Creating Opulence with Cake Lace - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

My good friend had a significant birthday recently that I wanted to make special for her. I had been intrigued by the cake lace phenomenon, since experiencing it with Anna Maria recently at the Cake and Craft Show in Auckland. I was keen to give it a go myself and see what all the hype is about.

Her party was at a Thai restaurant so I wanted the cake to look opulent and be in keeping with the surrounds. I used an edible gold cake lace premix and spread it over some lace trim moulds we had in the test kitchen. 

I found the process was really straightforward using a cake lace spreader and was surprised how far the product goes- you really don't use much at all! At a guess I'd say I used 6-7 tablespoons for all the gold lace you see. Each strip I did eased out of the moulds without bother. The trick is to make sure its fully dried before you invert it and guide it out with the clean, dry spreader. Mine took 12 mins each in the oven.

Once the lace strips were all made I dabbed the reverse of the lace with a little edible glue on the thicker parts of the lace design. I was amazed at how well it stuck to the sides of the cake. You simply place it on and it stays.

The designs pictured below I didn't actually end up using but I did a couple of strips to try. L to R the lace trim moulds are: Evening, Charlene and lastly a heart border. We have over 100 cake lace mats in stock currently so there are designs to suit any occasion. Check out the full category here.

A feature on top of the cake was using my alphabet cutter set to personalise it with a name. Not everybody wants to have their new age splashed on top so this was a nice alternative. The uppercase alphabet cutters have been one of my favourite investments since I began decorating. In this case I pressed them onto the cake lace to indent and then snipped around carefully. I love continually finding ways to utilise my existing gear. Happy birthday friend!

Glow in the dark cake - from Kiwicaker Sonja Bodley

This awesome Ariel The little Mermaid sea themed cake was made by Kiwicaker Sonja Bodley using our fluorescent colouring. Under black light, the cake glows in the dark. I think she did an amazing job.

Have you used Kiwicakes products to make a cake. Send us your pics, From time to time we post them here on the blog.

Whatever your passion Kiwicakes will see you right

Did you know we've an ENORMOUS range of cookie cutters. Whether your passions, is owls elephants horses or anything in between we've got you sorted.

Batman Boys Party - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Our eldest recently turned 7 and he requested a superhero party with a batman cake. Decisive children sure make party planning easy! I decided to buy a bat cutter to make my life easier, safe in knowing that I could use it multiple ways for maximum value. You can copy my spider man tablecloth idea with a similar spider web table cover we stock here at Kiwicakes.

On the party morning we pressed bat shapes out of a loaf of fluffy toast slice white bread and put them back in the airtight bread bag. Just before the party we spread them with a thin layer of softened butter and sprinkled with 100s&1000s. These would have looked extra awesome with yellow sprinkles instead. Mind you, the plate was clear in seconds so they must have had kid appeal as they were.

We used the bat bread off cuts to make our kids french toast for breakfast before the party began. I love the looks of pure delight they reward us with for the simplest things!

For his cake I baked two 9" chocolate cakes and sliced off their dome tops. I sandwiched them with a generous layer of orange buttercream made simple using orange flavacol (or you can buy pre-made coloured buttercream to use). Then I crumb coated the cake exterior with the same buttercream using a spatula and covered it in orange pettinice. I trimmed the excess but didnt need to be too picky making the base beautiful as it was to be covered up anyway. I used the bat cutter yet another time for the black logo stuck on top.

I used refill paper to mock up a cityscape and moved them all around until I was happy. I used them as pattern pieces to cut out black fondant buildings, which I stuck around with sugar glue. Little yellow fondant squares (made simple with a square plunger cutter) look like evening lights when placed randomly. Tall black candles completed the look.  

Here is the happy superhero with his birthday cake!

Yet another way I used the same bat cutter was creating iced cookies for take-home gifts. Little superheroes-in-the-making sure need loads of food for sustenance. I used my alphabet cutter set to personalise the cookies with our birthday boys name.

