Sweet Cream Cheese Button Cookies

Cream Cheese Button Cookies 

Ingredients

100g butter softened

100g cream cheese softened

1C white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3 C flour

1 tsp baking powder

gel food colourings

In a bowl cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mix until smooth.

Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Divide dough in to your required number of colours and tint each batch of dough with colour of your choice (it must be gel paste colourings). 

Chill dough in fridge at least 2 hours. The dough become soft quickly. I rolled my dough out on cook-a sheets and cut chilled dough in to buttons, using 2  round circle cutters. use the next size down circle to imprint the round indentation. I used a tip 3 piping nozzle to imprint the button holes. 

Preheat oven 180C. Bake 10 minutes. Chill completed cookie designs for 5-10 mins before baking. This helps to ensure the cookies don't spread.

I printed the cards on the top of my cookie bags, using this wonderful free printable from the lovely ladies at  On To Baby blog. You can change the colours to suit your own theme and there's other great free button printables for party invites, table cards &  much more. The bags are our size 2 cello bags

Sparkly Tiara Treats - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Today in the kitchen I used our tiara cookie cutter to showcase our new silver dragee range and produced these adorable crowns fit for a princess.

There are a dozen new shapes in our range including the tear drop, marquis and rice dragees pictured above.

To make these treats I used the same cutter for both the cookie dough and the pink fondant. Once my cookies were baked and cooled, I brushed a little sugar glue on and eased fondant tiara shapes over.

To stick the bigger dragees securely to the iced cookies I used a fondant cement. To make one is simple! Inside a disposable piping bag add a small lump of the coloured fondant you are using and a few drips of water. Microwave it for 5 seconds then massage the liquid into the fondant to create a paste. Snip off the end and pipe blobs where the big dragees will sit. If this  hardens inside the piping bag while you are working then pop it back in to heat up for a couple of seconds again. Smaller decorations can be stuck on using the tiniest dab of sugar glue.

Let the peaks of the crown determine the placement of your decorations or freestyle it like I did. Lastly highlight the cookies with a shimmery lustre dust to give them some magic!

Poppy's marvellous creations

My daughter poppy recently created her own "Poppy's marvellous creations" chocolate bars in preparation for her Willy Wonka themed birthday party

Poppy started with a simple bar mould, that mimics the shape of a store bought chocolate bar. Along with a mixed pack of wrapping foil.

Poppy raided the Kiwicakes test kitchen for candy, pop rocks, chocolate & other tasty additions. In planning her chocolate bars, she somewhat themed them to her foil colours.  

Pink foil: Strawberry pop rocks, strawberry daquiri jelly beans, freeze dried strawberry slices in white chocolate

Green foil: Watermelon pop rocks, lime jelly beans in milk chocolate

Orange foil: Orange jelly beans, orange marshmallows, cornflakes, chopped peanuts in dark chocolate

Dark pink foil: Raspberry flavoured M&Ms, pink marshmallows, hundreds & thousands  in "Limited edition raspberry flavoured" candy melts by Wilton

Blue foil: "birthday cake" flavour jelly beans, white marshamllows, blue sugar pearls in white chocolate.

The jelly beans we used were all Jelly Belly brand, hence the more unusual flavours

The wrappers were printed on gold paper, left over from her  "Golden ticket" party invites.

Her finished bars were a huge success, they looked great on her party table, and have impressed family and friends after her party (we had quite a few left over, so have been feeding them to visiting family and friends over the last week)

Pretty shell cake - great for birthdays and weddings

Todays fun post comes from my American friend Autumn Carpenter. Autumn designs and manufacturers a broad range of cake decorating supplies, which I'm proud to stock at Kiwicakes.

This cake would be a sure favourite with Grandma Kiwicakes, she adores shells and corals.

Tools and Ingredients

6", 9" and 12" two layer cakes

14" cake board or drum

light blue rolled fondant

ivory rolled fondant

Hawaiian Texture Sheet Set

seashell chocolate chocolate moulds

white candy coating

milk chocolate

pearllustre dust

mop brush

8mm sugar pearls

pastry brush

piping gel

flexible poly blade

pastry roller

Method

Melt chocolates separately and place in towel lined electric skillet to keep warm and fluid. To add stripes to shells, dip finger in milk chocolate and wipe finger into cavity. 

