The Cake Escape - with Bloggers & KiwiCakes

A few months ago I got cupcake envy, when I saw one of my friends posting pics on Instagram of her rosette cupcakes, which she declared "easy". For all my love of parties I am very much an amateur cake decorator, making do with frosting squirters and tips from the $2 Shop and trying to be as clever as I can with my limited skills.

But after seeing those "easy" rosettes on my friend's IG feed, I felt inspired to up my game. I wanted to be able to make rosette cupcakes too, dammit! And I knew just the lady to help me.

So I emailed my lovely Party Partner, Sandra from KiwiCakes in Whangarei, and said, hey I need to learn how to do this stuff better, could I come to a workshop - or would you be interested in hosting a workshop for me and some other bloggers? Sandra was keen, gave me a date, I started a Facebook thread for those I thought might be keen, and the The Great Cake Escape was born.

[Our Intrepid cupcake decorators. L-R: Tracy, Lisa,  Jackie,  Lisa, Kristy and me]

We ended up with a group of six bloggers - three of us who made the trek in my people mover from Auckland, and three blog pals from Whangarei.

All of us were amateurs and cupcake novices, keen to absorb as much as we could from our very clever cake guru who assured us that we would be able to create cool cupcakes by the end of the day (some of us were not so sure - just look at Jackie's face!)

We brought with us a batch of "nude" cupcakes (some of them sunburnt, hehe Lisa!), and spent the afternoon learning a whole lot of cake decorating skills. Man it was fun! My idea of awesome, hanging out with lovely blog-pals while creating edible works of art...

Here's a few of my humble creations:

I was by no means a natural. in fact I am pretty kack-handed, holding the piping bag wrong and wasting loads of buttercream while trying to perfect my rosettes. I will have to keep practising I think!

[The Paris-themed cupcakes are practise for Miss fab's next Party = Paris; the brick wall is an idea for our TMNT Party coming up]

Sandra was awesome - she put us at ease and gave us her best tips and tricks. Turns out the $2 Shop gear I've been using just doesn't cut it. If I want to do awesome cakes I need the right gear. So I got Sandra to put together an Essentials pack for me, so I could take what I've learned and do it at home.

A few things I learnt:

Piping bags - use disposable ones. You can make perfect two-toned frosting by putting two separate colours inside two separate small piping bags and then putting them both inside a large one... and out will come two-toned buttercream frosting.
Crisco - this is the secret ingredient to having buttercream that (a) holds it's shape and (b) is nice and white. Where your recipe calls for butter, use half Crisco.
Tylo Powder - When you're making fondant shapes and toppers for cupcakes, work a little Tylo powder into your fondant and it will harden nicely to give nice non-floppy cut-outs and molds that hold their shape and stand up stiff.
Cornflour: Dust your fondant with cornflour before pressing it into molds so it pops out nice and easy
Equipment: Use the proper equipment to get a proper result. No more $2 Shop gear, if I invest in the basics the job will be so much easier and the result, so much better...

1. Large Coupler for fixing tips to piping bags
2. Closed Tip for piping swirls (start on the outside and work your way in)
3. Open tip for piping rosettes (start on the inside and work your way out)
4. Squiggle tip for piping grass, fur etc
5. Standard Coupler
6. Edible Glue for fixing on decorations 
7. Tylo powder for hardening fondant decorations (work a small amount into a lump of fondant before using

The two-toned frosting applied (by Sandra) using different tips:

[Top left: closed tip; top right open tip for making a rosette]

And here's the awesome squiggle tip which makes such cute "grass" (of course we use gel colours not the liquid supermarket ones - but you already know THAT aye?)...

[Me and Sandra - finally got to meet in person after years of party partnering]

We can't thank Sandra enough for giving up a whole afternoon to patiently teach us novices! I know one thing - my cupcakes will never be the same.

SOME OTHER CAKE ESCAPEES' TAKE ON OUR CUPCAKE ADVENTURE:

• Kristy from PaisleyJade: The Cupcake Escape
• Lisa from All in the Daze: The Secret to Great Cupcakes
• Lisa from Life Blooming: How to Ice Cupcakes Like a Pro When you're Not One

You can check out our creations on Instagram: #thecakeescapenz

Rainbow Cupcakes Tutorial (so Cute, so Easy)

I spotted these cute Rainbow Cupcakes over a year ago on Pinterest, and have been wanting to make them for ages. They looked like my kind of cupcake - impressive but deceptively simple. I was pretty sure I could figure out how to make them, just from the picture.

