Kiwi Cakes

New Kiwiana items in stock at Kiwicakes

2012-02-18T20:48:00.001+13:00

I've always been pretty proud of our Kiwiana items at Kiwicakes. So I'm thrilled to be adding 12 new items in one go

There are three new silicone cupcake moulds, Kiwi, sheep (his fur is an awesome koru design) and silver fern. The fern is a hemisphere shape cake, so you can bake 2 halves to make a 3d ball if you wish. These also make great moulds for butter pats for the breakfast table.

There are 6 moulds in the Iconz range. Sheep, tiki, silver fern/rugby ball, Kiwi, NZ map & Jandals.

The silicone has a temperature range of -50C to 250C, so they can be used for ice, fudge, hard candy or baking.

In the toast stamp range, there is a rugby ball, sheep & kiwi. Of course you can use them for stamping your bread prior to toasting - they also work great for stamping on fondant. They are sized to fit a regular slice of bread.

Passionfruit cupcakes for Ange's 40th birthday

2012-02-04T12:58:00.000+13:00

I wanted to share with you some fun cupcakes I made for my neighbour Ange's birthday. When we were invited up the hill to join her for a birthday BBQ, I asked can I bring anything?. "No just yourselves" was her reply. Well I was brought up better than that, so I had to take something. I made passionfruit cupcakes, using Fresh-as passionfruit powder, added to vanilla cupcake batter, I also flavoured my buttercream (under the fondant), with the same powder. The hot pink fondant icing is Satin ice pink, straight from the tub. I cut the zebra design cupcake toppers from Wilton sugar sheets, using my Cricut cake machine with the designs cut from the Martha Stewart birthday cake cartridge. The 12 cupcakes are placed in a 12 hole cupcake box, with pink tissue, just to fill the box up and make them look a bit special.

I taste tested these - of course!. And the passionfruit was sooooo good!. If you haven't tried the Fresh-as powders yet. i urge you to grab some and try them out, they have so many uses.

Great new videos for baby shoes or trainers & a handbag

2012-01-30T14:23:00.000+13:00

Today I've loaded some fun new cutter sets to the Kiwicakes website from Frankly Sweet The oval cutter set makes these wonderful baby trainers (sneakers).

I've also added the new multi-use petal/leaf/bauble cutter set, which was used to make the Christmas baby bootie or trainer below.

Frances has also recently created this video below on how to make a miniature handbag using cutters from the miniature shoe cutter set

And lastly, I've added Frankly Sweet's latest book Sensational Sugar animals, just released last month. A great buy at only 29.99 a must have for those looking to model animals.

Life on board Pacific Pearl - PART 3

2012-01-27T21:51:00.000+13:00

The third instalment of life on board P&O's Pacific Pearl (see here for Part 1 here for Part 2)

If you can't already tell from my previous posts. I thought a lot about the way food was prepared & served on board Pacific Pearl. So I was thrilled when later in the week I learned there was to be a cooking Demonstration and Galley tour (which until this time, i believed the Galley to be off limits to us. It was timed for mid morning, so there wasn't too much action in the Galley to get in the way. The presentation started in the Marquee show lounge with Zoltina-J our cruise director introducing Patrice Mick (executive chef) and Rossen Mateev (Maitre D'Hotel). Between them they oversee hundred of staff. They cooked for us a Basil Marinated Grilled Prawn Risotto, which was on the menu at Waterfront resteraunt that night (coincidentally DH had it for dinner that night)

After the highly entertaining demo was over (Zoltina-J described the 2 chaps as an old married couple, they had worked together so long, but with their strong accents and highly comedic act, it was like a scene straight out of the Muppets!)

Lucky for me, when one of the P&O staff said to the hundreds of people gathered for the tour, he happened to stand right next to me and Grandma Kiwicakes, so we were in the front of the line heading down in to the Galley. This is just some of the wine being chilled.

You descend down in by escalator.

I was conscious I had hundreds of people behind me, so my photos was shot very much on the run. At this time of day mid morning, it was after Breakfast and before lunch, timed to be least busy in the kitchen for us to visit.