Flood cavity with white candy coating and place in freezer to set. 

Once set, remove from mould and use mop brush to brush tops of shells with lustre. 

Roll light blue fondant to desired thickness, brush board and cakes with piping gel and cover. Using mop brush, dust cake and board with pearl dust. Prepare cakes for stacking and assemble. 

Roll ivory fondant to 1/8" thickness, roll shell texture sheet over fondant making a strip long enough to go around the cake. Make a straight cut along the bottom of the strip using a pastry roller then use the flexible poly blade to cut shells so that strip is 4" high. 

Brush sides of cake with piping gel then apply shell strip. 

Repeat with each cake layer. 

Attach shells and pearls to cake using piping gel.

Mothers Day 'Borrowed' Rhubarb Treats - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Most mums want nothing more for Mothers Day than a visit or a phone call. Or that's what they say. I reckon you'd be pretty popular if you arrived with a tray of these fruity beauties! If you don't have rhubarb planted in your own garden, whip around to a good gardener (often our mums) and steal a couple of stalks. Trust me she'll thank you for it later!

Rhubarb Cupcakes

You will need:

125g softened butter

2/3c firmly packed brown sugar

1/2t vanilla bean paste

pinch salt

2 large eggs

1/2c milk

1 & 1/2c self-raising flour

1 & 1/2c washed and diced rhubarb

Owl design cupcake cups

plum icing

20g melted butter

1/2c sifted icing sugar

1/3c nougat, cranberries or similar to top

1. To prepare your rhubarb cook it with 2T water for 5+mins until soft. Let it cool. This will reduce to approx 1c of stewed rhubarb.

2. Cream first measure of butter, sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk eggs and milk and add to butter mixture ever so slowly to combine. (Here is the egg mixture pictured with a sturdy mini whisk I totally recommend for prep jobs). Add the flour and continue mixing on low speed until a thick batter forms. Fold in 1c stewed rhubarb gently. 

3. Fill cupcake cups 2/3 full and arrange them in a 7x3 grid on your tray. Its important to leave space between for them to cook evenly. This recipie makes 21. Bake at 170`C for about 25 mins or until a cake tester comes out clean. 

4. Meanwhile prepare your icing according to packet instructions. This requires a little melted butter and some water. Add icing sugar to turn it into a pipeable consistency. Fill a piping bag that has been fitted with a tip to pipe through. I used wilton tip #109 for the gentle swirls.     

5. When the cupcakes have cooled, decorate with a swirl of the punchy plum icing and top with a thin slice of nougat or some whole dried cranberries. These cupcake papers are thick and robust to travel as well as simply being sweet! In the same range are eye-catching aeroplane, carousel, bluebird, babushka, patchwork paper cup designs and more.

These rhubarb cakes are also beautiful and light served simply with a fine sprinkling of icing sugar. Do it through a paper doily for maximum effect! This  really lets the classic rhubarb and vanilla flavour combination shine through. 

Remember that rhubarb leaves are poisonous so don't be 'helpful' by sticking them in the compost! Simply lay the leaves you cut off around the base of the rhubarb plant to keep moisture in the surrounding soil. They will decompose with time and the gardener will stay happy :-) 

Sport Shirt Cookies - from Kiwicakes Test Kitchen

Our eldest just turned 6 and he is excited about his ripper rugby starting up again for the winter. We let the kids choose a theme for their birthdays and his was obvious (though at one stage there was discussion around a nuddy cake, go figure 6 year olds humour!)

Knowing it was going to be a busy time leading up to his little party, I chose to make the party favours 3 days in advance. I always try to give something homemade as a leaving gift and history has proven they are continually well-received!

I remembered Sandra making sleepover pyjama cookies (visit that blog post here) in the past and that inspired these rugby shirts.

To make these cookies you will need to mix up a batch of regular chocolate cookie dough, some homemade royal icing and have a sports jersey cookie cutter, sugar glue, black fondant, a piping bag and cellophane bags on hand.

I rolled out my cookie dough, cut rugby jersey shapes and baked them as normal. When cooled I brushed on some sugar glue to make the top surface tacky. I left a 2-3mm border around the sides un-glued as the fondant doesn't quite reach the cookie edge.