When I sat down with Scrag to choose things for his Just Plain Party, he spotted the Rainbow cupcakes and said, "Those ones, mum! I want the rainbow cupcakes!"

After all they are pretty darn cute.

Turns out they are also nice and easy.

Today I'm taking the guesswork out of making them for you, so you don't have to look at the picture and guess. Here's how to make the cutest easiest rainbow cupcakes ever....

First, My Never-fail Cupcake Recipe:

INGREDIENTS
125g butter, softened {convert measurement}
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1/2 cup caster sugar (fine grain)
2 eggs
1 cup of standard flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 cup milk

METHOD

• Cream butter sugar and vanilla together; I use a good old fashioned electric hand beater (works a treat)
• Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one is added
• Fold flour and baking powder into creamed mixture
• Stir in Milk
• Spoon into baking tins (patty pans) lined with cupcake papers or even better, silicone baking cups.
• Bake at 190oC (375oF) for 15 minutes or until golden and cakes spring back when lightly touched

Makes 12-15 regular-sized cupcakes.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, we can turn them into rainbows.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Blue buttercream icing/frosting (see below for recipe) for "sky"
• White Royal Icing for "clouds"
• Rainbow straps (for rainbows) available at most Mall sweets stands
• Optional: Coordinating/fancy cupcake papers (I used blue and white striped $3 from Look Sharp)

STEP-BY-STEP:

1. Pop the cupcakes out of the silicone baking cup (or the cupcake paper)
2. With a spatula smear on a generous topping of blue buttercream icing.
3. Place the iced cupcakes into the fancy cupcake wrapper
4. Make up your batch of Royal Icing and spoon some into piping tube/bag with star nozzle
5. Pipe two little "clouds" on opposite sides of each cupcake and allow to firm up or half-set

When the royal icing "clouds" are half set (after 3-4 minutes) position your Rainbow strap. You might need to play around a little at first to get the length just right. That's it!

You now have a bunch of glorious Rainbow cupcakes perfect to brighten up any party.

Blue ButterCream Icing
100g butter, softened
1 cup of icing sugar
1 Tablespoon of milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Beat ingredients together with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Then add blue food colouring - the gel colours work best for vibrancy.

Royal Icing
2 egg whites
2 cups of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice or water

Beat egg whites together with an electric beater until soft peaks form, then gradually add icing sugar and finally, the lemon juice or water.

This stuff sets hard as a rock and is perfect for "gluing" things, like our rainbows (and gingerbread houses).

.......................

MORE PARTY & CUPCAKE INSPIRATION

• Just Plain Party (our classic kids birthday party on a budget)
• Just Plain Party How To's and Free Printables
• My Party Index Page
• More Cupcakes

Army Party: Camouflage Birthday Cake & Cupcakes

I'm not a precision cake decorator, by any means. Birthday cakes for me need to be deceptively simple - the best ones look impressive but are actually straightforward and easy to do.

When Dash requested an Army Party, I was racking my brains trying to figure out what birthday cake I could make to suit - until I spotted the brilliant gummy Army Men lollies on KiwiCakes website. Suddenly I knew what I could do - a battlefield cake. My old fallback-in-a-roasting dish, a nice big rectangular cake canvas, on which to create an edible work of art.

I was already planning to make camouflage cupcakes, but a genius friend suggested making the birthday cake camo on the inside too. Again, deceptively simple. Here's how to do it...

Bake the Cake:

To fill the roasting dish, bake a double batch of your favourite butter cake recipe, or use this one I've doubled for you already:

3 cups of high grade flour
6 teaspoons of baking powder
2 cups of white sugar
1 cup of milk
4 eggs
250g butter, melted
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Beat all ingredients on high with an electric mixer for five minutes.
Then...

1. Separate the mixture into three bowls and add a dash of gel food colouring* to each: Projel Khaki, Leaf Green and Black (with a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder added to the black bowl as well)
2. Place spoonful blobs of each colour randomly into a well greased (or lined) roasting dish
3. Continue until all the mixture is used up and bake for 25-30 minutes at 180oC or until cake springs back when lightly touched

*gel colouring must be used if you want your cake to have the vivid colours; regular food colouring will turn out dull and disappointing once baked. You can find professional grade gel colours on the KiwiCakes website

Once the cake has cooled, it's time to Decorate the Cake...