The space was actually quite large, but there was so many different cooking stations, prep stations etc crammed in there - it must be VERY hot working in there. I learned there are actually people employed solely to pick up anything that is dropped, so that the chefs do not compromise hygiene levels.

The "welcome to the Galley!" bread display was awesome

More of Armando's vege & fruit carvings

I'm not sure what they do in here!

We received a galley fact sheet that had an interesting list of the quantities of food loaded on board for a cruise.

This photo I took from the gangplank heading in is just a fraction of the stores loaded on board.

During each 9/10 day cruise commonly uses

3,000 doz eggs

1250kg tomatoes

1800kg pineapples

2000kg watermelon

7500 tea bags

450kg cucumbers

4000 lt milk

2812kg Chicken

650kg apples

500kg ham

662kg oranges

1400kg steak

And much much more!

From one of our Kiwicakes members

2012-01-27T21:09:00.006+13:00

This clown cake op display tutorial was sent in from one of our Kiwicakes members - Helia Whittaker. Thanks for taking the time to document this Helia!

Putting together Wilton Cake Pops stand. Also, have my paper ready to decorate.

Cut trimmings and attached with double sided tape

Using circle cakepops mould, using non-bake dough...yummy

Clown hats made from pre-coloured fondant

Sticks inserted into dough, ready for chilling

Starting to dip cakepops...harder than it looks, but finally got the hang of it after thinning my Wilton Candy Melts.

Homemade royal icing for trimmings, and coconut mixed with Wilton Orange Candy Melts for the hair...now I'm ready to decorate

Clowns chilling in the fridge...but can't get them to stand straight in the stand...they are unevenly weighted

Falling everywhere

Solution...to put bluetak around the base of sticks to help balance them and use curled ribbon to hide it.

Yet another new course added to our classes

2012-01-26T15:02:00.000+13:00

Click on the tab above for full details of the jungle animal cake class Wed March 7th 9.30am - 12.30pm. Everything supplied $100

Munchstache cookies

2012-01-26T14:26:00.000+13:00

A true friend indeed. Lisa from The Whole Cake & Caboodle offered to have my children for the day on Tuesday. She made moustache cookies with them. I also received one fresh from the oven DELICIOUS!

Working with fondant course Tuesday March 6th 1pm

2012-01-25T11:43:00.000+13:00

Come and join us!. It's going to be fun. Learn all of the techniques shown on this cake. Click on the classes tab under the Kiwicakes banner for the full info.

New classes loaded for 2012 calendar

2012-01-24T20:01:00.000+13:00

I've loaded details of new cake decorating classes today (with yet more to come). Click on the tab that reads "CLASSES" just under the blog banner. Classes include Wilton Course 1, Easter cookies & cupcakes. As well as a fondant course. Please do check this link often, as more classes will be loaded frequently.

Valentines Day Picks from Grandma Kiwicakes

2012-01-24T19:29:00.000+13:00

From Grandma Kiwicakes - here at Kiwicakes we have a vast array of products over 150 items click here for Valentines Day to see our selection

We have Fat Daddio's heart cake pans in various sizes and heart shape cutters in all shapes and sizes.

These Frosted heart pails are $2.20 each for the small ones and $3.20 for the larger,also in this pattern are packets of 20 cello bags for $8.25

We have heart cupcake candy and sprinkles and for something different jars of kissing lips sprinkles.

Cupcake papers in all shades of pink and red, especially appropriate would be these Robert Gordon papers covered in hearts

Chocolate transfers

Cupcake rings

Cupcake topper all in one silicone moulds.

Every colour of red and pink glitter and lustre to highlight your efforts.

The list goes on but this set of Cake Pop Moulds would have to be my top pick with the dear little heart shape mould. It would make stunning cake pops or truffles and of course we have all the extras to make these too. If you intend to make a home baked gift for Valentines we have everything you could possibly need.

Hamilton Demo Day Saturday 31st March 2012

2012-01-24T13:11:00.000+13:00

I'd love to see you here!. Kiwicakes will be there with our sales table.