For my fondant I actually used a 50:50 mix of black fondant and chocolate brown fondant. I love the chocolate taste and the brown is deep enough to carry the colour from the black fondant and still create an overall jet black appearance. Just knead them together til combined. I rolled the fondant 3mm thick on a cornflour sprinkled board and used the same cutter to cut another 10 jersey shapes, which are simply placed on top of the tacky biscuits.

Then I made a quick royal icing by whisking together 1 egg white with 200g icing sugar and 1/2t lemon juice. I transferred the mix to a piping bag with a coupler inserted in it. ALBIE was using a tip#3 and the numeral 6 was using a tip #10. Alternatively you could snip 1mm off the end of the piping bag to write the name then snip the end off another 2mm higher up to pipe a fatter numeral.

The royal icing will need time to set and harden at room temperature before the bikkies can be packaged up and sealed for freshness. 

Then enjoy the looks of pure delight when these macho chocolatey delights are distributed!

Completley Mad Cupcake Buffet - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Crazy themed celebrations at the preschool our two youngest children attend are not a surprise to us anymore. They sure keep learning fun! To mark April Fools day a Mad Hatters tea party was held in a beautifully decorated garden. The high tea was complete with china cups & saucers and of course marvellous cupcake creations. 

The kids cupcake station was a world of colour and fantasy with buttercream to swirl then a buffet of decorations, sprinkles and edible spray paint to choose from. Able parents were on hand to assist but we found that the preschoolers were super capable anyway! Kiwicakes donated some magical topping products for us to use.

The firm icing discs (being pointed to by a cute, chubby finger no less!) are made from coloured fondant hardened with tylose powder and rolled out with impression mats. Ais especially visible on the pink heart, and mini cutters were used to shape the discs. These were made the night before to give them time to firm up. 

The variation achieved was just beautiful and so fitting of Mad Hatter style! 

And finally here is my littlest monster Mitchell being assisted by our good friend Kimmie. Yay for edible fun!!

Lemon Surprise Easter Egg Buns - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

These colourful Easter Egg buns are perfect for a celebratory Easter brunch. They provide a heartier alternative to traditional chocolate indulgences!

Firstly get your sweet bread dough mix underway. I used the recipie in my breadmaker booklet which is:

350ml water
1 egg
2T melted butter
1t salt
2T sugar
4c high grade flour
3T milk powder
2t yeast

My breadmaker dough cycle takes 1 & 1/2 hours. If you were making it by hand I would allow a similar amount of time for hand-kneading and proofing. This dough weighs 1.2 kg. I split it into 65 gram balls, yielding 18 nicely sized buns. I rolled them into oval egg-like shapes on a lightly floured silicone mat, which provided just the right resistance for rolling dough balls.

The sun wasn't out in Whangarei this morning so my proofing options were limited. Giving the buns 30 minutes in a just-warm oven worked perfectly and they doubled in size.

While the buns proof you have time to prepare your egg washes. Whisk together 1 egg yolk with 3T cold tap water. Then split into 3 bowls and add a squirt of your favourite gel colour to each. Today I used lemon yellow, sky blue and a tulip red / dusty rose Americolor combination. Remember that your colours may behave slightly different to normal when mixed with the yellow of the egg yolk (e.g. my attempt at pink/red was stubborn at keeping its orangey tinge).

Paint 6 buns with each of your egg wash colours prior to cooking. I used a pastry brush (pictured in an egg wash bowl above) for an easy and even coating. The natural bristles are soft and didn't mark or indent the buns.

Easter Egg buns take almost 10 minutes to cook on fanbake at 200`C. Keep an eye on them after 8 or 9 minutes in case you need to save the tops from browning. 

Now comes the lemon surprise - I injected my sweet rolls with a lemon curd filling. Simply fit a disposable piping bag with a long bismarck tip and push the tip through one side into the middle of each bun. Squeeze a consistent amount into each bun, aiming for about 2 teaspoons. The bun closes back up again nicely once you remove the tip and the filling stays hidden in the centre.

Look at this luscious lemon curd and how its texture compliments the soft sweet bread. Curd is a lovely and tart surprise in these buns but using your favourite seedless jam would work equally well with the bismarck tip technique.

Serve in a fun Easter basket for maximum impact!

