along the way to suit her idea of what she wanted to achieve.

Poppy chose this recipe because Daddy likes vanilla and his favourite icing is raspberry. Our small boysenberry bush we've not long planted provided three berries to top the cupcakes (which were reserved especially for Daddy)

Ingredients:

Cupcakes
150g butter, softened 1 1/2 cups Caster Sugar 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla essence 2 1/2 cups self raising flour 1 1/4 cups milk
Buttercream Icing 100g butter, softened 2 1/2 cups Icing Sugar 6-8 raspberry flavacol 3 Tbsp milk

Sprinkles of your choice.

Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 175C. Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light & fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until fully combined. Add the sifted flour, milk and vanilla, beat until smooth. Half fill cupcake papers (supported in a cupcake pan).

Bake for 15 minutes until golden or until they spring back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool while you make your icing.

Buttercream Icing Method

Beat the butter until it is pale and fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the icing sugar, flavouring & milk until you have a light, fluffy mixture. Spread or pipe icing over cupcakes and top with sprinkles as desired.