HAMILTON CAKE DECORATING CLUB Invite you to their…
Easter Demonstration Day. Saturday, March 31st 2012. Discovery Christian Centre, Insoll Ave, Hamilton.
$25 Full Day, $15 Half Day (Morning/Afternoon session)
Demonstrations:
Carol Hogg - ‘An Easter Surprise’

Ann Shields – Easter Bunny

Corrine Green – Decorated Easter Eggs

Home Style Chocolates – Handmade Chocolates

Phillipa Crocker – Fresh Flowers

Michele Barnett - TBA

Join us at 9am for Tea and Coffee,

First Demonstrations start at 9.25am sharp.

Afternoon Demonstrations begin at 12.50pm

Please bring your own lunch, tea/coffee will be provided

Enquiries: contact Sandra Stark on 07 855 2318 or email sjnkstark@xtra.co.nz

Drawing of P&O cookbook - Winner

2012-01-19T13:15:00.001+13:00

Our winner is Megan with comment no#22. Megan I have left a message on your blog to email me, as your email address is not on your blog.

This was my first time using Random.org - True Random Number Service. I've not yet worked out how to show the Random.org banner on the top of the page like other blogs seem, to but I guess I can settle for it having picked a random number for me (any pointers on how to show the random org generation properly would be gratefully accepted)

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2012-01-19 00:07:36 UTC

The wedding of Mr & Mrs Stanners

2012-01-18T16:03:00.001+13:00

This weekend past, I made my first ever wedding cake. In the recent years that I've been involved in Kiwicakes, none of my friends have got married, they're either married, not getting married, or haven't found someone yet. So when my good friend Jodie announced she was engaged, I offered to make her wedding cake, as a wedding gift. At the time I offered, I did not know this cake would be travelling to an island - would I have still offered if I knew? - YEAH PROBABLY!

Kiwicakes chews up the majority of my life and these days, I have little time for cake making, apart from for the kids - I had made a total of about 5 roses in my 12 year cake making hobby, so this was a big step for me.

The cake design was a collaboration of some design ideas the bride to be had seen in magazines, but the final design was not copied from any one cake. I covered the cake in white Satin Ice on Thursday afternoon, in the worst humidity ever (in the middle of a storm) - the fondant was like bubble gum, I was tearing my hair out, I could not use a smoother - as it was simply sticking to it - but with no time to spare, I forged on. And what looked bad on Thursday night, did not look as bad on Friday morning. By Friday night when it was covered with roses, it looked 100% better - and many of the pits/ripples that were a result of the terrible humidity were covered with roses. So I can say I was almost satisfied with the cake, I doubt anyone else noticed the less than perfect finish on the white fondant - except for me. The most important thing was the bride & groom loved it. And I can now officially say I have made a wedding cake.

The groom picked us up at a tiny coastal town Rawhiti - 1 hour North East of my home - it took me a little over an hour to drive the road - as there are many hair pin bends, stretches of gravel road and pot holes. The boat was small - but fast

The groom assured me the back corner of the boat was the most stable spot. Thank goodness the top was covered in cellophane - it got covered in salt spray.

Leaving the bay was rather calm waters, I was reasonably confident the cake would get there in one piece - it had survived the car trip intact.

Then as we left the bay and entered open seas to head towards Urupukapuka Island, I became terrified for my cake, we hit some pretty big waves (the groom was being terribly careful), I could see the whole cake vibrating. I can only think my internal supports of one dowel down through all 3 cake boards, as well as individual dowels in each cake saved the day.

I am still utterly gobsmacked this cake arrived without a single broken petal - I had an extensive repair kit with me, and a few hours to spare.

I also did a blue/white/black candy buffet for the wedding. Unfortunately I only had about 10 minutes to set it up. This was due to the Island clsoing to the public when the last ferry left and the timing of the beginning of the wedding ceremony, once the guests had the island to themselves. The back drop of part of the cafe didn't allow me to get the best photos in my 60 second photo shoot. I look forward to the official wedding photographers photos.

Blue candy is not the easiest colour candy to find, I was thrilled to get Macey's milk bottles with blue tops (instead of just the usual plain white) I added personalised stickers to black lollipops and displayed them in a stainless steel lollipop stand from Kiwicakes

The sugared almonds I picked up in Noumea during my Christmas holiday.