The Rocky Road to Easter - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Today's treat is moreish Marshmallow Rocky Road. It has been Easter-shaped and packaged in clear bags set off with these limencello yellow styling tags. 

The star of the show in this simple recipie is limited edition marshmallow flavoured white candy melts. They are actually white! You could use regular white chocolate in its place, but it always has a creamier yellowish tone.

Once your 500g of candy melts have been melted over a double-boiler, let cool slightly before incorporating 200g mini marshmallows. Press into a lined sponge roll tin so the rocky road is between 1 and 2cm high then smooth the top. 

Sprinkle liberally with Yellow edible glitter for a real Easter feel. Do this while the mixture is still warm. Then transfer to the fridge briefly to set the chocolate.

Season your shaped cutters for easy release by wiping a little decorating cream around the inside. Here I am using the duck, basket, bunny and carrot cutters from the Easter Egg Cannister set of 10 shapes. Simply press down to create the desired shapes.

Here you can see how effective the really white white candy melts are against the coloured mallows and yellow edible glitter. How simple!

Here is a rocky road ducky packaged up ready for Easter giving. We also stock the cute little chicks pictured to accompany your Easter treats.

Green Chocolate Grass Cups for Easter - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

These cute little grass cups are a neat way to present little goodies or to give height to a plate. Perfect for an Easter surprise!

I melted a handful of vibrant green candy melts over a double-boiler then added a heaped teaspoon to the bases of regular pleated cupcake papers sitting inside a cupcake pan. Then I tapped it to coat the bottom evenly. I filled a disposable piping bag with some of the warmed chocolate (this is quite hot to handle so children may need assistance) and piped uneven-height spikes up the sides to create the grass effect. 

For the turquoise grass I used a mixture of green and white candy melts. I think both colour grasses look effective, so use whatever you have on hand. (Remember to keep some white melts to make your bunnies and easter figurines to sit inside).

Once cooled and set (refrigerate for 10 mins) the cupcake papers will peel easily away and leave you with funky grass cups to fill. I used mini-speckled eggs that are available in supermarkets at this time of year, but you could use jellybeans or other small lollies, too.

I also used our easter bunny variety chocolate mould to create simple bunnies to pop into the cups. Their whiter-than-white look is achieved with these limited edition white candy melts. 

Firstly, I turned a wee bit of the melted white chocolate to fluorescent pink. I simply stirred in 2 drops of fluoro colour with 5 drops of flo-coat (this is magic stuff!) to 1/8 cup melted white chocolate. I painted the pink bows and details in first, then topped up the moulds with the white melted chocolate.

Once the moulds are filled, tap them gently on a bench to release any air bubbles, then scrape the back of the moulds to remove any excess chocolate. They will pop out of their moulds easily after a quick visit to the fridge to harden.

There you have it - HAPPY EASTER people!

Feijoa cake

Feijoas are plentiful at the moment. We've had some great feijoa recipes on the Kiwicakes blog in the past (use the search function at right to find). This recipe comes from our friends at Chelsea.

Ingredients

4 Feijoas

1 cup Chelsea white sugar

125g butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sultanas

2 Tbsp sliced crystalised ginger

Method

Heat oven to 180°C. Scoop feijoa flesh out in small chunks and mix with sugar in a bowl. In a separate bowl, blend the melted butter and beaten egg together. Add this to the feijoa mixture along with the dry ingredients,a adding the ginger and sultanas last.

Bake in a well greased tin for 50 minutes.

No egg chocolate cake - Poppy Bakes

Recently Uncle David returned home from the US. Poppy wanted to make him a cake to celebrate. She obtained this recipe from her school friend Briar. She decorated the chocolate fondant paua herself using this method. The green and blue rock gems are from Wilton.

Ingredients
2 1/4 C flour
3/4 C cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 C warm milk
1 1/2 C sugar
3 Tbsp Vinegar
150g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 175C.
Sift dry ingredients together in bowl. Combine milk, melted butter and vinegar together  and pour into dry ingredients, mixing well. Bake for 40 mins in a greased and lined 8''/200mm cake tin.

Cream Cheese icing
Mix 125g cream cheese with 100g butter (at room temp). Combine with 3 cups icing sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, add a squeeze of lemon.

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!