Halloween Biscuits

Lots of the kids at school like to give out treats to their classmates at school at Halloween. My kids love my iced biscuits, so I decided to make a batch for school and put them into Halloween treat bags purchased from Coles.

These are plain biscuits, the main flavour in them is golden syrup and brown sugar with a hint of cinnamon. I used royal icing to decorate them. They were completely nut free but I included all the ingredients with each biscuit, just in case there was anyone with an egg or dairy allergy.

These were a huge hit with the kids at school, everyone loved them and I had plenty of compliments coming from the kids and parents (well, those who got to see the bikkies before their child scoffed it!) I think they are hoping I’ll be making these every Halloween now! I might have to do some Christmas ones!

Buttercream Roses!

I had a mediocre attempt at these once before, but the roses didn’t hold their shape very well after a while, due to the butter melting. This time I used shortening instead of butter and they came up much better. I think these are actually much easier to do than they look. If you don’t have the special tool to lift the flower after you’ve piped it onto a flower nail, just use scissors to lift it off the nail and place it onto the cake.

I piped some leaves wherever there were any gaps left for me to do so. I was pretty happy with the result, and the kids (and neighbours) enjoyed eating it. As soon as I tasted the icing with the shortening, I instantly recognised the flavour from all those cakes I bought from cake shops in previous years… so that’s how they get their piped decorations to hold shape!

This cake wasn’t made for any special order or occasion… I just wanted to practise piping some buttercream roses!

My daughter’s Birthday!

My daughter had a flick through some cake decorator books, and couldn’t decide between the two below… so I made both! Both of these designs are featured in the latest Women’s Weekly Cake books, and are quite easy to do. This first one is a hummingbird cake, with cream cheese frosting (a favourite in our house). It has white chocolate (coloured pink) butterflies. It was delicious!

The cake below was a chocolate sponge with cream cheese frosting filling between layers. It is covered in rolled fondant and I used some butterfly wings left over from the cake above, and broke them into smaller pieces to make the bee’s wings. The cupcakes are also chocolate sponge with fondant icing and decorations.