Thank you Mr & Mrs Stanners for letting me be part of your wedding day

Life on board Pacific Pearl cruise ship. PART 2

2012-01-12T13:37:00.005+13:00

Welcome to part 2 of Life on board the Pacific Pearl. And the first of our P&O competitions. Leave me a comment at the bottom of this post to enter.

From my post Part 1 you may have an idea of just how much FOOD there was everywhere! in addition to all of the eating establishments that we could eat in at no charge, if you needed to eat outside of the meal times, there were additional options.

Such as Charlie's Cafe in the Atrium where Macarons were only $1 each and high hat cupcakes were $3. Grandma Kiwicakes and I did get a trio of Macarons to half between us, but we couldn't face all the frosting on the high hat cupcake - we were simply too well fed all cruise long.

The Chocolate Cafe, I previously mentioned was a favourite haunt for DH to get a good coffee and use the internet.

The cookies here were enormous, I didn't try one. The Chocolate volcano peaked my interest. And after getting a copy of Holidays - the P&O cookbook and seeing the Chocolate volcano in there - Grandma Kiwicakes & I just had to try one.

We ventured in to the Chocolate Cafe one afternoon and ordered one each, Grandma Kiwicakes got a coffee and I got a hot chocolate (which was awesome), it was a little dark in there, so my photos aren't the best.

When you cut in to it, the centre oozes out warm & molten, the raspberry sauce provides the lava

When the charming waiter came to collect our plates he asked if we enjoyed them, I tilted my plate and said "can't you tell" he looked at me and said "but of course! - I just wanted to hear it from your lips"

The recipe is in the P&O Holidays cookbook and P&O provides the recipe on their blog which is as follows

Warm Chocolate Volcano, Chocolate Sauce, 6 Portions

250 grams dark chocolate, chopped
100 grams unsalted butter, cubed
2 pieces eggs, at room temperature
2 pieces egg yolks, at room temperature
55 grams caster sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, sifted
Unsweetened chocolate powder, to dust

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Brush 6 x 185 ml (6oz.) ramekins with melted butter. Place on a baking tray.
Combine 2/3 of the chocolate and butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Stir frequently until the chocolate and butter have melted and the mixture is smooth, remove from heat.
Beat the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Add the chocolate mixture and flour and use a large metal spoon or spatula to fold in until evenly combined.
Divide the mixture evenly amongst the ramekins. Stick a small quantity of chocolate into the center. Bake for 12 minutes until puddings have risen almost to the top of the ramekins. There are slightly underdone.
To serve, turn the puddings out onto serving plates. Dust with cocoa powder and serve with vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate sauce.

There are so many lovely recipes in this book, as I flicked through I saw recipes for main meals that myself Grandma Kiwicakes had for dinner. There is also a cocktail recipe for one of DH favourite cocktails from the cruise "Lychee Mojito", there's also the "Chilli Margarita" which I tried on the first night - gosh it sure packed a punch!

January 7th Was Grandma Kiwicakes birthday, we went to the Salt Grill for dinner. This restaurant carries an AU$40 per person surcharge, it was SO! worth it. I could not fault a single thing for my meal, which for me is rare, I can usually find something just not quite right - this food was exceptional!. Salt Grill has an amazing menu we had prawn toast tapa and a variety of sides to share, truffle mashed potato (exquisite), truffle parmesan french fries (not because I need fries with every meal, but for the simple reason I could not imagine what these could possibly be like) and a pear, rocket & blue cheese salad.

Both Grandma Kiwicakes & I opted for the lobster tortellini in coconut broth - which I snapped a photo of just moments after the waiter poured the coconut broth from a small jug.

DH& I opted for the eye fillet & Grandma Kiwicakes had the Scotch fillet for a main - the choices of sauces and mustards to accompany is exceptional. We all opted for steak, as our meal was towards the end of our cruise and we'd all been mainly eating seafood, chicken & special creations for the week, we all agreed we'd like to try the Steak at Salt, because it is so highly regarded. It was certainly the best medium rare steak I can recall in my recent eating history.