Mix up a double batch of buttercream frosting and separate into three bowls; Add a dash of gel colour to each bowl: leaf green (for the grassy areas), khaki (for a clay effect) and black with a little cocoa powder added to the black bowl for the dark mud base.

You will also need to have kept aside three camo cupcakes (see below) to create the knobbly hill. To decorate you'll need some mini flake bars, licorice straps and gummy army men lollies.

Separate the licorice straps into thin strips using your fingernail; this will become the "barbed wire" for your trench.

Create your battlefield layout: (1) Cut the tops off two cupcakes and arrange the three of them into a hill in one corner of your rectangle cake. (2) Dig out a shallow "trench" on the opposite end of your cake with a knife (you can see the camouflage effect inside the cake *yay*)

Using a rubber spatula, apply the darkest colour frosting to the inside of the trench and its neighbouring cake edge, and to secure the cupcake hill and "cliffs"

Now comes the part where you can be artistic

1. "Paint" and "sculpture" your battle field with the buttercream frosting. 
2. Use the khaki "clay" colour for the sides of the hill and around the edges of the trench; put the green grass colour on last, but then mess it up a little with the clay in spots - it is a battle field after all... no golf course grass here!
3. Using a rubber spatula gives you great control and it goes on quickly. 
4. Layer up the colour to create depth and texture (aerial view)
5. The "cliffs" side view - see how textured and random the layering is, but it creates a real sense of depth

Now you get to have fun adding in the details. Position your army men on the battlefield (cut the legs off before placing them in the trench); wind the "barbed wire" around slivers of flake bar "logs"; scatter flake bar crumbs around the edges of the trench for added texture

Lastly, I added a "flag" on top of the hill, and candles. 

AT THE PARTY (Overhead on the way to lighting the candles): "Hey come on! Come check out this epic cake!" Yep, our platoon of 11-year olds were impressed...

... and inside, a camo surprise!

Camouflage Cupcakes

After all that you should find making the camo cupcakes, super-easy! Use your favourite recipe or mine (found here); mine makes 12-15 cupcakes. Double it if you need more than this (remember to keep three cupcakes back for your "hill".

1. Use the three gel colours as before: Projel Khaki, Leaf Green and Black 
2. Separate the mixture in three bowls - for the cupcakes I actually had four colours, but three works better, I realised in hindsight.
3. Add your gel colours to each bowl of mixture (with a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder added to the black bowl as well)

Line the cupcake tins with plain cupcake papers (remove these later and put them in your fancy wrappers; if you bake the cupcakes in your fancy wrappers, they will lose their colour and go yucky. very disappointing.

1. Add a small blob of khaki mixture to each cupcake liner with a teaspoon
2. Add a blob of each other colour to your cupcake liners
3. Keep adding mixture colours randomly until all the mixture is used up.

Then, you bake them. (When they're baked they come out all colourful and camo-like.)

Once the cupcakes have cooled, remove them from their plain wrappers and put them in their fancy ones (I used dark green with scalloped edges from KiwiCakes.

1. Mix up a batch of  buttercream frosting, separate into three bowls and add your three colours as before Projel Khaki, Leaf Green and Black (with a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder added to the black bowl as well). I suggest making the colours LIGHTER than what I did by using less colouring, as the colours darkened between when I first mixed them on Friday and our party the next day
2. Put random blobs of colour into an icing applicator (mine is a $2 shop cheapie, but works just fine)
3. Apply a swirl of icing to each cupcake - ooh look, it's camo!

Then use any leftover icing and lollies to turn plain cookies into army themed ones...

More Army Party Stuff:

• Army Combat Party - a fun adventure
• Army Party How To's And Free Printables
• Army Party Personalised Invitation on my Etsy Shop
• 

Endless Cupcakes (to Introduce My New Party Partner)

It's SPCA Cupcake Week round here, which means baking umpteen batches of cupcakes for each of my three kids to take to school. I don't mind, really. After all the SPCA helped us adopt our beloved crazy (female) cat "Dave". The SPCA does great work protecting, caring for and re-homing abandoned, injured and sick animals. We are all for that round here.
So umpteen batches of cupcakes are being baked in support.

Of course there is no lack of enthusiastic helpers, which only makes it all much messier more fun...

Want to know someone else who has been baking a gazillion cupcakes to support the SPCA?
My brand new Party Partner, Sandra, from Kiwi Cakes. A concern for helpless animals is just one of the many cool things I love about this new partnership between Greatfun4kids and KiwiCakes.