With the release of our Old Master wafer paper prints, I couldn't wait to marry them up with our picture frames mould. The moulds are made with yellow fondant, to which I added a little tylose to harden. The wafer paper pictures are attached with edible glue and painted with Rainbow Dust edible metallic paint light gold & dark gold. (I did 2 coats)

Horse cake - with party pony cake pan

My children have a cute little horse you may have seen pictures of here on the blog named Gingy. So I wasn't surprised when Miss 12 asked for a horse cake for her birthday. "The same colour as Gingy please Mum!". I got off lightly this year, as she wanted the Wilton Party Pony cake pan for her cake, these pans make life so easy for a busy mum, if you're happy piping buttercream, then it's just like colouring in. I used the buttercream recipe from our FAQ

Our little Gingy is too small to ride, so we headed to the local riding centre with a group of Miss 12's friends and had a fun party there with a group of larger horses and a one hour riding lesson.

Kiwicakes new custom edible image printing as film strips

This cake I made last week for my gorgeous friend Vanessa who celebrated her 40th birthday on Saturday night. On top is a kettle bell (weight) for those who don't know what it is. This cake was paired with red colorflame candles that burn red when lit. I used our newedible image film strip service to create this cake. The cake is covered with Satin Ice fondant and has gumpaste roses added

Sugar free cupcakes and buttercream icing with Natvia

The good folks at Natvia again sent me some of their product to try out and give away to you my readers (see competition at bottom of page). Whilst you could make the sweeping statement my life at Kiwicakes revolves around sugar, many of our cake decorators are having to deal with allergies & intolerances for their family, friends or customers special diets Just this past week, I've been asked about vegan baking, gluten free baking, lactose free icings and sugar free baking for a diabetic. As well as ingredients for a lady with Crone's disease. I don't claim to be any expert on any of these things, however I endeavour to do my best to help out.

So I was intrigued to try the new Natvia icing mix - opening the pack, it looks just like icing sugar. When the icing is mixed up, it looks and behaves just like a pipeable buttercream, so for cake decorators it's very easy to use.

I made two different cupcakes. The first "Black Walnut" and the second "Bavarian Cream". Both used the two recipes below for the buttercream icing and the basic chocolate cupcake recipe below.

For the Black Walnut

Add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts to the cake batter, along with 1/4 tsp of Lorann oil Black Walnut flavour. For the buttercream icing add 4-6 drops (to your taste) to the buttercream icing and stir until well combined. Garnish cupcakes with chopped walnuts.

For the Bavarian cream

Let me first describe Bavarian cream for those who don't know the flavour, it's a wonderful toffee-ish, caramelly super yummy flavour. I add 1/2 tsp Lorann oil Bavarian cream flavour to the cake batter recipe below and 4-6 drops of Bavarian cream flavour to the buttercream icing recipe. My cupcakes in the photo are garnished with a fondant flower, which is not sugar free, but for the most part, they are removed prior to eating by most people, as the taste is not great.

I made a chocolate buttercream using

125g butter whipped in the stand mixer until light and fluffy

To which I added the Natvia icing mix, 3 Tbsp milk 1/2 cup sifted cocoa. Whip until smooth.

To make the cupcakes, I altered my chocolate cupcake recipe swapping out the sugar for the Natvia

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (use baking cocoa, not drinking cocoa)

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup Natvia

2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

Method

1 Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.

2 In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.

3 Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cupcakes iced and baked with Natvia certainly taste different to those baked with sugar, it's a little hard to describe the flavour, there's almost a cooling quality to the icing - I think it's something you need to try for yourself.

Competition: Enter to win one of 5 boxes of Natvia icing mix delivered anywhere in NZ. You receive one entry for commenting here and one entry for commenting on our facebook post. Tell me have you ever tried sugar free baking was it a success?. 5 winners will be drawn at random Tuesday 28th April

New edible image printing service at Kiwicakes

Now available at Kiwicakes. Custom edible image icing printing for cakes. Choose from a4 rectangle 19cm diameter circle or 12 cupcake circles. We can print your own logo, photo or picture directly on to our edible icing sheets Click here for more details 

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!

