KitchenAid Blender Giveaway Winner…

The winner (chosen by a random draw) of a brand new KitchenAid Blender is…

Heather Pestana

Congratulations Heather!  Please get in touch with us via email or in a a private message on our facebook page – we need to know your contact details and what colour blender you would like!

Thank you so very much to everyone who entered the giveaway.  It was fun reading all your comments; what you would make or who you would give the blender too.

Please, if you haven’t already, help us say thank you for such a great prize by sending the folk at KitchenAid an appreciative message on twitter or giving them a ‘like’ on their facebook page.  Check out the rest of the gorgeous KitchenAid range on their website – there’s still a bit of time before Christmas for you to hint at what you would like for a present!

Once again, thank you to everyone who entered and to KitchenAid, and congratulations to Heather.

KitchenAid Artisan Blender Giveaway!

Earlier in the year we were super privileged to be able to giveaway a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer for our blog’s 3rd birthday.  Now we are wrapping up the year with another amazing KitchenAid giveaway; this time we have a KitchenAid Artisan Blender up for grabs.  Wahooo!

An indispensable culinary tool, the KitchenAid Artisan 5-Speed Blender with 1.75L BPA-Free jug combines professional performance with sleek design. This bench-top Blender makes easy work of stirring, chopping, puréeing or liquefying a variety of foods, from slushies, smoothies and cocktails to dressings, dips and donuts.  The KitchenAid Artisan Blender also features a 'PULSE' button for extra bursts of power and an 'ICE CRUSH' button to transform cubes into fine, snow-like powder (just like what you see in the video above – perfect for Christmas Day and New Years celebrations). You'll be amazed at the versatility of this power packed machine.


So, are you keen to win and treat yourself or someone you love with a new KitchenAid Blender this festive season?  One lucky reader will be winning one of these fabulous machines in the colour of their choice.  To get yourself in with a chance to win, leave us a comment below sharing either what you would make with the blender (we will be sharing more great videos to give you some ideas), or, if you want to win it to give as a gift, who is the lucky person you want to give it to and why?  Make sure you include your name so we can contact you! Entries are open to all New Zealand and Australian residents (yup – our Aussie fans can enter this one too!).  Entries close at 5pm Monday 16th December – just in time for your prize to get to you for Christmas.  The winner will be announced here on the blog and over on our facebook page.  If the prize is not claimed by the 20th December, it will be re-drawn.

Help us say thank you to KitchenAid for such an awesome prize and giving you the chance to win by giving them a like on facebook or following them on twitter.

Good Luck and Merry Christmas everyone!

The new Baking Makes Things Better promo for Food TV!

Baking Makes Things Better - Food TV Promo #2 from BMTBblog on Vimeo.

Food TV have sent us through the new promo for our site!  It will be playing on their channel shortly so keep an eye out.

It's pretty exciting to see our little piece of the internet being promoted on the telly.  This all just started as somewhere for us two besties to have a play around on and share our recipes with friends.  We never would have guessed it would grow this big and gather so many readers.  We just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us get to where we are today; you've all become our friends and we greatly value your support!

Mrs Beatens Prize Pack Winner

Congratulations to…

 Kelly Hunt

Kelly entered our Mrs Beatens Baking Premixes Giveaway and has scored herself a prize pack consisiting of two Mrs Beatens baking pre-mixes (Chocolate Molten Brownie and Sweet Spiced Cupcakes with Vanilla Icing), a tea towel and a wooden spoon!  Please check your emails Kelly, as we will be in touch shortly.

Thank you to everyone who entered, and a big thank you to Mrs Beatens for the prize.
You can find Mrs Beatens on the web and facebook.  If you entered and missed out on the prize, head over to their website and buy one of their mixes as a consolation – trust us, they are so easy to make and taste amazing!

Nutrafresh Giveaway Winner

The lucky winner of our Nutrafresh giveaway is….

Kelly Harvey

We used a random number generator to pick our winner. Congratulations Kelly!

