Ahoy there, me hearties!

On Valentine's Day our school had a Pirate Picnic for the whole school and all the whānau.  It was a stunning day... clear blue skies... warm but not stifling... and everyone was in good spirits. 

We had boat rides with a 'real' pirate... at least he looked pretty real to the kids!  Thankfully Captain Ron didn't make any of them walk the plank :)

A few of us got together and decided to do a 'bring a plate' style picnic and share our goodies... and considering it had been a while since I'd made any cupcakes I thought I'd bring something sweet.

I did a bit of Googling and came across a few ideas that appealed... colours from one idea... sprinkles from another... and fondant embellishments from a couple of others... and here's what I came up with:

I had a lot of fun making these cupcakes... in fact I often refer to cupcakes as my 'first love' in the kitchen!

These ones were a classic vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting.  If you don't know the secret to a really creamy, silky buttercream... it's a good BEATING!  I usually whip my butter for a good 10 to 15 minutes in my KitchenAid until the butter is fluffy and almost white.  Then I add my icing sugar in two batches with even more whipping before finishing off with a small amount of liquid to get the right consistency... usually milk or cream... sometimes alcohol lol  

Since these ones were for a school event there was no alcohol... but imagine adding a bit of rum to make them really Piratey!!  

Cakes made and cooled... big fluffy swirls of buttercream on top... and then I added some 'treasure' aka sugar pearls and glitter.

 

Before I made the cakes I'd worked on some fondant decorations... I decided on a treasure map and a pirate hat.  This was made MUCH easier because I was able to make myself some small cutters on my 3D printer.

First of all I coloured some fondant with Colour Mill Pebble and then rolled it out and cut it with my new treasure map cutter. 

I decided it needed a little bit of depth... plus I just like using my air brush... so a bit of brown around the edges was added.

To create the actual 'map' I made myself a mini stencil using acetate... it worked brilliantly!  First the black.

 

Followed by some red to mark the spot:

The maps looked a little 'flat' so I grabbed some chopsticks and bent the maps over them.  The fondant started to crack a little  which initially bothered me... until I realised it just made them look even more rustic!

Next I moved onto cutting out some pirate hats from black fondant. p.s. just in case you didn't know (thanks Google) A pirate hat is commonly called a tricorne hat. It has a triangular shape with three points and a wide brim.

I decided the little tricorne's needed a bit of movement as well so I used a few more chopsticks, but they seemed 'flat' in a different way so I added a brush of edible gold paint.

 

The next morning I realised that the cross bones didn't really stand out so I added a small piece of white fondant behind it... what a difference!

 

So... back to the cupcakes which had buttercream and 'treasure' and now it was time for the maps and tricornes!

The picnic was awesome... the tamariki all had a wonderful day playing, swimming, going on the boat and of course eating (which is what picnics are all about after all).

Thanks for stopping by
Shelley

I nearly forgot!

Sometimes I think I've shared something only to discover that I definitely haven't... and this is one of those times.  

This year I'm making a concentrated effort to try new things... experiment... push my creative limits and generally being open to new ideas.  So in the spirit of all that I came up with some Waitangi Day cookies... just because I could :)

 

It all started off with a new 'Donut Smould' from Sweetly Impressed.  This very cool (in my opinion) stamp and mould set creates a rounded cookie that resembles the shape of a donut.  

I had only just received my Smould set (Stamp and Mould) and was eager to try it out... and it did not disappoint!  I used my favourite vanilla cookie dough and thanks to plenty of flour dusting the mould it worked perfectly!

Cookies ready for baking

 I had a basic idea in my head for what I thought I'd do... since these were for Waitangi Day that had to have a New Zealand theme to them so I was thinking ferns... kiwis... and a bit of text.

One of the very best things about having a 3D printer is having the ability to make things bespoke... so I started off making a little kiwi cutter.

Kiwi cutter

I also knew I wanted to have a go at making a text stamp... this took several goes but I eventually came up with something useable... not 100% happy with it but it DID do the job.

Looks ugly but it did work

Then it was time to make some fondant kiwi.  I coloured my fondant to a deep, rich brown and then rolled it out thinly before cutting with my dinky little cutter.  It worked brilliantly!

 

Kiwi cut out and air drying

 

I wanted a bit of texture on my cookie and I was pretty sure that I had a fern leaf silicone mould somewhere... thankfully I found it before I had to search my whole house!

 

I coloured up some more fondant using about four different greens until I had something I was happy with.  Then I pushed the fondant into the mould... popped it into the fridge for a few minutes to firm up... popped the fondant out and did the next one... over and over and over again! 

My vision was starting to come together!

 Then I coloured some fondant with Colour Mill Latte... I'm really loving that particular colour at the moment... cut it out with the cutter... stamped my text... added it to the cookie along with a kiwi and fern... and it still needed something... so I added some edible glitter.  

The idea I'd had in my head was a lot better than this one... but I knew I was kind of onto 'something'.

 

First trial... close but no cigar!

• Etymology - Close but no cigar

From the practice of giving cigars as prizes at carnivals in the United States in the 20th century; those who did not win would fail to receive a cigar, even if they came close.

I had a look around on Google trying to come up with an idea when I stumbled across bakers using Impression Mats... and that's when the light bulb went off in my head.  An Impression Mat wasn't all that different from an embossing folder.. and I knew I had lots of those!  I even had some brand new ones that I'd never used so I went for a wee hunt and come up with something perfect!

 

I rolled out some Latte coloured fondant... opened up the embossing folder... pressed it into the fondant and hey presto!

 

What a difference a bit of texture makes!

 

Massive difference between the two cookies!  The fondant embossing almost gave it a Tā Moko vibe.

 

 Now that I was happy with my cookie idea I actually re-did the first cookie and carried on with the rest until I had 20 finished cookies.

I still need to work on placing the text in the right place!

 

 

 

Then I covered them with a net cover overnight and in the morning I packaged the cookies ready to take to school for our staff hui.

 

I was really happy with the final results... and my colleagues were all happy to receive a cookie after our staff hui.  

So what have I learned?

• Texture makes a massive difference!
• Making bespoke cutters really makes things unique and personal
• If I only have one mould it's going to take a while to make multiple elements! Those ferns were a little bit painstaking by the time I had made 20 of them!
• Plus I've learned a new word... Etymology... which means the origin of a word and the historical development of its meaning.

I've got plenty more ideas for this particular 'Smould' set so I'm sure you'll see more in the future!

Thanks for stopping by :)
Shelley