hello kitty cake and cupcakes

To go along with the Hello Kitty cookies for my friend Vicky from my last post, I also made a Hello Kitty cake!  And since the cake wouldn't be enough to feed everyone, I also made matching cupcakes.

For the cake, we decided on a chocolate cake, filled with strawberry whipped cream, and covered with cream cheese buttercream.  So I started by making my favorite chocolate cake recipe.  The recipe usually makes two 8-inch pans, but since I was using a large Hello Kitty shaped pan, I used one recipe for each cake layer, which I mixed and baked in separate batches.  Once each cake layer was baked and cooled, I whipped up a quick batch of freshly whipped cream, and added a few tablespoons of freshly pureed strawberries.  Then I piped a layer of it on top of my bottom layer of cake, and spread it out evenly with an offset spatula.  Next I added the top layer of cake, and then the entire cake went into the fridge to set while I made the frosting.

For the frosting, I whipped up a couple of batches of a simple cream cheese frosting, which I used to cover the entire cake in a crumb coat.

Then I piped on the details (the eyes, nose, bow, and whiskers).

And then filled in the rest of the face using a medium star tip.

For the cupcakes, I made three dozen chocolate cupcakes covered with yellow cream cheese frosting, which I piped using a basketweave tip.  Then I piped big ovals for Hello Kitty's face, used a leaf tip to pipe the ears, and used a small round tip to pipe the eyes, whiskers, nose, and bow.  (See this post on how I pipe Hello Kitty step-by-step).

I thought the cake and cupcakes turned out super cute, and I loved the grey and yellow color scheme that Vicky chose!

I hope everyone enjoyed the goodies!

hello kitty cookies

Last year I made these flower sugar cookies for my friend Vicky, as cookie favors for her daughter's first birthday.  And this year for her daughter's second birthday, she asked me to make Hello Kitty cookies!  As you know, I love anything Hello Kitty, so I was excited to make Hello Kitty cookies.  (In truth, I've been waiting for someone to ask me to make Hello Kitty cookies!)  The party colors would be yellow and grey, with a touch of pink, so we decided that I would make yellow and grey bows for Hello Kitty, with a pink nose.

On a side note, I've made Hello Kitty cookies before, a few years ago when I first started learning how to decorate cookies.  But this is how they looked back then:

Don't they look way better now?

So, I started by making my favorite sugar cookie recipe.  After I wrapped the dough and let it chill in the fridge, I rolled it out and used my Wilton Hello Kitty cookie cutter to stamp out my cookies. Then I baked them at 350F for about 10-12 minutes until they were golden.

Next I made a batch of royal icing, and divided it into 5 portions - the largest portion I left white, two small portions I colored pink and black, and last two medium portions I colored grey and yellow.  Then I piped outlines for the bow in yellow and grey stiff icing, and then filled them in with runny icing.

Then I outlined the ears and face with white stiff icing, and filled that in as well.

After letting the cookies dry overnight, I was ready to pipe on the details.  I started with piping the eyes.

Followed by black whiskers, a black outline around the bow, and a pink nose.

I considered also piping a final white outline around the face and ears, but I decided against it.

In the end I thought the yellow and grey combination was adorable!

In addition to the cookies, I also made a Hello Kitty cake, as well as cupcakes to go along with them.  Stay tuned for that upcoming post!

*** Update:
You can now find my recipe for Hello Kitty Cookies in my new book, "The Hello Kitty Baking Book"! Enjoy!

plum upside down cake

After making the plum ice cream in my last post, I wanted to make another plum dessert while plums were still in season.  At some point, I came across this post at Red Star to Lone Star for plum upside-down cake, and I knew I had to make it!

So I started by slicing my ripe juicy plums into thin wedges.  Then I made the brown sugar caramel, and poured it into the bottom of my 9-inch pan.

Next I arranged my plum slices in a pretty pattern on top of the caramel.  I had two different types of plums, so I arranged the darker ones on the outside, and the lighter ones in the middle.

Then I whipped up the simple cake batter according to the recipe, except I used cinnamon instead of cardamom.  After pouring the cake batter on top the plum slices (I forgot to take a picture of this, doh!), I baked it for about an hour.  By this time the whole house smelled of delicious cake and cinnamon!

After letting the cake cool for about half an hour, I inverted it onto my cake stand, and removed the cake pan.

The pattern from the plums turned out beautiful!  And the cake was delicious!  Caramelized plums, moist fluffy cake, and a hint of cinnamon.  Best when eaten warm. :)

Later that week, I made another upside-down cake using the same recipe, except I used nectarines instead of plums, and that cake turned out even better!  Stay tuned for the post!

fresh plum ice cream

It's plum season!  And so I decided to make a batch of plum ice cream.  I found the pefect recipe in my favorite ice cream book, David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop".

After cutting my plums into wedges, I cooked the down with a bit of water, before adding sugar and pureeing them with heavy cream.

Then I let it chill in the fridge for a few hours, before churning the mixture in my ice cream maker for about 25-30 minutes.  When it was done, I poured the semi-frozen mixture into a container to let it set in the freezer overnight.  And the next day, it was ready!

The ice cream turned out delicious!  It was refreshing, tangy, and sweet all at the same time, and reminded me of chinese preserved plums (li hing mui).

And I loved the color that it turned out!

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!