Tuesday, August 21, 2012

hello kitty graduation cake


My little boy graduated from preschool last month!  I can't believe how fast time flies!  His school had a graduation ceremony for his class, so I decided to bake the class a graduation cake.  Since I didn't get to use my designs and sketches from the last graduation cake that I made, I decided to use it now, except in blue!  The cake would have Hello Kitty piped on the top, with a graduation cap on her head, and a piped petal frosting on the sides.


I started by making my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe, baked in two 8-inch pans.  Once the cake layers were baked and cooled, I made my favorite chocolate mousse recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  (Once again, the same chocolate mousse recipe from all the triple chocolate mousse cakes that I've made in the past).


After I piped my chocolate mousse onto the first layer of cake, I used an offset spatula to smooth it out, and then placed my second layer of cake on top.  And then I was ready to frost!


I whipped up a quick batch of cream cheese buttercream, basically a basic buttercream with a stick of cream cheese added to it, colored it light blue, and then did a quick crumb coat of frosting over the entire cake.


Then came the petal piping on the sides.  I first saw this great technique at Hungry Housewife, and since then have used it to make a purple ombre petal cake, as well as a camoflauge petal cake, and I love the effect every time!


The first step is to pipe a vertical row of round circles, using a Wilton #12 tip.  Then using an offset spatula, drag it accross each circle to smear the circles into petals.  Then pipe the next vertical row of circles, drag with the offset spatula, and continue this process until the entire cake is covered.



Then I used black frosting to pipe a Hello Kitty outline on the top of the cake, as well as a black graduation cap on her head, and a yellow nose.


Next I filled in Hello Kitty's face using a star tip and white frosting, and I filled in her bow with royal blue icing.  And the final touch was a yellow tassle coming out of her graduation cap!


By the way, it's no coincidence that I used UCLA colors.  GO BRUINS!!!

I also piped a congratulations message for his class, but I misjudged the spacing and so I had to add a bunch of exclamation marks to even it out!


The teachers served the cake at snack time, right before the graduation ceremony, and even though Matthew usually doesn't like chocolate cake, he ate the whole slice!

Here's a picture of him walking out of the graduation ceremony.


Happy graduation, my Matthew!  I'm so proud of you and can't wait to see you flourish in Kindergarten!


10 comments:

  1. ohhhh so beatyfullllllll.. congratulation!!! God job girl!!! Seeyaaa.. have a nice day!!! i love it!

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  2. very beautiful, i like the blue colour frosting and the hello kitty with mortarboard ^^

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  3. That is amazing!!! Wonderful job

    http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/

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  4. Hi Michele,
    What a wonderful pics of hello kitty graduation cake you have here.
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    It's free to submit, free to join, and a lot of members can enjoy your creation!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Please tell me how you get your letters so perfect. What do you use for piping out the message and how you do you get them so even and beautifully spaced. Lovely lovely work!

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    Replies
    1. @Unknown - thank you! i just use the same frosting to pipe out the message onto the cake. the letters actually look exactly like my handwriting, haha!

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  6. Hi, how do you pipe the hello kitty outline on your cake? And what size tip do you use for the outline and filling? Love your cake!

    ReplyDelete