DH piked on us for dessert. Grandma Kiwicakes & I never one to let the team down when it comes to dessert took our time choosing. Grandma Kiwicakes opted for the petit fours and generously allowed me to eat one line. From left to right (raspberry tart, pistachio marshmallow, chocolate nougat & turkish delight)

I opted for the Licorice parfait - it was exceptional!

Our lovely cabin steward Melroy put up balloons for Grandma Kiwicakes. The kids were thrilled about this, as they had seen balloons all over doors around the ship, in the week leading up to Grandma's birthday and were hoping some were coming our way.

Before I left NZ, I had arranged for a cheesecake & bubbles to be delivered to Grandma Kiwicake's cabin. Perhaps if I had truly fathomed how much food is available on board I might not have done this - however it was inexpensive to organise at only $30NZ for both cake & bubbles. It was delivered at 12 noon as requested, but afterwards Grandma Kiwicake's was too full to eat any lunch. The cake although cheesecake, was not cheesecake as we know it - it had a very thin top and bottom layer of light as air sponge and then the cheesecake filling was light as air. All of this meant we could eat a really big piece (and seconds) The roses on top were marzipan, my favourite!.

It wasn't all food food food, I promise!. I did a premium wine tasting event which was well attended by other passengers. Poor DH agreed to join me, right after he'd just attended a 1 hour whiskey tasting.

We sampled 6 different wines, 1 pinot noir red bubbly 2 whites & 3 reds. Each wine was presented by a different member of P&O's staff.

We received a snazzy little book, that gave wine notes & other interesting facts & figures. The regular wine tasting (which I missed earlier in the cruise) was $16 and premium wine tasting was $22.

In Part 1 I introduced you to Armando, he is a highly skilled carver. I was thrilled to find he was holding an ice carving demo on the upper deck. I was surprised to find that a beautiful swan only takes him 15 minutes to carve.

These are his tools

The water is set with ammonia & gelatine, to make it clear and to prevent it from breaking easily, during the carving process.

As part of the ship's entertainment, there is a Pacific Cirque on board, these acrobats perform high rise acts out on the open decks. As well as indoors int he atrium and theatre. One evening I took the kids along to an aprx 30 minute laser light show, featuring Pacific Cirque in the Atrium area (reception).

If you look closely, you'll see an acrobat up the silken drop

It was not an easy feat to get the laser lights to show up in a photo. I took many photos, these meagre offerings were the best of them

Another of Armando's ice carvings featured on a lighted stand during the laser light show.

Tune in a little later for Part 3 (life in the galley kitchen)

COMPETITION: (Drawn Thursday January 19th 2012)

To win your very own copy of "holidays" - the award winning travel book from P&O. Simply leave me a comment below. Tell me have you been on a cruise?, where did you go?. Or if you haven't - where would you like to go? Make sure I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.

P&O Says this about this stunning book:

Featuring more than 60 delicious recipes from the Australian cruise line’s culinary team, the cookbook is a celebration of the transformation of P&O Cruises’ food and wine offering.

Following a massive overhaul three years ago, the cruise line’s fleet now features a contemporary menu specifically designed for the Australian palate and built around Australian and New Zealand produce and local wines.

The emphasis on freshness and flavour is evident throughout holidays, with recipes ranging from macadamia nut pancakes with mango and maple syrup to wagyu burgers and spatchcock with eggplant salad.

holidays also offers delicious desserts – from amaretti baked peaches to apple tarte tatin - alongside cocktail and canapé options such as lychee mojitos and mustard and sesame seared tuna loin with wasabi.
P&O Cruises Corporate Executive Chef Uwe Stiefel said the holidays collection featured the cruise line’s signature dishes and passenger favourites.

“Australians and New Zealanders love their food – they love to try different tastes and they love to eat well on their holidays so our cuisine is a very important part of the cruise experience,” Uwe said.

“Each of our four ships has more than 90 chefs, patissiers and bakers onboard who take delivery of close to 100 tonnes of produce every cruise and work around the clock to deliver delicious meals to everyone on board. The results are in this cookbook.”

With multiple restaurants offering an array of food from breakfast until late each day, Uwe’s team oversees more than 16,000 recipes.