Bronchiectasis Foundation launch here in Northland 7th April 2015

Yesterday was a very special day here in Northland with the launch of the Bronchiectasis Foundation the Culmination of a dream of Esther Jordan-Muriwai. Yesterday would have been Esther's 25 birthday. Sadly she passed away 10 months earlier. Family, friends, health professionals, dignitaries and the Governor General, Lieutenant General Sir Jerry Mateparae acknowledged her courage and determination during the launch event.

Katie pictured above also has Bronchiectasis. You may remember Katie from December 2013 when I made her 10th birthday cake for Operation Sugar. (you may also have seen her in Countdown supermarket ads, the local paper and other Bronchiectasis awareness campaigns)

Earlier this year the Whangarei Cake Guild had the pleasure of meeting Esther's parents Camron and Ana. They came along to one of our monthly meetings and told us Esther's story of bravery and perseverance living with this terrible illness. I had tears in my eyes listening to Esther's story and immediately my mind went to my young friend Katie, as she battles with Bronchiectasis every day. Esther's parents asked if as a club we'd be prepared to create a cake for the launch of Esther's dream the Bronchiectasis Foundation. Of course as a club we all wanted to help. The stunning cake you see is a group effort from many members. I was proud to get involved, in fact I was bursting at the seams to help. Kiwicakes donated the cake supplies needed to make this cake. Every member had a different job. Mine was to cover and emboss the cake board (using an impression mat). The Whangarei Cake guild was represented at the event yesterday by Anne & Megan, who both contributed to making the wonderful cake (Megan baking & covering, Anne was one of the rose makers and cake transporter - many other members helped to produce this stunning cake).

You can read more about this wonderful event and Esther's dream here in a Northern advocate newspaper story
You can watch the story on Seven Sharp TV Show here and see the lovely Katie being interviewed and on Maori TV here
If you want to know more about Bronchiectasis you can check out the Northland support group facebook page here 
Photos used with permission - Lisa Reed.

Chocolate Melting moments

If you follow this blog regularly you'll know I've been on a mission to teach my youngest to bake & cook. After trying these melting moments we decided to try chocolate ones. This recipe was given to me by my friend Steph over 20 years ago - I was shocked to realise it's been that long since I made them.

They are just as easy as the original type to make

Ingredients

250g butter

1/3 Cup icing sugar

1 1/4 Cups flour

1/2 Cup Cornflour

These can be sandwiched together with chocolate ganache or a simple chocolate butter icing.

Beat together butter and icing sugar until pale & fluffy. Stir in sifted dry ingredients. Line a tray with baking paper. Roll in to small balls and flatten with the back of a fork. Bake at 180C for 10-12 mins. Cool on tray before sandwiching together with your choice of icing.

Bring a Plate Minis - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

This bright offering always goes down well at parties. They are the perfect bite size so never any waste! Your favourite cake recipe will make dozens in mini cupcake papers.

Simply top with a little swirl of easy frost icing and place a special lolly on top to hide the peak. I used gumballs this time but we have all sorts of old fashioned lollies to suit your theme. Think snails, coins, strawberries, pigs, aliens, hearts, bats, teeth, leaves etc...

Another easy way to lift a standard cupcake is to give it a light spray of colour mist. No need for an airbrush here! I used yellow and it gently highlights the peaks of the easy frost swirl. Great to have on hand for a little pop of fun!

Bugs - Oh Baby magazine

Exciting!. Today I just got the latest copy of Oh Baby! magazine. And Kiwicakes is featured as the cookie cutter supplier for this awesome bugs party.

I wish my kids were small

Chelsea Buns - My family recipe journey

Until now I'd never made Chelsea buns before, I'd more than eaten my fair share of them. If you've followed my family recipe journey over the years, you'll know my Grandad was an amazing baker. He used to make these for me (even my own special batch, with no raisins, which as a child I didn't like in my buns)

These were easy to make and made the house smell amazing. They were enjoyed by guests. for morning tea - just as well, as the recipe made tons.

