My family recipe journey #3

Post #1 & #2 of my family recipe journey went without a hitch, Mum and I had such fun. This post was not without it's dramas. I chose pikelets for this post. Whilst pikelets for many may not seem extraordinary, my Grandad's pikelets were exceptional. I have many vivid memories of events Grandad attended with his pikelets in tow (always a large batch), whenever we left to go home, not one pikelet was left, the often embarassing thing for anyone else that had taken pikelets, was their plates were virtually untouched.

So how good can a pikelet be?. Grandad were large, airy, a beautiful colour and better yet, they tasted awesome!.

When I went to make pikelets - I couldn't believe, I couldn't find the recipe. Mum did not have it, in the recipe book Granny had begun to write down some of Grandads recipes in, nor was it in her own. I knew that I had it written down. It was in my Standard 4 school recipe book, but I could not for the life of me find that. When I attended Kamo Primary, we had what many might call an "Ag day" although being a surburban primary school, there were not many animals - we did however have all the fun of the fair. I entered the decorated biscuit competition "1st prize" and the Pikelet competition "2nd prize" - why second prize?? when my Grandad's recipe was so good??. Well it was a bit upsetting on my part. Mum received a telephone from the school to say it wasn't fair that she had baked the pikelets for me, as we were supposed to submit our own work, they suggested the pikelets were too good to have been made by a child. Mum told them in no uncertain terms she had not baked the pikelets, in fact she didn't know how to make pikelets. And if they wanted confirmation I had made them myself, they should simply ask me how I made them. They never did - and I was demoted to second place.

I emailed my Mums cousin Anne (who is the daughter of Grandads brother and Grannies sister - no wonder our family is so small and all looks alike). She had a copy that my great Aunt Margaret (her mum) had written down one day as Grandad made them. Grandad never used a recipe, so she stopped him as he worked and measured everything. Grandad always used 6 eggs, so I chuckled when I saw the recipe Anne had included only 5. I guess there was only 5 left in the egg basket that day.

My first attempt at baking Grandads pikelets resulted in absolute disaster. The printer broke down, so I was unable to print out Anne's email with the recipe. I hastily scrawled it down, as I had a short time on the allotted day to make them. I left out a crucial instruction "mix with beater", I also failed to remember in Grandad language 1 tsp, is not 1 tsp, it is a big teaspoon out of the cutlery drawer and you heap it up. To top it all off, whilst baking my leathery disasters, the electric frypan, which is likely as old as me, broke down during baking. The entire batch batch was fed to the birds and I resolved to start again. AND GET IT RIGHT.After a quick visit to Noel Leeming, armed with a brand new electric frypan, I was on my way again. I was glad to see Sunbeam now makes a NON TEFLON coated frypan. I'm not sure why they teflon coat everything these days, I'm sure real cooks really don't want teflon on everything.

I had to adjust the recipe Anne gave me, to incorporate Grandads SIX eggs - and I know Grandad always said, "some days you need a little extra milk and some days you don't".

My second attempt was a huge success, this is when I remembered a few things, such as, the recipe makes an enourmous batch, no wonder Grandad was always giving them to everyone - and they taste great warm!

This recipe was my first disaster (albeit a minor one) along the way on my recipe journey, it made me think about a lot of things.

1. Before it is too late, spend some time baking the things you love, with the ones you love - especially when no recipes exist, as was the case, with many of Grandads specialities. You might think you don't need to know how to make that awesome chocolate cake, as Aunty always does it for you, but if you want to have that awesome chocolate cake, when Aunty is no longer around. Make sure you take the time NOW.

2. Even if you have the recipe, spend some time making it with the recipe creator/holder. You certainly learn some intersting things along the way. Not just about the baking (although if Mum hadn't reminded me a tsp in Grandad speak was not actually a teaspoon, I might still be stumped). Mum & I are only three recipes in to our family recipe journey - but already I've learnt a few things about our family, that I am sure I didn't know before. There can be variables in a recipe, if you have them explained to you by your loved one, you can makes notes alongside the recipe that make sense to you (such as BIG HEAPED TEASPOON - when the recipe only says teaspoon)

You may wonder why I haven't made pikelets in the 15 years since my Grandad passed away, the answer is simple. I haven't needed to. My wonderful mother in law Margaret is the world's second best pikelet maker (I have to leave the top award for Grandad). Margaret came in to my life a year or so before Grandad passed away, when I met her son (now my husband of 10 years). I just about fell off my chair when pikelets were placed on the table and they were the spitting image/taste of Grandad's. (Grandad was terminally ill at this stage). I've never seen any one else bake them as well. Margaret knows just how much I love her pikelets and when she bakes a batch, she saves some for me. She is so thoughtful. When I was stuck in hospital for an extended period of time, after the birth of our first child, the first thing she arrived with at the hospital was pikelets.