“It was hard to choose 60 for our book, but we have selected an array of our passengers’ top dishes so that people can now enjoy our food at home as well as onboard our ships.”

Passenger favourites included in holidays include pork belly with scallops and red pepper pesto, coral trout with lentil salad and butter sauce, and cookies and cream cheesecake.

“The recipes are delicious but they are also easy to prepare– after all if you’re on holidays you don’t want to spend all your time in the kitchen!” Uwe said.

Life on board Pacific Pearl Cruise ship. PART 1

2012-01-09T12:01:00.004+13:00

Here is the first installment of my time on holiday with P&O's Pacific Pearl Cruise ship. I was travelling with Grandma Kiwicakes, DH & the kids - we boarded Sunday 29th December at lunchtime. Everything is certainly made easy for you. Our bags were taken from us on the dock and magically appeared outside our rooms an hour or so later.

Going up the gangplank we got an insight in to just how much food in consumed on board (more on that later) as there were entire pallets of just pineapples. Of course those are needed for our cocktails amongst other things.

We had a wonderful cabin steward named Melroy, who catered to every enquiry &; request we had. He delivered our Pacific Daily (the on board newsletter) each night, and turned down our beds, much to my delight with Hillier's chocolate on the pillow.

When leaving towels for the children, he made them in the shape of animals and popped their sunglasses on.

Our Captain greeted us early on and let us know there were over 1700 passengers on board with 707 staff. I never got the sense of seeing all those passengers at once. However the staff were so attentive at all times, that I was sure there was more than 707 of them.

During this cruise, I ate A LOT, drank quite a bit, gambled a little and WON!. There is simply so much to tell, I hardly know where to start, so I've opted to start with life on board the ship. I will fill you in on our port stops in subsequent posts.

One of the fitness instructors on board said most people gain 2-5 kilos while on a cruise. I haven't weighed myself, so can neither confirm nor deny this rumour. However with the abundance of food available 24/7 I would not be surprised.

The two main restaurants were Waterfront (a la carte) and Plantation (buffet). I ate in both of these establishments, we didn't always eat as a group of 5, in fact one night I went to the Waterfront by myself, as DH & the kids had already eaten and Grandma Kiwicakes begged off dinner. I sat with a great bunch of ladies and discovered one was a Kiwicakes customer (Hi Tracey from Manukau!)

As well as this, there was the Chocolate Cafe, Salt Grill by Luke Mangan (more on my visit there to come), Charlies Cafe and many additional bars. (more on these to follow)

My favourite bar was the MIX cocktail bar (photo courtesy of P&O website). Because it was quiet & secluded. I don't really go for the raging party scene (which was there if you wanted it)

Each day we could consult the Pacific Daily events schedule and plan what we would do for the day (especially if it was an at sea day and there was no port call). I attended many events from cooking demo's, galley tour, to ice carving, a cake decorating challenge, bingo (I had never done that!), towel folding (don't laugh it was awesome!) and so much more.

The weather was not kind to us on our journey, we had many grey days, but it didn't seem to matter, with all of the activities available. And I think we still fared better than the upper North Island of NZ over the same time period. Of course there's still plenty to do even if it rains - the P&O TV channels even had Cake Boss & Chocolate Wars.

There were great shops on board, to while away some spare time. There was the Chocobloc chocolate store, with an awesome M&M display in the window. Everything was of course duty free, so these stores were closed whilst we were in port.

Early in our cruise we attended the Cruise Fair this was an introduction to many of the talents of the ships crew on board. P&O used this to showcase some of the different services on board the ship. It was here I watched a cake decorating competition between 3 passengers. It was judged by one of the patisserie chefs on board.

These were the ingredients they had to work with. The sponge was incredibly light (I sampled it elsewhere on board) and very thin multiple layers. All of the small cakes available in the buffet were slices of multiple layers of this type of sponge, with a wide variety of fillings and topping. If only I could get my own sponge this light!

The girls hard at work

The eventual winner was Christine, her finished gateaux, was much in the style of the pastry chefs themselves. Here are a few of the cakes on show at the Crusie Fair. The flowers are made from marzipan.

