Sustainable Business Initiatives

We have put in place a number of sustainable business initiatives to ensure that we minimise our impact on the environment wherever possible.

We operate with a Four bin system in the kitchen (food waste, organic, non-organic and recyclable), with all organic waste going to our on-site worm bins which in turn produce wonderfully rich organic compost and vermicast for our vegetable garden and orchard fruit trees.

Our worm bins are made using recycled bathtubs and produce both vermicast compost and worm tea.

Worms mix the minerals and organic matter in our kitchen waste with enzymes inside the worm's gut making minerals and nutrients more available to the plant in a slow-release form.  The great thing about worm composting is that the action of the worms means the compost (called vermicast) is created more quickly.

So these little guys do a fantastic job of helping us keep our business more environmentally friendly!  Vermicast is a wonderful soil conditioner, rich and full of healthy bacteria and soil life than ordinary compost and has been shown to grow healthier plants and hold more moisture than ordinary compost.

If you can get vermicast or make your own with your own worm farm, then you only need to apply small amounts, so it can cover a larger area of garden than ordinary compost.  Used as either a solid or liquid, it will not burn plants and can be used for all types of plants in the garden.  It is certainly starting to have results in our garden.

A beautiful and rich organic compost of vermicast takes only a few weeks to be created from all the organic food wast from the kitchen.

Auckland Council has some great information on how to start out with worm farming at the following link: http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/services/garden/worms.asp 

Other sustainable business initiatives include the obvious one of working from home - therefore reducing our travel requirements, using our own produce (and/or local Kaipara produce) whenever possible ensuring minimisation of food miles and in the not too distant future we will be installing a living (green) roof on our kitchen area to reduce or even eliminate the need to summer cooling in the kitchen.

Parade of Pink

If you like the modern 'mad hatter' style cake, then this vibrant pink 3-tier fondant cake will liven up any pink inspired wedding day.

Fresh Home-grown Herbs

One of the great pleasures we have at Marron & Dolce is using our own produce from the garden in our products.  We grow a range of fresh herbs which we use in a variety of products including our herb rolls (a real farmers market favorite).

We can't get enough of herbs and in our kitchen garden have the following: rosemary, french tarragon, chives, marjoram, thyme, vietnamese mint, bay, basil, lemongrass, lemon verbena, dill, lavender, oregano, sage, parsley (flat and curly), coriander and lemon balm - but the list keeps growing each year as we plant more varieties.  We will keep expanding our range of home-made products that utilise our herbs (we're currently experimenting with home-made herb pasta) because we believe they not only taste better, but often have medicinal and nutritional benefits.

There is nothing quite like the flavor of fresh herbs, particularly if they've only just been picked from the garden.   The The Culinary Herb Guide provides a great overview of herbs used in cooking and how to grow them.  But if you're keen to get on board with herbs, Jekka McVicar's blog is a fantastic wealth of information and inspiration.

Find us at Parnell Farmers Market

We are now a regular store-holder at the Parnell Farmers Market selling a range of home-made quality pastries, fresh filled and plain rolls and other farm-produced seasonal products.  Feedback from our regular customers has been great and we are looking forward to continuing to provide high quality artisan products to visitors at the market.  

The following show some of the range of products we have at the market - we regularly change what we make to ensure variety for our customers.

Glorious Green Wedding Cake

Using our custom-designed and built tiered cake stand, Clinton has designed a decadent spring inspired wedding cake with white chocolate wrapped individual cakes.  We think this cake is perfect for a spring or summer garden wedding or those wanting to use the modern crisp green and white theme for their wedding.

Hints & Tips for Kid's Cakes

Creating and decorating a child's novelty birthday cake doesn't need to be a daunting task.  One of the easiest and most successful approaches is to create a 2-dimensional shape of your chosen animal, car, or storybook character.  By sticking to 2-d (rather than 3-d) you avoid any possible collapses of cake and don't need to put in supports - but you still achieve a great look.

Additional advantages of this approach ensure you have enough cake for all your guests.  The pukeko above was draped in colored fondant.