Whilst I wish Margaret will be with us forever, the laws of nature suggest this is not possible, so I have decided, I too am now a pikelet baker. I am even going to ask Margaret for her recipe and try it out as well.

Here is the recipe I used to create the SECOND successful batch of pikelets. (featured below at the bottom, is the disaster batch, just so you know it was real)

6 eggs

5ozs sugar

1 pint of milk (or less)

Mix these ingredients together with the beater, before adding dry ingredients below.

4 breakfast cups of flour

2 big heaped teaspoons of baking powder

Set temp of frypan to 380F aprx 180-190C

lightly grease pan.
Pikelets should be turned when bubbles appear.

Edible images new designs finally here!

Well finally they are here, only 1 week late, the edible icing images I have been promising some of you. New designs this week are Disco mirro balls (cake & cupcake size), Skateboarder, Castles (2 styles pink & grey), golfers, fire engine, rock band, motorbike mermaid, clown & shoes

This new delivery has taken longer than usual to arrive, which means next week (if the airfreight comes according to schedule) our next order with even more new designs will be hot on their heels.

Easter Treats and an Easter egg hunt

Yesterday, with a little help from my 6 year old daughter Poppy, we embarked upon some Easter treat making. We had treats to make for an Easter egg hunt we were invited to today, as well dessert for dinner last night, to which we had invited Grandparents, and a little Easter present for Grandma (often referred to here as Grandma Kiwicakes). Grandma' cake was made using a 3 inch diameter cake pan and a chocolate wrap with a pattern of leaves I splashed on some edible gold lustre dust in metallic Sunny Savannah The chocolate eggs came from the Warehouse and are Walker brand. The black are Rum & Raisin and the red are Cherry.

Not everything went according to plan - in the past I have made these little Easter cupcakes, with Jelly Beans for eggs. This time thinking I had made the cupcakes with grass, too often. I decided to try baskets.

This was spurred on by the recent purchase of THUNDERPIPES from the local 4 square. Thunderpipes are for want of a better description, coloured licorice with a sour fizzy filling. I thought they'd make great basket handles. I set about colouring some buttercream icing, to pipe straw on the cupcakes. The moral of this story is............. if you've never used a particular shade of icing colour before, it would pay to test it out on a small amount of icing first, instead of believing the sticker on the outside of the bottle. My straw was a bit on the peachy side. Never mind I thought, it's only for kids and pushed ahead. Once finished, I knew I was right, not to waste an entire batch of icing, when the kids declared "they're so cool Mum!". This morning however when we woke up, all of the thunderpipes had snapped under the pressure of being bent. Luckily the local 4 square is open on Easter Sunday and I raced down for replacement handles.

I took them to the Easter hunt with mini birds nests on the tray

The cupcake papers I used for the nests came from the local supermarket, they were just what I needed for nests, as they had very low sides (I wouldn't want to bake cupcakes in them), perfect for nests, as they don't look right, if you fill a regular cupcake paper up to the top, they are too high.

The kids spread out so quickly and so fast, I couldn't get a picture of them all together

Some of the eggs were hidden very well

And the winner is! (Kiwicakes 4th birthday cake competition)

Fiona Hume of Upper Hutt. With this lovely creation. The photo of this drawing simply doesn't do it justice. Fiona will be making her cake during the month of April and I'll update you with a photo of the winning cake, once it is created.

Fiona will be making the cake with vanilla, choc banana and lemon tiers. For those of you that can't see the photo on a large computer monitor, it's a recipe book on the bottom, a parcel sent by Kiwicakes in the middle and a slice of cake on top.

This competition was so terribly hard to judge, and based on this, I've decided to award a runner up prize, which goes to Lisa Hansen for this lovely creation (no cake making required). In fact, in complete honesty, I can say I would be happy with every one of the cakes submitted.

Kiwicakes 4th birthday competition entries

Here's a look at all of the entries in the Kiwicakes 4th birthday competition - in no particular order, the winner will be announced later today.

Hikurangi School has the best kids!

I had the pleasure of taking my daughters year 3 & 4 class for cookie decorating a week or so back. Prior to arriving I was just quietly terrified, I've never thought of myself as teacher material. They were so well behaved, the class is a credit to their teacher Miss Caroline Trevillian or "Miss T" as she is known.

When I offered Miss T the chance to do this with her class, she suggested gingerbread men, as the class is currently working on self portraits and lots of activities surrounding this theme. I baked each child a gingerbread boy & girl, so they could make themselves and one of someone they loved. Their work was amazing. I even learnt a wee tip from a young girl named Trinity - the way she applied her fondant hair to her cookie was something I am going to have to use in future. Miss T even managed to take a photo of every child with their finished cookies.

