Adding Value at Cake Stalls - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Our school has a gala day that that the community looks forward to all year. Families bake to fill cake boxes, which is no mean feat given the busyness of daily life! Often beautiful cakes come in covered in plain chocolate icing. Adding a few edible decorations brightens up a cakes appearance and injects some fun!

As cake decorators we can easily increase cake stall sales by dipping into our cake tool kit and shaping cute edible decorations with silicone moulds. Here are some bright daisy, roses and viola. There's no reason you can't marble colours together to create fantasy flowers.

Assorted colour buttons, bright yellow rubber ducks and native brown kiwi would all appeal to different customers. You can add a hardening agent (like tylose) to the fondant in these decorations but they hold their shape fine just stored single-layer in a breathable box.

This set of four different crucifix can look even more jewellery-like when brushed with some edible metallic ginger glow or mocha shimmer lustre dust. The farm animals mould of sheep, pig and cow easily pops out great cartoon faces.

Other decorations like a floppy bunny, an underwater seahorse or a keen gardeners gumboot will all appeal to somebody and bring joy to customers faces!

Fun plaques to finish cakes - Tutorial Tuesday

There are a variety of plaque shapes out there to use and one of the most fun is the plunger set with the quilted embossed panels. These can be used in so many colour ways and designs as they are, or combining with silicone moulds and alphabet cutters. The following gives some ideas as well as combinations of tools to achieve the example shown. These can be used on cookies as well as cakes

The single plaque plunger 7.5 x 4.5 should be able to be used in all these designs although there may be a slight difference in fitting some of the embellishments

1 Using plaque plunger size 8 x 4.5 cm from the set of four plaque cutters cut a black embossed shape from gumpaste or stiffened fondant.

2 Paint the embossed lines if you wish to highlight them. Here I have used a mix of the gold's from the metallic paint range. It is easier to paint by lightly rubbing the side of the paintbrush over the raised edges rather than directly trying to paint the thin lines with the end of the brush. Any mistakes can be cleaned up with a cotton bud dipped in vodka or similar alcohol. The frame edges were also painted

3 Using the curlicues cutter make two of each shape and glue them like so to make a frame for the plaque. Once the curlicues are painted the plaque frame blends in with them to add extra depth.

4 Letters can now be added if required - this plaque will easily hold two alphabet initials around 15mm high or less of whatever alphabet type you have available

5 Using plaque plunger 7.5 x 4.5 cm cut a white shape from gum paste or stiffened fondant. This can be embossed with the quilted panel if you wish. Also mould the large bow in the "ribbon bows" silicone mould out of pale pink gumpaste and cut the letters BABY from the clikstixs range from a mixture of "small uppercase" and "small lowercase" or all uppercase

6 Glue together as shown

7 Using plaque cutter 7 x 4 cut required plaque shape. Using the Wilton baroque mould, make the following shapes 2 left and 2 right of the scroll shape. They are the ones shown left (partially) and right directly under the string of pearls at the top of this photo

8 Stretch the curl out as shown and glue to the frame of the plaque, curling the ends where needed to make sure it wont overlap with the curl on the other side once its placed into position.

9 Make a left and a right of the smallest baroque curl and glued them in this position

10 The frame was then painted with a mix of the metallic gold paints

11 Another mould with so many combinations and small embellishments is this one the "tiny decorative features" mould. The pearl string makes an ideal border embellished by the shapes as shown. The small bow can also be used or make a border using one of the flower designs for a pretty alternative.

I hope this inspires you all to further ideas and designs, we would love to see what you come up with!

Silicone moulds - uses tutorial and tips

Silicone moulds, some love love LOVE them, and for others they are the bane of your existence. They look great in the pictures, but when you try to un-mould them they suffer distortion or they stick and break. Don’t panic this is for you and hopefully will help solve some, if not all of your problems. There are three different moulds used with the basic process being the same. Each mould has different areas where problems can occur. Please be aware though that we all have troubles at times it's natural but it's also fixable!

