A week in the life - Grandma Kiwicakes says "HELP ME!"

Well we've had a day in the life and a weekend in the life of Kiwicakes, now I'm doing a week in the life of Kiwicakes.

Last Friday I left Whangarei amidst the terrible storm (the one we heard was the largest in actual size ever recorded) headed for Tauranga - just on 5 hours later, with only a quick break for some lunch, I arrived in Tauranga.

I'd been invited to demonstrate the Cricut Cake and to have a Kiwicakes sales table at the Tauranga guild's Spring Fantasy day on Saturday 18th.

I took the opportunity on Friday afternoon to visit one of my suppliers, just look at all the party supplies there are to choose from - I'm thinking of you right now petalpop (Kiwicakes forum member and party planning addict, just like me) 

Just look at it all 

And the pinatas  

Look at the little piggy and the Strawberry OH!. I wish I had a strawberry party planned.

And the candles

The good news is, I did not leave empty handed, I organised 2 pallets of stock to be sent up to Whangarei (more about that later).

Saturday morning dawned blustery and early, after a very windy night in the apartment of Jo & Chris (THANKS JO!). I woke just before 6am, I'm not sure if I was worried I'd miss my demo, or if it was the howling wind outside.

Saturday I had a great morning catching up with many of my Kiwicakes customers, as well as meeting some new friends. The afternoon rolled around all too quickly and before I knew it - it was demo time. Demo #1 was off to a shaky start, when I set off using Flo's Cricut cake machine terrified it would tear my icing, which it did. Only to realise 10 minutes in to it, Flo had last used her cake machine for pastry and the settings were all wrong. We did find our feet and produced some lovely examples from the Cake basics cartridge. Demo's 2&3 went much more smoothly and we cut even more great designs.

I was lucky enough to be joined by Flo  - who was a great help not only on the sales table, but also during my cricut demos. Flo bought along her paper cutting machine and helped fill in all the bits I forgot to mention. Thankfully she also took some photos.

Saturday afternoon, after checking in with the family, who were all fine, I headed back to Jo & Chris' apartment. We discussed where we would go for dinner that evening. There was no competition, it had to be Cafe Versailles (I had taste tested the creme brulee there last year on my first business visit to Tauranga).

We stopped and took a few photos.

Cafe Versailles

The lovely Jo and me!

Cafe Versailles is one of Jo & Chris' favourite haunts, so they were well acquainted with the menu. They both chose lamb, manuka smoked and oh boy the smell was divine. I on the other hand chose a baked pasta chicken dish, of which I forget the name, but it was TASTY!.

For dessert Chris chose the flaming Crepe Suzette, now it's a shame flames don't show in the photo, as they were blue and leaping high off the plate. We were deep in conversation when one of the deep throated chef's left the kitchen with a pot of flaming brandy and the plates of crepes. Attention! please he shouted, I forget what he said after that, but it all came out in a wonderful french drawl. Then he proceeded to pour the brandy over the crepes. There was much applause from the entire restaurant. I'm sure the chef does this many times in a week, but from the look on his face, he still gets a kick out of it every time.

Jo and I couldn't go past the world famous in Tauranga creme brulee. What is so great about this creme brulee is it comes in a huge ramekin that is shallow (I'm a little more used to a smaller deeper ramekin), this means with every mouthful of creme, you get all that crunchy toffee goodness. All of this was accompanied by a Kir Royal (champagne with strawberry liqueur), this is one of my favourite drinks, if you've never tried it, you simply must.

We headed home tired, happy and FULL! for another nights sleep accompanied by the howling wind.

Luckily Sunday morning the weather had brightened a little and I got on the road back to Whangarei before 9am, leaving Jo & Chris to their renovations - good luck guys!

Fast forward to yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and 2 pallets with all of my treasures arrived. Grandma Kiwicakes says HELP! (can you see her there?) where are we going to put all this? We gave the commuters on the way home something to stare at, as the pallets were unpacked on the grass outside.

Now here is the exciting news, some of this is new product yet to be revealed, other parts of the pallet are super duper specials just for you!. Yes I do need to use SUPER & DUPER together - as where else can you get $200 worth of cake decorating product for $40. That's right, I got such a good deal for you, we've put together parcels like the one below for $40. You just need to click here to buy one on the Kiwicakes website.

Please read the fine print regarding these mystery packs  - the photo shown is indicative of what you will receive, no two parcels are the same. the title of these packs is MYSTERY, you cannot swap items in or out of the parcels. All items are completely usable, however one or more items may show minor shelf wear, from sitting in storage. (nothing major, but we mention for accuracy) Packs are available on a first come first serve basis. STOCK IS VERY LIMITED