I've searched all of the family recipe books and I simply cannot find the recipe, so I used a recipe from our good friends at Chelsea (reprinted with their permission)

Emily's Chelsea Buns

Ingredients Dough
1kg high grade flour
20g salt
50g softened butter
100g Chelsea White Sugar
25g instant active dried yeast
1 small egg
600ml warm water or milk

Filling
50g melted butter
3 Tbsp Chelsea Soft Brown Sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ cup sultanas

Icing
1 cup Chelsea Icing Sugar
Hot water

Raspberry essence to colour and flavour icing pink (my addition)

Method

To make dough:
Place all the dough ingredients into a large mixing bowl, then using a wooden spoon combine the ingredients together until a dough mass has formed.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic in feel. Kneading is the trick here!
Lightly oil a bowl large enough to allow the dough to double in bulk, then put the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warmish place for 20 minutes.
Gently knock back the dough in the bowl by gently folding it back onto its self.
Cover again with plastic wrap and leave for 20 minutes then place into the refrigerator overnight.
To assemble buns:
Roll dough into large rectangle.
Use pastry brush to brush the melted butter on and then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over pastry.
Sprinkle sultanas (that have been soaked for 5 minutes in boiling water) over.
Roll up dough and cut into 12 pieces. Bake at 190°C for 20-30 minutes.
Mix together icing sugar and water until a drizzling consistency is reached then drizzle over buns when cool.

Extra tips
As an alternative, you can also glaze with Chelsea Honey Maple Syrup.

Wafer paper flower using the new steam boss steamer

Here's a short little video I made today using the steam boss steamer we sell at Kiwicakes. You can either hold the steamer in your hand or leave sitting on the table as I have done. You can find the steamer here for 50.95, we also sell the wafer paper sheets for 5.95 each including patterned sheets and the wafer paper flower template

Grandma Kiwicakes slice

Grandma Kiwicakes brought this tasty slice to work last week, I grabbed the recipe from her for you all. She's been making it for years, but she says she doesn't make it very often, as the dried fruit/nuts ingredients adds up and it's so tasty, it vanishes in a day, when there's a few people about.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
1tsp baking powder
125g melted butter
1 cup each of pecans, walnuts, dried aprciots and pitted prunes (you can change the fruit and nuts about to suit your self adding cranberries or other dried fruits, whatever you have is fine, you just need 4 cups total)
1 1/2 tins condensed milk (based on 395g tin)

Method
Preheat oven to 180C
Combine first four ingredients in a bowl and stir in melted butter. Press in to a swiss roll tin and bake for 12-15 mins until just golden.
Scatter the nuts and fruit evenly over the base, then drizzle the condensed milk evenly over. Bake for 25 minutes until golden. Cool before cutting.

St Patrick's day chip n dip

The idea for this chip n dip started with firstly a need to create something for St Patrick's day

And secondly because our basil plant was reaching the end of the road, as it always does in summer - which always means it's pesto making time. (pesto recipe at bottom of blog post)

I found these great Farrah's Garden spinach wraps to make my own chips using a little mini shamrock cookie cutter

Simply cut the little shamrocks from the wraps. I got 24 per wrap

Spray with cooking spray or oil and shake over garlic salt, or just salt if you prefer. Bake 7 minutes at 180C, you do need to set a timer and watch them, they burn very easily.

The centrepiece for my chip n dip bowl, was a refreshing pesto sour cream. To get a pesto shamrock follow these simple steps.

Place your cookie cutter in the centre of your pesto sour cream.

Pack with pesto. Lift off. Chill immediately to solidify your shape.

A heaping great spoonful of pesto is mixed in to sour cream to create this super tasty dip. I mix in the container, so I can then spoon in to my clean bowl

To make my pesto, I pack my food processor bowl with basil leaves, add 2 cloves of crushed garlic along with the juice of 1 lemon (qty's need not be exact). Along with a 100g pack of parmesan and a good couple of handfuls of toasted nuts (pine nuts or walnuts whatever you have is fine). I turn my food processor on and down the shoot drizzle olive oil - I never use a fixed amount, just until the consistency looks right 

If ever there was a time to break out the retro "chip n dip" bowl, this would be it. Pile it up with your home made tortilla chips and you're ready to party. My hungry hordes declared these "A taste sensation!"