Thank you so much to all who entered for sharing your baking ideas and a huge thank you to Nutrafresh for giving us a baking pack to giveaway. If you haven’t done so already you can help us say thank you by liking their facebook page!

Thank you again to everybody who entered and a big congratulations to Kelly! Keep an eye on your emails we will be in touch shortly.

A quick note from Mel…

Image found here.

Simon and I off are off on adventure around Europe at the end of this week and will be gone for five weeks!  We are both really excited, neither of us have been to Europe before and we’ve been planning and saving for this trip for quite some time.  I would be totally lying if I said I am not looking forward to trying out lots of different food and visiting famous bakeries!  I’m pretty sure I will be totally over-sharing on instagram, so if you want, you can follow our trip along on there.

While we are away, Courtenay will be running the ship here by herself.  We have heaps of great things lined up for you.  We’ve been working on guest posts and a couple of new feature posts which I’m looking forward too – I’ve got them all lined up and ready to go, and I think you will love them!

We also are going to be welcoming two new sponsors to our blog; Kenrick Rhys Photography and Mrs Beatens Baking Pre-Mixes.  Both do awesome work.  Kenrick has been a friend of Simon and I for a few years now and he takes the most beautiful photographs.  We would love to have him as our wedding photographer one day but are torn between that and having him as part of the wedding party and our guest as he really is a great friend (that proposal is happening while we are away, aye Simon?!).  Mrs Beatens Baking Pre-Mixes is a great online store selling pre-mixed ingredients for lots of tasty treats, great when you are in a rush or feeling lazy, but still want to bake!  Look out for their sponsor images which will be popping up on the right shortly, and make sure you click through and check them out.

Lastly, some things will still be staying the same; Courtenay and I will still be sharing some great recipes with you (I’ve tried to squeeze in a bit more baking than usual so I can still share some recipes with you) and our Billington’s monthly prize pack competition will still be running.  Please get your entries for June in before  12pm (mid day) on Sunday 30th June.  We will be announcing June’s winner later that afternoon.  Any entries received after that will be kept for the July draw.  Keep sending in those pics of your baking – we love seeing what you’ve created.  Happy baking!

Ciao xx.

PushPan Giveaway Winners

We have our three lucky winners!  Each winner will receive a PushPan pack with three different sized tins, valued at a total of $199.90 each.  The winners (chosen using the random.org number generator) are:

# 90 – Michelle Bird
# 207 – Rachelle Kershaw
# 135 – Samantha Minny

We need to hear from our winners by 5pm on Friday 17th May, or the prize will be re-drawn. 

Thank you to everyone who entered and a huge thank you to PushPan for the prize!  Check out their pinterest boards for plenty of inspiration for beautiful cakes you can make using their pans.

 

Baking Basics eBook!

We are so excited to announce that we have produced a Baking Basics eBook that is available for purchase.  The eBook covers some of the basics of baking biscuits, cupcakes and muffins, cakes and slices, what equipment you should have, troubleshooting guides for when things go wrong and 12 easy to follow recipes for those who are new to baking.

This is something we have been working on for a little now.  We are both really proud of the finished product and hope that you love it as much as we do.  Usually, you can purchase your copy here for $8, but, because we love you and want to thank you for the awesome support you show us we are offering a special introductory price of $5 for the next 48 hours!

We want to give a special thanks to go to our family and friends who proofread and gave us feedback on the eBook.  Also, thank you to Amanda from the Vintage Table who lent us some of the lovely pieces you will see our cakes displayed on in the book.  You should also all know that Mel did all the design work for the eBook - isn't she a clever cookie?!  Thank you, if it was left up to me it would have looked pretty boring!

So, want to get yourself a copy?  Or give one as a gift?  Click here to be taken over to our shop.

KitchenAid Giveaway Winner

The lucky person to win our KitchenAid giveaway is…

Jeanna Berriman

We used a random number generator to pick our winner at random – it spat out number 57 at us, which counting down the comments gives us Jeanna.  Congratulations Jeanna!

Thank you so very much to everyone who entered.  It was really heart warming reading your comments and finding out what recipes you enjoy off the blog.

