Red Velvet cupcakes in support of All Blacks rugby

I recently outed myself as a closet rugby fan. I attended the first Lions test match her in my hometown of Whangarei and have been glued to the TV ever since. Tonight the Lions take on the Maori All Blacks. I'll be perched on the edge of the couch screaming at the TV as all good rugby supporters like to do.

I seemed a good day for some rugby cupcakes. I'd been wanting to try the new Whittakers Full Eighty chocolate bars. Which consequently are very nice. Using Rainbow Dust edible metallic lustre dusts, I trialed "metallic dark silver" left, "metallic light silver" (middle) and "starlight silver saturn" (right) - whilst the beauty of each colour is hard to portray in the photo, my favourite was the "silver saturn". I dusted the lustre powder straight on to the chocolate and on to grey fondant silver ferns, made using this mould

I Wanted a black cream cheese icing for my red velvet cupcakes, so I first made a chocolate cream cheese icing to which I added black progel food coloruing . I find a good dark cocoa such as this one makes a nice dark buttercream/icing meaning you need less black food colouring to go from dark chocolate brown to black 

Recipe

125 grams softened buter

125g room temp cream cheese

4 cups icing sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

6 Tbsp water.

Beat together butter and cream cheese. Add. cocoa powder. Add 1 cup of icing sugar at a time and continue to beat. Add a little water after the addition of each cup of icing sugar.

If you do not want chocolate flavoured icing, omit cocoa powder and add a good squeeze of lemon juice instead.

Because I'm 99.9% sure the Maori All Black are going to come out on top It's black icing atop red cupcakes for me today

Easter Bunny Cake fun tutorial from Kiwicakes

This cake was so much fun to make, and it made everyone smile that saw it.

I wanted to be a little different and use a white bunny, which I dusted with Rainbow Dust Pearl Blush Pink. You simply brush it on dry and it sticks beautifully. 

The cake was 6'' in diameter and is over 6'' high. I sandwiched the two layers together with millionaires caramel and then used Bakels white truffle to coat the cake. I went for a semi-naked cake look. I then added Rainbow Dust Caribbean Blue dust to more white truffle and mixed to form this lovely blue shade for the drip effect. I popped it in to a piping bag, first piping a ring around the outside and allowing it to drip. Once set, I then filled in the centre (if you cover the top and allow it to drip, you get too wide drips and too much dripping)

Before the truffle set, I sprinkled some Easter Sprinkle Medley around the rim of the cake - placing by hand some of the larger elements from the medley.

I couldn't decide at first on the final placement for my Easter plaque. In then end I placed it on the board.

I used some speckled candy eggs from the store, as well as dusting some plain white eggs (you can make these using this mould) with Rainbow Dust irridescent lilac fusion dust.

The shards were made by spreading melted Wilton candy melts on to baking paper and allowing to cool, then breaking up using my hands. Don't fret about waste, as any left over can simply be broken up for remelting another day

I used a sharp knife to cut a slit in the cake, then pushed the candy melt shards down in to the slit. It was certainly a quick cake to make, and a very effective finish with the help of some wonderful lustre powders and sprinkles.

Rocky Road Easter Eggs - a fun tutorial from Kiwicakes

These rocky road Easter eggs were fun to make and so easy even children could make them with you.

I used gluten free mini marshmallows in assorted pastel colours, as small bag of blanched almonds a 3d cracked Easter egg mould  and coloured Wilton candy melts.

The finished product I stuck to coloured cake cards, which are inexpensive yet look so pretty.

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The first step is to melt coloured candy melts in the microwave or on the stove top in a double boiler. I coated the inside of the mould using the back of a teaspoon. I hold it up to the light to look for any thin spots. Once satisfied I placed it int he fridge for ten minutes until cooled. 

Any left over candy melts can be spread on to parchment paper and cooled

They can then be broken up in to pieces for remelting another time

I used Malteser bunnies which I dusted with Rainbow Dust lustre dusts

Simply dust the powder dry over the chocolate, using a fluffy brush

To melted candy melts I added the marshmallows and blanched almonds

I placed a small amount of melted candy melts on to the cake card and placed the half egg on top to glue it in place. 

I spooned the rocky road mixture in to the egg half and pushed the bunny down in to the soft mixture. Over the top I sprinkled easter sprinkle medley

A Happy Easter Plaque finished him off.

Tutorial - Cute Gingerbread Cupcake toppers for Christmas

Today we have the final installment of Christmas cupcake toppers - the gingerbread man. From Lisa at the Whole Cake and Caboodle.