We were greeted by the staff from the Chocolate Cafe with Chocolate Ravioli, with a little scoop of ice cream YUM!

The coffee I have on good authority from Grandma & DH was excellent, they often headed to the Chocolate Cafe for a decent coffee.

The bags of Belgian chocolate they use are enormous

I just adore eating good marzipan, so I was thrilled to learn all of the flowers & models on the sweets on board Pacific Pearl are made from marzipan.

There were some wonderful demos of towel & napkin folding

At the Cruise Fair, I met Armando, I learnt he studied carving for 5 years at college. He carved a watermelon in the space of about 5 minutes. (in a later post I will show you his ice carvings). His work was showcased in many of the restaurants and bars. I'd often see a piece of his work and wish I had brought my camera with me, as when I next passed the item was gone (such as on New Year's eve, the 2012 ice carving & Happy New Year pineapple display)

Well I'll be back again real soon with more photo's and updates and some of the promised competitions, with the goodies I brought back from P&O.

Back at Kiwicakes & rearing to go!

2012-01-08T19:30:00.003+13:00

Well it's been a great holiday break for me, tomorrow I am officially back on deck at Kiwicakes with fully recharged batteries - ready to dispatch the orders I received whilst I have been away. I cannot wait to share with you all the adventures I've had cruising on the P&O Pacific Pearl ship for the last 11 days with my family. I have some great photos and stories to share with you over the coming days/weeks about life on the ship as well as our ports of call. I've even got some great goodies to give away. So please do check back next week for the chance to win some great prizes and see how often all things CAKE featured in my holiday.

Were any of you on board Pacific Pearl last week?

Oh So cute reindeer pop - using heart mould

2011-12-19T14:43:00.001+13:00

This cake pop tutorial for reindeer cake pops comes from the manufacturer of the awesome cake pop moulds we sell. Look what an upside down heart can make!

Supplies you will need.

In addition you might need a black candy colour (for the mouth) and red colour dust (for the cheeks) and a couple of chocolate melts (for the eyes).

Dip the heart into the candy melts and right before dry add pretzels then let dry.

The Bow is two jumbo hearts facing each other. A drop of candy melts in the center and stick on the green sprinkle.

New cake pop moulds

2011-12-19T14:15:00.001+13:00

I was thrilled to open the boxes that arrived today, which contained the new release set of cake pop moulds because they are just so darn cute! This is definitely my Christmas present to myself.

Santa Ninjas

2011-12-12T14:52:00.000+13:00

Special thanks goes to The Whole Cake & Caboodle for this photo using our Ninjabread men cutters to make Santa ninjas.

Fruit powders in cheesecake

2011-12-12T11:10:00.003+13:00

After chatting with one of my lovely customers (that's you Kim!) and she was telling me about how she had used the passionfruit fruit powder in cheescake and was going to make them in the way I had for the Christmas bauble cheesecakes from 2009 (click here for that post - photo below). I couldn't resist trying it for myself and the taste, how can I describe it?, "to die for" comes to mind. What was also interesting for me, was my daughter was prepared to try it because it was just yellow (no black seeds) and she loved it, but would never previously try passionfruit, because of the "black bits"

But I had to take it one step further and try the raspberry powder as well, it rated right up there too, but passionfruit was definitely my favourite. However my dear hubby & daughter preferred the berry. It was so easy to split a cheescake mix 50/50 and do some passionfruit and some raspberry, it would be easy to keep everyone happy. I think they would work well in the cupcake size cheescake, like those I did with strawberry hearts from 2010 (click here for that post) And of course in the fruit powders - there's a wide range to choose from, with other berries, mango & plum too

I also think with a bowl of freshly cut strawberries, a squirt of cheescecake from a piping bag, using a decorative nozzle, makes a nice addition, following a heavy meal, when a large piece of cheesecake might be too much for lighter eaters. (I won't include myself in that one, I always have room for cheesecake!)

Staff Picks Chocolate Moulds

2011-12-09T15:56:00.001+13:00

Grandma Kiwicakes is guest blogging again.........................

Here at Kiwicakes we are surrounded by lots of lovely Christmas chocolate moulds. So many it was hard to choose .