Please, if you haven’t already, help us say thank you for such a great prize by sending the folk at KitchenAid an appreciative message on twitter.  If you want to get dreaming about all the attachments you want to go with your new mixer, check out the KitchenAid website or sign up to their newsletter to get all the latest KitchenAid recipes and info to your inbox.

Once again, thank you to everyone who entered and to KitchenAid, and congratulations to Jeanna.

KitchenAid Giveaway!

It's our birthday this month!  Can you believe that BMTB is 3?!  Over the last few years we have shared over 300 recipes with you all, many of them have been made in our freestanding mixers.  We both believe that these little beauties really do make baking better and freestanding mixers don't come any better than the KitchenAid Stand Mixers.
So even though it is our birthday, one of you lucky readers are going to get the best present any baker could ask for…

A KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer!

We are very excited to announce that KitchenAid have given us one of their KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixers (RRP NZ$995.00) to giveaway.  And, the winner gets to choose what colour they would like.  There’s White, Almond Cream, Empire Red, Black, Cobalt Blue, Yellow Pepper or Green Apple to pick from.  Cool huh?!


A KitchenAid Stand Mixer is a baker’s dream come true.  It will save you time and energy, while providing outstanding results.  In fact, the unique planetary mixing action allows the beater to spiral to 67 different points on the bowl for quick and complete mixing.  That’s the highest beater-to-bowl coverage in the industry!  Also, the trademark hub allows for the attachment of numerous accessories, allowing your mixer to be transformed into a pasta machine, meat grinder, ice cream machine, vegetable slice, sausage maker and much more.

Help us say thank you for such a great prize by sending the folk at KitchenAid an appreciative message on twitter.  If you want to get dreaming about all the attachments you want to go with your new mixer, check out the KitchenAid website or sign up to their newsletter to get all the latest KitchenAid recipes and info to your inbox.

To enter, leave us a comment below (click where it says ‘comments’ next to the ‘posted by’ information) telling us what colour you would like and your favourite recipe from Baking Makes Things Better.  Make sure you include your name and either leave your email address, like us on facebook or follow the blog so you can find out if you have won.
The giveaway closes 5pm Thursday 14th February.  We will announce the winner on Friday 15th February on our blog and facebook.  The giveaway is open to New Zealand residents only. The winner will be chosen at random and contacted once the competition closes. If we have not been able to contact a winner by 5pm Monday 18th February, the prize will be re-drawn.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas from Courtenay and Melissa! We hope you all have a safe and relaxing break. We are doing something we have never done before and are taking a wee break from posting to give ourselves some time to chill out and recharge. We’ll be back, bringing you plenty of new recipes and inspiration from January 7. If you are stuck for ideas and want to get into the kitchen we will still be updating our facebook page and there is plenty of inspiration on our Pinterest boards.

See you in the new year xx

Christmas Baking Class

 

We are VERY EXCITED to announce we will be holding a Christmas Baking Class at the beginning of December!  This is our very first baking class and we are really looking forward to it.

The class will be hands on - we will step you though making a couple of different Christmas cupcakes, some cookies and a sweet treat which you will personally get to make and take home after the class.  You don’t have to be a baking whizz, we are there to help.

We will be providing everything you need during the class as well as some light refreshments, so if you have ever wanted to try some of our baking made by us, now is your chance!

We would love to meet some of our Auckland readers (and if you are out of town and feel like travelling then we would super love that too!) so if you are keen to join us and take part in the fun, please flick us an email to bmtbblog@gmail.com and we will send you out some more details.

We look forward to seeing you there!

A bun in the oven!

And... it's a boy!  Congratulations Courtenay! 
Courtenay is pregnant, and Thursday night she and her husband Shane found out that they are expecting a boy. 
I made her cupcakes to celebrate and Jude (one of our work colleagues) brought in balloons.  We set them up in Courtenay's classroom on Friday morning before she arrived at school to give her a surprise :)
Courtenay is due Feb 1st.  She is doing very well and baby looks healthy.