With a passion for cake decorating, Sandra Boston spent her second pregnancy working as a home baker, and that is how KiwiCakes was formed during a time when sourcing supplies for cake decorating was quite challenging.
Producing a vast range of ‘sprinkle medleys’, a now commonplace item, KiwiCakes first made these available to the retail public in New Zealand almost ten years ago.
Today, the brand has evolved from a home-based business to a brick-and-mortar store and has an e-commerce website shipping throughout the country.
“I am constantly on the lookout for something new. If it is not too much of a cliche, I would say I am a confessed foodie,” said Boston.
“I tell my customers, yuzu is like a cross between lemon and grapefruit with a hint of orange; it is unique, and you should try it as this description does not truly do it justice."
Although yuzu is still relatively unknown in New Zealand to home bakers for whom lemon seems to be a more popular choice, professional decorators are more inclined to use it as they often seek to offer something new and exciting to the customers they are baking for.
Boston thinks that it is the freshness of yuzu that appeals to people, specifically those who are fans of citrus flavours.
With the usage and demand of yuzu in the baking industry still in its infancy, freeze-dried yuzu flakes are now available from companies such as Fresh-as, which can be used in icings and cheesecake batters or with yuzu white chocolate using Valrhona yuzu flavoured chocolate, imported by Sabato, from whom Boston also recently purchased a yuzu mayonnaise.
Being in the retail cake industry since 2006, Boston finds it challenging that many supplies for the industry are imported from overseas and not manufactured in New Zealand, leading to a rise in freight costs, which affects the business.
Read more about Yuzu in the latest issue below.