They surprised me the next day with a handmade card from every child. Each card had their photo with their finished cookie. According to my daughter Poppy the cards took all afternoon. It certainly looks like a lot of effort went in to them. It was funny what each child told me they liked about doing the cookie decorating. I got "you must be the best Mum in the whole world" (Poppy might disagree with that) and many other superlatives. I adore my cards and think I will hang on to them forever.

We even made the school newsletter.

Chablon mats in use

Today I received this photo from Rachel at http://www.cupcake.co.nz/ I was thrilled to see how she made use of the chablon mat for creating round circular discs of chocolate to top her cupcakes. Rachel is based in Auckland and runs a cake & cupcake decorating business there. She also has a great blog

Chocolate transfers on fondant

I received these wonderful photos from Kiwicakes member Rachel Pilcher. She tells me it is her first attempt at a wedding cake. I was thrilled to receive these photos, Rachel did a great job. The middle tier has a chocolate transfer applies to the fondant. Rachel tells me, she iced the middle tier, then placed the chocolate transfer directly on top, covered with a layer of baking paper and then with a very cool iron, ironed the fondant. Taking care not to leave the iron in one place for too long. This is a technique I have been meaning to try for quite some time myself - I even had my eye on the same transfer. Thanks for sending this in Rachel!

I have the best job in the world!

Especially when wonderful customers such as Lisa from Denheath Desserts surprise me with a wonderful box of goodies like these. There are so many scrummy things in this box, I hardly know where to start, 2 delectable custard squares, a wonderful SQUARE chocolate eclair HOW DID THEY DO THAT? asstd cheescakes, oh my oh my I am in heaven. Currently I have scoffed 1 custard square and taste tested the square chocolate eclair (which Grandma Kiwicakes polished off) as well as the triple chocolate cheescake. Not bad for a mornings work. Roll on lunchtime and afternoon tea.

Now wouldn't you like to open a box and find this wee gem inside?

The wonderful carton fits perfectly inside it's polystyrene mini chilli bin - it has been incredibly well thought out, the box when opened folds flat, to allow for easy removal of the tasty goodies.

Such a cute little ice pack and it's partially frozen, even after it's long trip from Timaru.

I am already planning just who I can send one of these wonderful collections too. Rest assured they taste GREAT and the reliable overnight courier service, that ensures your gift arrives in immaculate condition means you can rest easy. Go on get some today! http://www.denheath.co.nz/

The newest friend to join Kiwicakes

I was thrilled today to see the prototype of some Pukeko cookier cutters I comissioned arrive. Handmade right here in NZ, I'm pretty proud of what I've achieved. Priced at $12, I think that's a pretty good deal for a handmade cutter. Here's an example of how you can ice the finished cookies.

Great fun was had by all!

I wanted to share with you all, this cake I completed - from a weekend course at Millys in Parnell with the wonderful Kirsten (our tutor). I have made many many cakes in my time, but I freely admit, I have never really piped flowers and I was keen to learn how to do it properly. The flowers are made in Royal icing, the cake is buttercream. The blue butterfly is there for my daughter Poppy (her favourite colour is blue), whilst it doesn't match the cake AT ALL - it was made solely for her (she is only 6).

I learnt some great tips from Kirsten, things I hadn't ever had to worry about, or didn't think about too much before. I wanted to share some of them with you

1. Royal icing is affected by grease, if you have piped royal icing flowers using tips or bags that have grease from buttercream in them OR, you place in a plastic container (plastic is porous and can absorb grease) that has had greasy things in it - this can cause your flowers to wilt & go mushy - meaning when you try to pick them up they squash.

2. The problem described above is actually a bonus when placing on a cake, as you can see from my photo, the flowers are placed on a buttercream cake (which survived a trip back from Auckland just fine), yet they absorb the grease from the buttercream, meaning when you go to cut the cake they are soft and can be cut right through with a knife and are easy to eat.

3. This next tip is nothing to do with the cake in question, but I learnt it this weekend - if you want to mix neon orange icing, use orange food colouring with lemon yellow, it will really make your colour pop.

4. As I haven't done a lot of royal icing work, beyond cornelli on fondant and using royal icing to glue components of a cake together. (i.e - I use it to do the work and then toss out the remaining icing), I was surprised to see royal icing that has been left to sit covered for an afternoon, takes on a marshamallow texture, and needs to be remixed, to be able to use it.

5. I love working with Wilton's colourflow mix, flooding cookies is SO MUCH EASIER than I thought it was.

My good friend Lisa often jokes, I started Kiwicakes, becasue I couldn't find enough of the tools & equipment I wanted to indulge my hobby in NZ and now looking after Kiwicakes I haven't enough time for my hobby - so it was great to get some hands on time actually making cakes, instead of just talking about them in theory and sharing a fun weekend with like minded people.

