hello kitty tiramisu cake

While we were on vacation in Hawaii last month, I found this awesome tool!  And I had to buy it!  It's meant for making pan sushi, which is basically made of ingredients that you would normally roll up in sushi, but spread out in layers inside a pan instead (and usually made with a layer of furikake instead of nori/seaweed  paper), and then cut in squares to serve.

So what was the first thing I made with this tool?  I made a Hello Kitty tiramisu cake!  We were going to celebrate my mom's birthday a few weeks early since my brother was going to be in town, and since her favorite dessert is tiramisu I had been planning to make her tiramisu cake.  And while I was unpacking all the goodies I had bought on vacation, I suddenly realized that I could use the pan sushi mold make the tiramisu instead!

So I found a tiramisu cake recipe in my copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From My Home to Yours".  The cake layer was a sponge cake, which I baked in two 9-inch pans.  While the cakes were in the oven, I used the mold to trace and cut out Hello Kitty on a cake board, which I then covered in foil.

Then once the cakes were baked and cooled, I again used the mold to cut Hello Kitty out of the cake.  I ended up using only one of the cakes, cut in half horizontally to make two layers, since both of the cakes together plus the filling would be taller than the mold itself.

Next, I prepared all the components I would need to assemble my tiramisu cake - I made espresso extract, espresso kahlua syrup (which uses the espresso extract), and freshly whipped cream to lighten a mascarpone filling (which also uses the espresso extract, as well as a bit of kahlua for extra flavor).  Once all of the components were ready, I placed my prepared cake board inside the Hello Kitty mold, followed by the first layer of cake.

Next, I the brushed the cake with some of the espresso syrup.

Then came a layer of the mascarpone filling, and then a dusting of cocoa powder (or you can use chopped chocolate).

Next came the second layer of cake, brushed with more of the espresso syrup (on both sides).  And then another layer of the mascarpone filling.  This would be the top of the cake, so I made sure to smooth it out evenly with an offset spatula.

And then the final touch - one last dusting of cocoa powder, using a Hello Kitty stencil, in order to bring Hello Kitty to life!

The cake turned out light and moist, and full of tiramisu flavor. 

I think the kids liked the cake even more than my mom!  Happy birthday, Mom!

The cake was pretty simple to make, and we liked it so much that I made it again the following weekend for my friend Diana's belated birthday (since we were on vacation during her actual birthday!).

I hope she liked it as well!  Happy birthday, Diana!

golf ball cake pops

We recently returned from a three week vacation, visiting my husband's family in Hawaii.  Needless to say, I haven't baked at all in the past month!  Instead, I'll share with you the golf ball cake pops that I made a few months ago, which I never had time to post ... until now!

My friend Cindy has a friend who was interested in having me make cake pop favors for her upcoming wedding, after learning that I had made the cupcake pops at Cindy's wedding.  She specifically wanted the cake pops to look like golf balls, and asked me to make a dozen as samples for her and her family to try.  I immediately ordered these golf ball candy molds, and set out to make golf ball cake pops!

I started by making my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe.  Once cooled baked, I broke up the cake and pulsed the pieces through the food processor in batches.  Then I made a batch of cream cheese frosting, mixed it into the cake crumbs, and formed the mixture into little balls.  I covered them in plastic wrap, and let them chill in the fridge while I went about preparing the melted white chocolate for the coating.

After melting the white chocolate in a double boiler on the stove, I dipped one end of a lollipop stick in the melted white chocolate, and then inserted that end into a ball of cake.  Then, instead of dipping the cake pop into the melted chocolate like I would normally do, I brushed the inside of the golf ball mold with melted chocolate and then pushed the cake pop into the mold.

After they set in the fridge, I popped each one out of the mold, brushed more melted chocolate into the inside of the mold, and pushed the other side of the cake pop into the mold.  I only had one mold so I could only do one side of the cake pops at a time.

The first few weren't pretty.  The seams were messy where the two halves of the golf balls came together.  And I didn't coat enough melted chocolate on the inside of the mold, so the dark cake showed through the thin coating of white.  I guess I didn't learn my lesson after making white hello kitty cake pops with chocolate cake inside!  Next time I will remember - use a light-color cake when using white chocolate coating!

But after a few batches, they started looking better.  The seams looked smoother.  And the cake didn't show through as much, because I made a mighty thick coating on those golf ball molds!  (Although, this lead to other problems - when eaten, the white chocolate felt way too thick and would crack heavily, leading the cake ball to fall off the stick.)

I'll definitely try making these again someday.  And as they say, practice makes perfect!

*** Update: You can also check out this link to see the golf ball pops made by Jasmin of 1 Fine Cookie, who was the first to come up with the idea of using a candy mold to shape the golf balls!

*** More updates: I used the same candy mold to shape golf balls as cake toppers!  You can find the golf ball cakes here and here!

baby shower onesie cookies

I recently flew to Chicago for my cousin Angie's baby shower.  I grew up with Angie, and we've been best friends for as long as I can remember.  Her friends in Chicago were organizing her baby shower, but I wanted to contribute something, so I offered to make some onesie cookies!

I used my favorite homemade sugar cookie recipe, and used the same onesie cookie cutters (from my previous attempt at baby shower cookies) to cut out the shapes.  Once those were baked and cooled, I outlined the cookies with white royal icing.  After the outlines had dried, I filled them in with thinned royal icing, and then let that dry overnight.

I wanted to make the cookies match the baby shower invitations, so I used orange royal icing to outline half of the cookies, and blue/grey royal icing to outline the rest.  It took me a while to match the blue color to the one in the invitations, but I ended up mixing in royal blue, black, and a teeny bit of purple to achieve the right shade.