The steps in a 2-d cake creation can be seen in the following pictures of the Gruffalo cake we made for our nephew - it  involves baking a large slab of your (or the birthday girl or boy's) favorite cake flavor (big enough to cut out the desired shape).  Print out an image of the shape you want as a guide and then cut out (sculpt) with a sharp knife and cover with a layer of ganache ready for the top layer of fondant or further ganache decoration.

And then have fun with the decoration - for the Gruffalo we used mostly ganache for the fur (a fork creates great fur effect) and some smaller fondant features, such as the eyes, teeth and a small fondant mouse.

And what better reward for all that effort than seeing the delight of the birthday boy when he sees his cake  and then blows out the candles!

Marron & Dolce at the Markets!

A select range of our savory and sweet patisserie products are now available at particular farmers markets in Auckland.  You can find us at the Parnell Farmers Market for the next month and we had a successful debut at the Coatesville market last week.

Wedding Expo

Marron & Dolce will be available for consultations and have a display of our wedding cake and favors range at the Ascension Wedding Fair in March and May.  Come and meet Clinton to discuss your wedding cake requirements and be inspired.

French Wedding Cake - Croquembouche

A croquembouche is a traditional French pastry that is often the pride of place at weddings and other special occasions in Europe.  It consists of a cone of choux pastry buns (or profiteroles) filled with cream fillings.  The traditional decoration is caramel with threads of caramel and other sugar work decoration, but it can also be created with chocolate (white and dark).  The one featured below was created by Clinton and has sugar ribbon decoration.

At Marron & Dolce we can create a range of croquembouche perfect if you are looking for a European style cake and something slightly different but very impressive for a special occasion.

Chocolate Mud Cake

We are known for our rich dark chocolate mud cakes, ideal for any special occasion - whether it be a dinner party desert, birthday celebration or wedding.

The tumble of dark chocolate curls and wrapped smooth chocolate sides over a chocolate ganache and with mud cake interior is a chocolate lovers dream.

Dress it up with your favorite flowers or a candle and your ready to impress.

A 8 inch cake (featured in photos) 

Individual Tiered Wedding Cake

We have created a custom designed crystal beaded and perspex tiered cake stand which provides a wonderfully dramatic way to display individual wedding cakes.  The stand can accommodate the normal cup-cake but we think that the tapered fondant covered or chocolate wrapped option has a bit more style than cupcakes.  We provide the stand hire within the price of the cake.

The top of the stand has a traditional cake which is used for the cake cutting ceremony and can be decorated to match your wedding theme (in this example pink bridesmaids dresses and pink flower bouquets).  Individual cakes are created to the exact number your require for your guests.

The beauty of individual cakes is that they can then easily function as the full desert for your wedding and different cake flavors can be made to suit all your guests tastes, from chocolate to vanilla and anything in between. 

Bespoke Cakes

If you have a particular theme for your wedding or a special setting where you first met which you would like to be featured through your wedding cake, then we can talk to you about how to best create a bespoke design to reflect your needs.  Clinton has years of experience in knowing what is possible and how to achieve particular effects and will be able to guide you to the perfect cake choice.

The example below was for a couple who were both skiers and met on the slopes and had a winter themed wedding.  The fondant cake was created to reflect a mountain ski run, with edible snowflake decorations and two glass skier cake toppers.

Chocolate Tempering - What's it all About?

You often hear people talking about the need to temper chocolate.  The tempering of chocolate is a process which ensures you get the best from your chocolate by creating a smooth and shiny finish and a clean snap (when broken) to the chocolate.

If you do not follow this process of heating and cooling to just the right temperatures then the crystallisation of the cocoa butter and mass will not occur correctly (and you will get the white colored 'bloom' that sometimes you see on store bought chocolate that hasn't been kept in hot conditions).  Tempering creates small crystals which improve the quality of the chocolate and is imperative to good quality chocolate work.

At Marron & Dolce we hand temper our chocolate.  This process involves melting the chocolate in the right way and then working the chocolate on a large marble slab (to keep cool) until it has reached just the right temperature using specialised scrapers.  The chocolate is then returned to the bowl and heated again to the right temperature for use.

We thought you might like to see the process involved to create the high quality chocolate we use in our products and how important it is for the quality of the end product.