Step 1 Get your silicone mould, fondant and CMC/tylose. I mix at a ratio of around 1 tsp of CMC/tylose per 250gms of fondant, to make a suitable modelling paste. Weather and colour can affect this though so the best way I can describe the finished texture is like blue tack. If you pull some blue tack from its paper holder its quite stiff but elastic. You need a paste that is stiff like that with an elastic quality. If your modelling paste is to soft you will have problems, so add more tylose. If it's too stiff add a small amount of fondant to loosen it up.

Step 2 I dust my moulds with cornflour, make sure you get into every little corner and then tip the mould to expel any excess

Step 3 Use a piece of stiffened paste that is a little bigger than what you require and start pushing into the mould. Its best to start at the larger portion of the mould or in this case with the flow of the detail. I am pushing it in in the same direction as the leafy side details flow.

Step 4 Keep pushing it into the mould gradually filling it and pushing well to ensure you get all detail

Step 5 When you get near the end tear off the majority of the excess paste and finish filling up the mould removing the final excess

Step 6 If your mould has a little too much and you have made the back lumpy then you can trim with a sharp knife in a sawing action. If you just slice you may drag the paste out of the mould. Make sure all detail is showing and that you haven't got any paste overflowing the mould edges, use your finger or a small tool to ensure the edges are clean and the paste is pushed back into the mould

Step 7 Gently flex the edges of the mould…all around ….from every angle. This ensures the paste is loose and isn't going to grab into the moulds nooks and crannies as you try and remove it. If you have a small part that doesn’t want to move you can use a pokey tool to get it out. This is one of my favourite all time tools from LVCC.

Step 8 Finished moulded paste will just drop out…truly!

Step 9 Some moulds like this fabulous pukeko have quite small details. Start at the larger body part and fill that cavity first heading towards the skinny legs. I always push away from myself which is why this is upside down!

Step 10 Remove most of the paste and push gently into the small channels. If you remove too much make a thin sausage of paste and press into the gaps. A little pressure at the join will meld it together and you wont see it when it unmoulds. This also works the same way with the strap of a handbag mould

Step 11 Flex to loosen at the main body and gently at the legs. The body is the part that will be unmoulded first. If you try to get the legs out they will stretch and distort. You should see that it is all moving away from the mould.

Step 12 Remove body from mould, the legs may stay depending upon the angle you unmould it but a little flex in a different direction should  loosen them. If it doesn’t the pokey tool will gently flick them out.

Step 13 Reposition legs in correct place to dry if they move when they come out

Step 14 Some moulds like this pohutukawa one have a lot of detail and also vary in depth. This is quite deep around the flowers and very shallow at the leaves and stalk.. Make sure you brush it well with cornflour

Step 15 If you have hollows once you have pushed in your paste make sure you even out the surface with added paste balls pushed flat so the end result will sit cleanly on whatever surface you want to stick it to

Step 16 Loosen the paste at the thicker part. If its slightly stuck in the nodules you may be able to flick it free with a paintbrush dusted with cornflour

Step 17 If you have removed the paste from the mould and have a distorted part somewhat, push that part back into the mould to reform. Here I squashed the stalk a little and a leaf fell off. The stalk I reformed by pushing back into the mould at that point. The leaf I dealt with after

Step 18 Shows the stalk all reformed and the leaf I have pressed gently back onto the mould with a small hard tool.

If you have sticking and stretching as you unmould add more tylose to the paste as its likely too soft, if it feels sticky you will have issues!

Also make sure you dust the mould well, if you push paste in and it sticks in an area unmould and redust. You may be able to resurrect the unmoulded part by gently pushing it back in to reform.