Roll stiffened fondant (with tylo) or gumpaste  out to a depth of around 4-5 mm thick. Overlay with a piece of gladwrap and stamp out required amount of heads using an approx. 4-5 cm round cutter. The gladwrap softens and rounds the edges. You don’t need to do this, its just a nice effect.

Mark mouth low on the face using the end of a scallop/arc/similar tool  and dot the ends of the smiles with a pointed tool to accentuate them.

Dust a circle on the cheeks using a small amount of Rainbow Dust Rose (or pearl blush pink for a lustre effect)

Dot eyes in the centre of the face using some black gel-paste and a toothpick. The toothpick dipped into the gel-paste then poked gently into the face gives even and controlled dots. (see earlier snowman tutorial for picture) Make some royal icing to your own recipe or by beating 1 size 6 egg white and approx. 1-1.25 cups of icing sugar together. I beat the egg white until foamy then add the icing sugar in two lots. This used about 1 cup but if you wish to have a stiffer mix to hold piped ruffled shapes you will need to add a little more. Pipe squiggly lines as shown - I have used a disposable bag with a tiny hole cut at the end. Cut some holly using the smaller of the threeleaf holly ejector plunger cutter set and glue to the face.

Indent the holly with a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush/whatever is handy, this is to help stop the berries rolling off the leaves when it comes to placing them Put a small amount of edible glue in the indent  and drop in a few red non-pareils between pinched fingers. Alternatively roll small balls of fondant for berries and place instead of the sprinkles. Another option is to pipe small red royal icing balls and in this case you don’t need to indent the leaf. If you have placed too many sprinkles use a dry brush to flick off excess or push into better positions.

NOTE : You can use normal fondant for all but fondant stiffened with tylo will make your work so much easier as it will easily keep its shape while working and dry quickly. You need to use enough tylo to get a bluetack feel to the icing.

Kiwicakes in "Kiwi As" sugar art collaboration

Recently I was involved in the "Kiwi-As" sugar art collaboration. I decided on an Andy Warhol inspired Tiki piece. I had the privilege of my piece being chosen for the banner of the facebook page. You can check that page out here and see all of the other great works by NZ decorators.

To create these little tiki faces I used this mould. I coloured gumpaste with progel colouring from Rainbow Dust.

Drip or drizzle effect is easy using "truffle"

Once baked this cake was literally decorated in under thirty minutes. I used our Kiwicakes caramel mud cake mix to bake the cake. Once cooled. I scraped buttercream icing around the sides and over the top, to give it a semi-naked appearance. 

The drip effect was created using Bakels truffle mix - it's super easy to use, you squeeze it right from the bottle on to a chilled cake and it sets within seconds. The drizzle effect took less than 2 minutes. The decorations are Hershey's Kisses chocolates, Lindt chocolate balls & Buzz Bars. I dusted them with lustre, dry straight from the pot, using Rainbow Dust metallic lustre

If you haven't tried our caramel mud cake mix, do try it. At tastings in store, it's proved hugely popular.

Yay Progel colouring really is my favourite

At the recent Cake and Craft show in Napier, I was joined by Stacey Johnson from Design at 409​ Stacey made some amazing display cakes for the Kiwicakes stand using a combination of Kiwicakes products and her special cake toppers. For those of you who were unable to attend in person and see these cakes up close, over the next few days I'll be sharing the photos with you here.

Stacey used progel gel paste colouring from Rainbow Dust for the vibrant colours in her cake. The Yay! cake topper was custom made by Stacey and really sums up how I feel about progel!

50th wedding anniversary cake by Kiwicaker Janette

This stunning golden wedding anniversary cake was created by Kiwicaker Janette Robinson. The party was originally intended to be held inside, so it was created as a hanging cake, with internal lights. However due to it being a glorious sunny winters day, the cake was taken outside along with the guests.

Janette has used a great many techniques including Claire Bowman's gold cake lace and Rainbow Dust gold paints & lustre to create the stunning effects shown here. Well done Janette we adore your birdcage cake.

Safari jungle animal cupcakes for a Zoo themed party

Jenny has been creating again!. She made these wonderful safari themed cupcakes for a jungle zoo party her young daughter was attending. I think she did an amazing job. She used zebra straight sided cupcake papers to bake her chocolate cupcakes. The buttercream swirls used a Wilton tri colour coupler fitted with a 1M piping nozzle.  

-Grey swirl  white buttercream tinted with Progel Grey with clear vanilla essence)

-Caramel swirl (CK white buttercream tinted with Progel Caramel with peppermint essence)

-Chocolate brown swirl (CK Chocolate buttercream, really nice tasting according to Jenny)

On top Jenny popped our zoo safari animals sugar icing decorations on top. Which are a quick fix for busy parents.

And they looked awesome in one of our black & white striped cupcake boxes