Angie's friends did an awesome job with the baby shower - everything was beautiful, and the food (Korean food made by Angie's cousin-in-law) was deelish!  I was so happy that I was able to make the trip to participate in the celebration!

elmo cake

Even though we didn't have a birthday party for my daughter Melodie's second birthday, I still wanted to make her a cake, to match the cookies and cupcakes that I made for her celebration at daycare.  So I made a cake in the shape of Elmo's face!

I wanted to try something other than chocolate cake, and decided to make a brown sugar cake from Martha's "Cupcakes" book.  I divided the batter in half and used this Elmo cake pan to bake each half of the batter, one half at a time.

Once both cakes were baked and cooled, I began making the filling.  Since I knew that the brown sugar cake was going to be pretty sweet, I wanted the filling to be light. so I whipped up a batch of cream cheese frosting, and then lightened it with a batch of freshly whipped cream.

For the frosting, I made a batch of cream cheese buttercream (basically a batch of buttercream frosting with a stick on cream cheese added to it).  Then after frosting Elmo's eyes with the white frosting using an offset spatula, I divided the rest of the frosting it into portions, and colored the them red, orange, and black.  Then I filled in Elmo's eyeballs and mouth with black frosting using a piping bag fitted with a #5 tip.  Next was Elmo's face with red frosting using a piping bag fitted with a star tip, and finally Elmo's nose with orange frosting using the offset spatula.

Melodie loved her Elmo cake!  Although I thought it was a little too sweet.  Also, the next time I make an Elmo cake, I think I'd flatten out the piping on the eyes and the mouth.

And now I'll leave you with a picture of the birthday girl, eating her cake!

elmo cupcakes - chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese whipped cream frosting

My last post was about the Elmo cookie favors that I made for my daughter's birthday party at daycare, so I also wanted to show you the Elmo cupcakes that I made to go with them!  I had made Elmo cupcakes a few years ago for my son's third birthday - I had used plastic Elmo rings as cupcake toppers, but this time I wanted to make everything edible!

I started by making chocolate cupcakes - mini cupcakes for the kids, and regular cupcakes for the teachers.

For the frosting, I wanted something light and airy, so I made a batch of cream cheese frosting, and then a batch of whipped cream, and then lightened the frosting by folding in the whipped cream.  Then I piped the frosting on with a large closed-star tip, to create a "whipped cream" effect.

The final touch was topping the cupcakes with Elmo toppers that I had made previously by piping them with royal icing on waxed paper - the same method I used for the Superman cupcakes for my son's birthday.

A few notes about using this technique:

* Give the royal icing at least 2 days to dry.

* Be very careful when peeling the dried royal icing off of the waxed paper, as they are very fragile and break easily.  I would almost describe it as "peeling the waxed paper off of the toppers" rather than peeling the toppers from the waxed paper.

* Place your royal icing toppers on top of your cupcakes the day you are serving your cupcakes.  If you leave them on overnight, the toppers may wilt and the colors may bleed onto your frosting (not very attractive when black royal icing bleeds onto white frosting!)

Happy Birthday, my Melodie!

*** Update: you can also find the Elmo cake that I made for her here!

elmo cookies

My daughter Melodie's turned two the week before Christmas, but I didn't have time to plan a party (I feel so guilty - I didn't have time to plan one last year either!).  However, we had a small party for her at daycare.  And since I did Hello Kitty last year, this year I decided to do her second favorite character - Elmo!

I made Elmo cupcakes for the party (post to come later), and for the favors I made Elmo cookies.  I used this Elmo cookie cutter, and my favorite homemade sugar cookie and royal icing recipes (but you could of course use store bought).

After the cookies were baked and cooled, I used black royal icing to pipe the outlines for Elmo's eyes, nose, and face.  When the outlines had dried, I filled in the face with various colors of royal icing - red for the face, orange for the nose, black for the mouth, and white for the eyes.  

And the finishing touch was adding Elmo's eyeballs.

As always, I wrapped the cookies cellophane bags tied with raffia and custom favor tags.

Melodie loved them!  And so did all the kids (and teachers) in her class!  More to come on the other Elmo goodies that Melodie enjoyed on her birthday!

*** Update: I also made Elmo cupcakes and an Elmo cake!  You can cupcakes here, and the cake here!

christmas wreath triple chocolate mousse cake

Every Christmas we drive down to LA to spend Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family, and this year I wanted to make a cake to mimic my Christmas wreath cupcakes from Martha's "Cupcakes" book, which I had made earlier in the week.  So I decided to make the triple chocolate mousse cake from America's Test Kitchen once again, since I've made it several times and it hasn't let me down yet!

For the bottom layer I made my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe (instead of the flourless chocolate cake in the ATK recipe), but I followed the recipe exactly for the chocolate mousse (middle layer) and the white chocolate mousse (top layer).

From start to finish this cake takes a while to complete, because you have to bake the cake and then wait for it to cool for an hour or so.  Then you prepare the chocolate mousse layer, add it on top of the chocolate cake layer, and then let that set in the fridge for another hour or so.  Then comes the final layer, the white chocolate mousse, and once added to the top of the cake it also needs to set for another 2-3 hours.

After all the layers had set in the fridge for a few hours, I piped my wreath design in the middle of the cake with a leaf tip and cream cheese frosting colored green.  Then I sprinkled on holly and berry sprinkles (I used only the berries) that I found at Target (or you could use red sugar pearls like Martha suggests).

I unmolded the cake right before our drive down to LA, but I think I hadn't let it set long enough.  The sides were craggy and jagged, and not smooth like how I wanted it to be.  But I had no choice, it was time to go!  I hope everyone enjoyed it anyway!