Other stuff I love about it:

• They have screeds and screeds of cool party stuff AND baking/cake decorating stuff on their website
• The service is prompt and friendly
• They are a locally owned New Zealand company (in Whangarei) - I love supporting "local"
• They love my blog and want to work with me (wahoo!)

HOW IT CAME ABOUT:
I was getting organised and thinking ahead to my next party (Dash's birthday in November) and decided to see what was out there. Google sent me to KiwiCakes and I found everything I was looking for and more. When I went to place my order, I added in a cheeky little note: "I have a blog; I do parties... would you be interested in working together?"
(I have wanted a Party Partner for AGES).

Oh joy when Sandra contacted me (after checking out my lil blog) saying "YES". There might have been skipping involved.

In honour of my new Party Partner and SPCA Cupcake Day I'm sharing my go-to cupcake recipe with you, in the form of a printable recipe card.

Right-click, save it to your computer, print and bake a gazillion cupcakes with my fave never-fail recipe.

You might also want to click this handily placed little "like" button for Sandra's Kiwi Cakes Facebook Page, so you will get updates about specials and new products in your FB feed.

So wahoo for my new Party Partner, and yippee for never-fail recipes (when baking endless cupcakes).

Popcorn Cupcakes (Gluten & Dairy Free)

I made these popcornesque cupcakes for Scrag's Carnival Party, knowing that we would have a bunch of little guests with food allergies and not wanting them to feel left out of the yumminess.

These cupcakes are deceptively simple, easy and delicious - despite being both gluten AND dairy free.

They were gobbled up by kids and adults alike, who didn't even realise that they were "allergy friendly". No nasty after taste; no stodgy brick-like texture.

Just fun-looking, delicious cupcakey goodness (with no artificial colours either).

Here's my super easy recipe...

Dairy Free/Gluten Free/Colour Free Cupcakes!

INGREDS:

125g dairy free spread (e.g. Olivani)*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup caster sugar (fine grained)

2 eggs

1 cup gluten free all-purpose baking mix (e.g. Healtheries or Bakels are best)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup of soy or rice milk

(* to make measuring easy, it's 1/4 of a 500g tub)

METHOD:

1. Beat dairy-free spread, vanilla and sugar together until light and creamy
2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
3. Sift gluten free baking mix and baking powder together; fold into creamed mixture
4. Stir in soy (or rice) milk
5. Spoon into silicone cupcake moulds* for baking - makes approx 18
6. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly touched
7. Allow to cool and then decorate (see below)

(*Silicone moulds allow for easy transfer to your fancy expensive cupcake papers; they can be found at most dollar stores for a song)

Decorating the Cupcakes

YOU WILL NEED:

• Red and White Striped cupcake papers
• 2 packets of Mr Mallow Gluten and Dairy-free mini marshmallows
• a batch of buttercream icing made with dairy free spread (100g dairy-free spread, 1 cup of icing sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla essence whipped to within an inch of its life)

1. Transfer the cooled cupcakes from the silicon cupcake moulds into the fancy striped cupcake papers. Carefully trim off any lopsided bits
2. Separate the pink and white mini marshmallows
3. Pipe a swirl of the dairy-free buttercream onto each cupcake
4. Press a handful of white mini marshmallows onto each one to resemble "popcorn" in a tub.

Voila, you are done. Enjoy!

More Carnival Party Stuff

• The Carnival Party to End all Parties
• Carnival Party Prep and Printables
• My Party Index Page

Wild West Party How To's (with Free Printables)

Here's how I created the clever bits for our Wild West Campout Party. Everything is super-simple and cheap cost effective. There's even a bunch of free printables for ya... enjoy!

Rustic Burlap Jar Lanterns

1. What you need: Clean jars (with labels removed), loose weave burlap (hessian); spray adhesive, copper craft wire, scissors
2. This Scotch spray adhesive is FAB - super sticky, you don't need much at all
3. Cut a piece of burlap/hessian to the right size by rolling the jar and roughly cutting the fabric as you go
4. Spray the jar with the adhesive and press 'n' stretch the burlap around as you go until the entire jar is covered; trim off any excess (make sure you spray and stick the burlap to the neck of the jar as well)
5. To form the handle, wind the copper wire tightly around the neck of the jar and twist
6. Loop the wire over to the opposite side of the jar, poke the wire through underneath the wire and twist up to form a neat little handle

Put a tealight candle inside for a rustic glowing lantern, perfect for a night by the campfire.