My 10th Wedding anniversary

Wow it's hard to believe I have been married for ten years. For quite some years, I had always intended to make a miniature version of our wedding cake to celebrate. However I realised a few weeks ago, to do this and keep it a surprise from my husband, simply wasn't going to be possible. So I asked the lovely Lisa from The Whole Cake & Caboodle if she would make it for me. She kindly agreed and this is the result. It is a small cake with a 5 and 3 inch cake inside those gorgeous wraps. It is gin & lemon (my husbands favourite from the 4 flavours we had)

Here is a photo of the orginal From March 4 2000 (Made by the City Cake Company in Mt Eden Auckland). It was 4 tiers. The smallest cake is on the bottom and the largest on the top. It was quite a feat of engineering. Our 4 flavours were chocolate mud, orange & almond, gin & lemon & fruit. what was quite funny, was it tasted so darn good, many of my guests actually ate 4 pieces (1 of each flavour) It's quite funny, I've always been a cake fanatic, this cake cost more than my wedding dress.

Ballet Tutus using the Formal dress impression mat set

I was just thrilled when I received an email from one of my customers, Phaedra Cochrane showing me how she used the Autumn Carpenter formal dress cookie cutter & impression mat set, to create the ballet tutus. I think she did an amazing job and I was happy she granted her permission to show them to you.

Flirty fuschia female flamingoes for my flickr friend Tracy

I was asked to take part in a cookie swap by Lisa from "The Whole Cake & Caboodle" with some of the cake & cookie girls on flickr (within NZ). Lisa made a draw of all our names & I got to swap with the lovely Tracy (Sweet Treacle) from Auckland. I decided to make flamingoes for Tracy, as I'd viewed the flamingo cookies she made, after she had visited Auckland Zoo, (she posted them on flickr). This coincided with a recent trip with the children to Auckland Zoo in the school holidays for my family. I also just got a brand new flamingo cookie cutter in to stock.

The flaminoes are one of my favourite things at the zoo, I'm always still standing there looking at them, long after everyone else has moved on. My daughter Poppy asked me, at the zoo "Mum if you were a zoo animal - what would you be?" I chose the flamingo. Maybe it's the skinny legs that appeal?

One thing that intrigues me, is the intensity of pink, of flamingoes in the wild (owing to the amount of shrimp they eat). I wanted mine, to be REALLY pink too.

The cookies are almond flavoured sugar cookies. The rolled icing on top is a marzipan/fondant blend 70% marzipan/30% fondant. It makes the marzipan a little more pliable and helps stretch this expensive medium a little further. I was struck by how little colour is required to colour marzipan, as opposed to fondant, the black gave a very nice black, and very quickly too.

I love receiving customer photos

I especially like receiving them late on a friday afternoon - it really makes my day. I just received this stunning photo of an orange cake, made in the Nordicware banana bread or "monkey" bread pan my lovely customer Elise kindly agreed I could show it to you all. I think she did a great job. It was made for her sons birthday. It is yet to receive it's orange drizzle icing, which is currently being mixed up. I adore Elise's suggestion of Grand Marnier syrup for an adult version.

How to use Silicone CHABLON moulds

These stunning new silicone chablon mats are a brand new release from Autumn Carpenter. Prices at 59.95, they will take all of the hard work out of creating even sized shapes. Available in square, round and scalloped, they are in stock now!

How to use - To Create Shaped Pieces

Step 1. Lay chablon on chocolate transfer sheet.

Step 2. Pour approximately 2/3 pound melted candy coating or melted and tempered real chocolate over the chablon, fillling the first row on two sides.


Step 3. Smooth with a confectionery blade or other straight edge, spreading at an angle.

Step 4. Slide transfer sheet with chablon onto a cookie sheet and place in refrigerator for 5 minutes.

Step 5. Invert and remove transfer sheet.

Step 6. With gloved finger press gently to remove chocolate pieces.



Truffle Sandwiches

Step 1. Create shaped pieces following directions above.


Step 2. Mix truffle recipe below.


Step 3. Pack truffle mixture in pastry bag fitted with a #21 tip.


Step 4. Pipe truffle mixture on top of one shaped piece.


Step 5. Place a shaped piece on the piped truffle mixture.

Truffle Recipe
•2½ cups (¾ pound) finely chopped real chocolate
•1 cup heavy cream
•¼ teaspoon salt
•¼ teaspoon vanilla
•Melt chocolate. Cool at least 98°. Whip cream until it holds a soft peak. Add chocolate, a little at a time, to whipped cream, stirring with a spoon. When all chocolate is added, stir in salt and vanilla. Chill in refrigerator until mixture is firm but not stiff (5-20 minutes). Beat with a spoon until fluffy. Do not overbeat