spiderman cookies

For my son Matthew's 5th birthday last month, he requested everything Spiderman.  (Last year, it was Superman - cookies, cupcakes, and cake!)  So I obliged, and started the birthday baking frenzy by making Spiderman cookies as birthday party favors.

I found a great tutorial over at The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle (love her site!), but made a couple of slight modifications for my cookies: a) I used a different design for the web on Spidey's face, based on a picture of Spiderman I found on the internet, and b) I wanted the web to be raised instead of flat with the rest of the icing, so I piped on the web design only after the red icing had dried (instead of piping the web immediately after the red as Sugarbelle does).

But first, I asked my husband to make me a custom copper cookie cutter in the shape of Spidey's head!

Once the cutter was ready, I make a few batches of my go-to sugar cookie recipe, rolled out the dough, and cut out my shapes.

After baking them for 10-12 minutes at 350 F, I let them cool on wire racks, and then transferred them to airtight containers so that I could decorate them the next day.

When I was ready to decorate the cookies the next day, I made a batch of royal icing (recipe from the same book), and separated the icing into different containers so that I could add coloring.  (I would need black, red, and white).  Then I piped on Spidey's eyes with stiff black icing, and filled the eyes in with white runny icing.

Next I piped an outline of Spidey's head with stiff red icing, and then filled it in with runny red icing.

After letting the cookies dry for a few hours, I was ready to pipe the web design on Spidey's face, using stiff black icing.  I also ended up piping another outline around the eyes to make them pop.

Then I let them dry overnight, before packaging them in cellophane bags tied with raffia.  

The kids loved them!  Especially my 2-year old daughter, who likes to scrape all the cookie icing off with her teeth before eating the actual cookie!

Stay tuned for more Spiderman goodies to come in the next couple of posts!

*** Update: Click here to see the Spiderman birthday cake, and here to see the Spiderman cupcakes that I made as well!

raspberry marbled mini cheesecakes

My friend Sue invited me to her sister-in-law Nicolle's birthday pool party, and it was a potluck so I decided to bring dessert.  I had just made this classic cheesecake earlier in the week, so I was still in a cheesecake-making mood. :)  But I wanted to make something hand-held and easy to eat, so I made mini raspberry marbled cheesecakes!

I used the same recipe for the mini cheesecakes I made here, which started with making a graham cracker crust in the bottom of each cupcake liner.

Once the crust had baked up golden brown and cooled, I quickly whipped up the cheesecake filling, and then poured them over the crusts.

Then I pureed and strained some raspberries for the raspberry marble swirl.

Using a spoon, a dolloped a few drops of the raspberry puree onto the cheesecakes.

And then used a toothpick to create the swirl effect.

Then I placed the whole cupcake pan onto a 12x17 baking pan, filled the pan halfway with hot water, and baked the cheesecakes in the water bath.  And when they were done, there were no cracks!  Yay!

The mini cheesecakes turned out great, and the hint of raspberry swirl was a perfect compliment to the creaminess of the cheesecake.  We all had a blast at the pool party (especially the kids!).

Hope you had a happy birthday, Nicolle!

*** Update:

I also made these with a Valentine's Day version of these with cute heart design, using the raspberry puree and a toothpick! Check it out here!

classic cheesecake decorated with whipped cream and strawberries

My daughter's daycare was throwing a surprise birthday party for her teacher Ms. Jerry, and on the sign-up sheet of things to bring was "cheesecake".  Not cake, or birthday cake, or even cupcakes ... specificially cheesecake.  Ms. Jerry must like cheesecake!  So of course I had to put my name down for it!

I decided to use a recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From My Home to Yours", a recipe which I had previously used for my red velvet cheesecake, except this time I would use a 9-inch springform pan.  So I started by making the graham cracker crust, which I pressed into the bottom and sides of my pan, and then baked it until golden brown (about 10 minutes).

Next up was making the filling.  The first thing to do was to beat the cream cheese until it became really light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Then I added sugar and salt, and beat it for another 4 minutes.

Then I added vanilla.

And then I added eggs and heavy cream (or you can use sour cream, but I used heavy cream because I almost always have it in my fridge for making ice cream!).

Once the filling was ready, I wrapped the outside of my springform tightly with aluminum foil, poured my batter in, and smoothed the top with an offset spatula.  Then I baked it in a water bath for 1 hour and 30 minutes, after which I turned off the oven and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for another hour.

And out came a beautiful cheesecake, no cracks!

Then I unmolded it, decorated it with swirls of freshly whipped cream, and placed fresh strawberries on each swirl.

Happy birthday, Ms. Jerry!  Hope you liked the cheesecake!

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!