If you are struggling to push the paste into the mould then loosen it up a little with some fondant, you will get the feel for what works. Don't give up you do need to play a few times to get the feel for the paste and using a mould

There are also release agents that you can rub a little onto the mould - I don't use them but they may be what you prefer

If none of the above helps you can put the mould in the freezer until firm. You should also be able to unmould easily. You should unmould onto baking paper or a dusted surface as it will sweat as it comes to room temperature before it dries out and may stick to the surface you have placed it upon if you don’t. All the best 

New Kiwiana moulds in stock at Kiwicakes

Today I'm thrilled to be sharing with your three new silicone moulds joining the Kiwicakes kiwiana range The Pohutukawa sure to be popular for Christmas as well as weddings.

Both the caravan and the pukeko are kiwi classics.

These have been right manufactured right here in NZ, to our specifications.

Poppy cupcake toppers - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Bake for ANZAC day this year and present your delights in these Black Lace cupcake papers. They really set off the center of the poppy.

The topper is formed using this new Poppy silicone mould. To begin, season the mould with a thin smear of Perfect Finish Decorating Cream by rubbing a smear all around. This ensures your topper will unmould with ease. Fill the centre with a tiny circle of black fondant and the leaf cavity with some green fondant as pictured. Lastly push in your red fondant to fill the mould (I used Satin Ice).

Once you have all your materials in front of you it takes no time at all to make these en masse to decorate for an army. As an indication it took me 10 minutes to make 6 poppies.

Order your poppy mould in advance of ANZAC day now!

Handyman's Birthday - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

My dad has always been good at fixing things and taught us kids how to find our way around a toolbox too. He loves to tinker in his garage and emerges with beautifully crafted wooden items. So when it came to this years' birthday I thought what better way to celebrate his skill than with edible tools!

I made his AJ initials with capital letters from this alphabet cutter set. I also adapted the letter S into a number 5 by shaving off one curved edge to straight and a H was easily transformed into a number 4.

The tools were wee blobs of grey fondant pushed into this Silicone Tools Mould and painted with light gold, red and dark silver metallic food paint.

Happy Birthday Dad!

St Paddys Leprechaun - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

This crazy little leprechaun is achieved with a silicone mould, which has arrived just in time for St Paddy's day! Its just a case of pressing fondant in, snap-freezing him, then finishing with the detailing. He is presented a top these cool shamrock cupcake papers. 

Firstly with any new mould, give it a wash in hot water and let it air-dry. Then season it with a smidgen of crisco vegetable shortening for guaranteed easy-release. Use tiny balls of flesh coloured fondant and press them into your little man's face, ears, hand and pot as pictured above. Roll a thin sausage for the pot's handle and press into place. I love this pre-coloured fondant for skin tone because so many times I have mucked around with a small amount of my peaches and browns and can't seem to get the colour quite right. It also works well as a warm base colour for edible metallic light gold paint as you will see further down the blog.

Next I pressed green satinice fondant into the remainder of the mould.. He only weighs a few grams when completed so we are only talking about tiny amounts of fondant here! When the cavities are full, sit the mould in your freezer for a couple of minutes to firm up the fondant before turning out to release the funny little leprechaun and clover leaf. Release the feet from the leprechaun mould first and then the rest of his body will follow. Use a scalpel to do any microscopic tidying if your skin tone and green have spread a millimeter or two in the wrong direction.

I used light gold metallic paint and the finest paintbrush to highlight his little pot of gold. When he has been at room temperature for a good half an hour he will have hardened with a slight crust all over. Now its time to add wee dots for his eyeballs with an airforce blue edible marker pen and his smile with a red edible marker pen. I tried to do the facial features on mine too early when they were still too 'fresh' and ended up with less-than-perfect lines so it is worth waiting if you have that luxury.

The shamrock silicone mould (included alongside the leprechaun) is super-simple to use and looks really effective with these themed cupcake papers.

You could jazz these cupcakes up even further with the addition of some sprinkles. L-R...

Emerald green non-pareils, Shamrock mix sprinkles, Lime green gloss lustre jimmies.

You will be a hit in the office if you arrive with a tray full of these green goodies next Monday!