 Rugged Wanted Posters
I created these Wanted Posters in PhotoShop, personalised for each of our party guests. They were fantastic as a decorative feature (and talking point) but were also a very cute take-home gift.

(Feel free to borrow my posters and add in your own outlaw faces and names in  PicMonkey or Photoshop; you'll need to crop each one individually and save it as a new file, then blank out the names, replace them with yours & add in faces)

I was lucky to have photos of all the party guests from soccer and school photos, which I PhotoShopped on to pictures I found of cowboys online (Google Image search). You can create similar Posters yourself (or borrow mine); if you don't have PhotoShop you can download a trial version for FREE here. You can download free Western-style Fonts here. Or you can get me to make them for you (NEW on my Etsy Shop: Personalised Wanted posters) 

I made the posters black and white and printed them onto A3 paper very cheaply at Warehouse Stationery (.25c each). Then Scrag and I had fun making them look old and crusty. 

Here's how...

• scrunch up the poster into a ball, then smooth it out flat again
• make a jug of very strong instant coffee
• apply the coffee liberally to the poster
• the paper is very easily ripped when wet so handle carefully
• lay it out on an old towel to dry, so it doesn't stick to a hard surface

Along with their Wanted Posters, we also sent the boys home with a bag of sweets (Milky Bars, gold coins etc); the manila labels are from Typo and the alphabet stamp set from Kikki K. Nice and rustic.

 

FREE Printable Wild West GingerBeer Labels

Printable themed labels turn cheap bottles of soda into part of the party atmosphere. We bought six-packs of Home Brand Ginger Beer, peeled off the labels and replaced them with the cute ones I created, using a glue stick.

I made two sizes of labels, for the individual bottles and the 1.5 litre bottles. The old labels peel off very easily. So that's how you turn .95cent Home Brand ginger beer into something way cooler!

Here are the Printable versions for you to use at your party...
(simply right-click the image to save it to your computer; they print out on A4)

Large Bottle Labels (A4 Horizontal)

Mini Bottle Labels (A4 Vertical)

Campfire Cupcakes

These were so easy to make, tasted divine, and looked so cute!

Here's how to turn cupcakes into mini campfires...

1. I used my fail-safe cupcake recipe, with gluten-free baking mix substituted for flour (not that anyone could tell; they are light and delicious). The buttercream recipe is also found here. Add cocoa powder to make it chocolatey
2. Smear on a swirl of chocolate buttercream; make it a neat and tidy swirl by holding the knife still and turning the cupcake to spread the buttercream evenly
3. Use mini Flake bars to create the "logs"
4. Carefully cut the mini-flakes into slivers for your campfire wood
5. Arrange the "logs" on top of the cupcakes as shown
6. Make a half-batch of stiff buttercream and colour it orange
7. Apply "flames" using a piping bag; start in a gap between "logs" and flick up, to create a flame effect (I used a star nozzle)

Yum yum yum.

Now what are you going to do with all that leftover buttercream? Well create a giant campfire birthday cake of course!

Campfire Birthday Cake

This was so easy to decorate, and yet it looks very effective and tastes delicious too.

Here's how to do it...

1. Bake a double mixture of your favourite chocolate cake batter in a round or ring tin. (My favourite easy never-fail recipe found here)
2. If you used a ring tin, fill in the centre with Pascall Mallow Bites (or Snowballs or similar). It should rise just above the level of the cake to create some height to build your log pile on. If you have a regular round cake build up a little pile in the centre.
3. Slather the whole cake with delicious chocolate buttercream icing. Don't hold back, pile it on.
4. Create a ring of "stones" around the perimeter of your cake with more Mallow Bites
5. For your log pile use Cadbury Flake bars
6. Slice your Flake bars in half and then into thinner slices to create your logs, and arrange your campfire logs, as with the cupcakes (but bigger)
7. Mix up a half batch of buttercream, and colour it orange (or even better use the orange buttercream leftover from your cupcakes)
8. Pipe "flames" onto your campfire as with the cupcakes, but bigger.

...then light the candles and sing happy birthday...

• Wild West Campout Party
• Cowboy Cookout 'Truth or Dare' Game (with free Game printables)
• Personalised Wanted Poster Invitations on my Etsy Shop
• Personalised Wanted Posters on My Etsy Shop
• More of my Birthday parties