SANDRA'S PICK

This 3d Xmas tree is so easy to make. Made in white Chocolate It will tone well with her Christmas colours of White and Silver. You could also use green candy melts or add some of our Americolor Candy colour to white chocolate for the colour of your choice. All of these moulds come with Instruction card and would make a nice inexepensive christmas gift.

KARINA'S PICK

Karina liked this mould and thought the small detail would be great to use as Decorations for other items.

GRANDMA KIWICAKE'S PICK

I like this Christmas Pudding Mould for something a bit different. I did like the Giant 3D Snowman Mould but thought that was outside my skill level.

Click Here to see our full range of moulds and dont forget we also have a great range of Christmas Chocolate Transfers, Candy colours and everything you need to make your Christmas treats

New My Little Cupcake Pop mould

2011-12-08T16:23:00.001+13:00

Kiwicake's is proud to be New Zealand's first stockist for the My Little Cupcake Pop mould

Just in time for Christmas priced at $12.95 This mould is attractively packaged, it would make a super cute gift of it's own.

It's for birthdays too!

Photo's from our cake classes this weekend

2011-12-05T14:12:00.000+13:00

Here are some photos from the classes we had here at the weekend. (Christmas cake pops, wild animal & Christmas critter modelling, as well as Christmas cupcakes)

The cake pops above were made by Aleisha (7 years) who came along with her Mum Tanya, they both had a lovely time

Our Christmas cupcake class was a huge success, held on both days, there were a wide variety of styles, but a firm favourite with everyone was the snowflake tree, made using snowflake plunger cutters, it looks great iced, or uniced.

The mini Christmas puddings were made with miniature mallowpuffs.

The snowflake plunger cutter sets, also make great little plaques, to sit figures on.

Fun Christmas trees with the kids

2011-12-05T13:35:00.000+13:00

This weekend past has been choc-a-block full of cake decorating on Saturday afternoon I made Gingerbread Christmas trees with the children and all weekend long, there has been classes here at Kiwicakes (more about those later)

As my youngest is only 5, I opted for the convenience of the pre-baked gingerbread tree kits however if you have older children, you can in stead purchase a cookie tree kit, which is a set of cutters that allows you to bake your own cookies.

The pre-baked gingerbread kit comes with all of the coloured icing, lollies and presents you need to make the tree (our children added the Santa, snowmen and plastic Merry Christmas plaque, these do not come with the kit).

This morning, they carried their finished trees in to school, which I had wrapped in cellophane for them - they drew many admiring comments from the other children and their teachers were in raptures, poor Miss Corby I thought she was going to cry.

The first photo is Mr 5's and the second photo is Miss 8's. My youngest needed a small amount of help, my 8 year under supervision, did it by herself)

Staff Picks at Kiwicakes - CUPCAKES (by Grandma Kiwicakes)

2011-11-30T16:08:00.001+13:00

With Christmas fast approaching we're all discussing our Christmas goodies . As Sandra is very busy getting all your parcels ready I thought I (Grandma Kiwicakes) would do a few posts on our picks for different items to use in our Christmas Baking . This week its cupcakes . The choices were endless.

We all had a really hard time deciding our favourites . To pick your favourites - Just check out the Category

Cupcake papers -Baking cups

Grandma Kiwicake's picks are

Standard Cupcakes - Red Gingham Cupcake papers with Small gingerbread men Icing

Mini Cupcakes - Wilton mini snowflake ornament Homemade cases and mini snowflakes made with mini snowflake chocolate mould painted with our new Metallic Food paint - Light gold.

Sandra's Picks

Standard Cupcakes - Standard silver cupcake cases with silver reindeer picks and silver tree cupcake picks . These have just arrived and are really lovely

Mini Cupcakes - Wilton Snowflakes Winter splendour cupcake cases and Metallic Silver Sparkling Sugar Crystals

Karina's Picks

Standard Cupcakes - Christmas Santa cupcake cases with Holly and Berries Sprinkles

Mini Cupcakes - Shiver me snowman mini cupcake cases with Hologram white glitter.

We all had a really hard time deciding our favourites. Which selection do you like best?