A Carrot for the Easter Bunny - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

These striking 'carrot' treats are packaged in a cake decorator's best friend - disposable piping bags. They come in a pack of 20 and are clear and unbranded, which make them perfect for this task. The individual piping bags work out at NZ$0.40c each, so they make a very economical packaging option.

Simply fill each piping bag with your goodies (e.g. orange jellybeans) and secure with a limey green curling ribbon.

A great portable treat, these 'carrots' are perfect for Easter gifting.

For those without a sweet tooth (strange people I must say! but they do exist) consider filling the piping bags with readily-available smallish orange cheese chips. Remember to tie the ribbon tight to keep the chips airtight and fresh and these can be prepared well in advance for picnics and outings.

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

Gingerbread Gals - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Here's a good activity for the school holidays. Kids love to help with all the steps in the process and the mixture makes 40, so you fill the weeks baking tin! 

First, prepare your cookie mix so it can relax in the fridge for half an hour before you start rolling.

Gingerbread Gal Mixture

Cream together:

125g softened butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix in:

1/2 cup treacle/molasses/golden syrup

1 egg yolk

Add the following to make a firm dough:

2&1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
2 Tablespoons ground ginger
1 Tablespoons mixed spice

Wrap dough in gladwrap, rest in the fridge and then you're ready to roll. Knead mixture for a minute until it's completely combined and glossy.

Roll out with your heaviest cake decorating rolling pin  until mixture is 3-4mm thick. Use a gingerbread cutter (set) to press out shapes. These 4 cutters have options of man, lady, boy and girl. I find an angled spatula is perfect to slip under the shapes and transfer them to your baking sheet without distortion. 

Bake at 175' for 6 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool. The cooking smells will make your mouth water.

Meanwhile, prepare your royal icing for decoration. Always keep the top surface covered with gladwrap until ready to use. Fill your reusable piping bag with coupler fitted so you can readily change the piping tip width for finer facial type detail.

I opted to use a royal icing mix that I just had to whip up with water. A great item to have on standby in the cupboard and leftover royal icing keeps fine in the fridge for a month.

Then let your creativity take over and create features for these gingerbread gals with the royal icing. While it's still wet you can add sugar pearls and sprinkles or cupcake candy bling for individuality.

These farmer gals have googly eyes and green grassy feet.

Spiderman Party Cupcakes - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

I have seen this effect in photographs before but never had a try myself - until today. With such bright colours it really is a simple and effective way of impressing Spiderman fans! I made a yummy golden cupcake for the design to sit on top of...

Cream 125 grams butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. Slowly add two large eggs, beating well throughout. Add 1/2 cup milk and a pinch of salt. Sift over 1+1/3 cups flour and 1+1/2 teaspoons baking powder. Mix again for 1-2 minutes until all combined and mixture is light and creamy. Spoon into black Foil Cases and bake at 175 degrees for about 15 minutes. Makes 12+ cupcakes. And our taste testers agree they are tops so you might be best to double everything and make 2 dozen!

When they have completely cooled, cut off the top dome so it is level with the top of the cupcake papers.

Mix up a simple butter icing to colour and spread over the cut surface...

Mix together with a bread and butter knife - 25 grams of butter melted, 3 tablespoons of boiling water, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence and 2 cups of icing sugar. This will achieve a runny consistency that will be easy to spread and pipe.

Colour 1/4 of the icing mixture black with a squirt of food grade colour and colour the remaining 3/4 with a good squirt of bright red. Spiderman fans will know if your colours end up pinkish or greyish (and guaranteed they will tell you!!) so its worth getting the right bright colourant.

Pop your black into a piping bag with a size 3 tip so you are ready to pipe. Its best to just work on one cupcake at a time so your icing is wet and the two colours blend nicely. Take a blob of red icing on your knife or spatula and cover the entire cut surface. Then work quickly with the black to pipe a generous dot in the middle of the red, as well as free handing three rough circles about 5mm apart as pictured above. It will look somewhat like a bulls eye. Then use a toothpick (or similar) to drag 8 equidistant lines from the middle of the cupcake to the outside.

If your icing firms up a little just give the red a few seconds in the microwave to bring it back to a nice runny consistency. By holding the black filled piping bag with the warmth of your hand for a minute it will do the same job.

And just like magic you have created a spider web effect. These can be made in any colour - and would also be good for halloween parties with a candy spider perched on top!

Another growing trend is to top cupcakes with icing decs We have them available in many of our different licensed ranges. Certainly a quick and easy way to echo your party's theme! Check out our party supplies page for over 50 differerent ranges of licensed party ware - everything from Strawberry Shortcake to John Deere Tractor!