hello kitty mini cupcakes with purple bows

Along with the purple Hello Kitty birthday cake that I made for my daughter's 3rd birthday last year, I also made these mini cupcakes for her class birthday party at preschool.

First I made mini chocolate cupcakes, and then piped a Hello Kitty face on each one with cream cheese frosting. I used a large round tip to pipe an oval for the face, and a leaf tip to pipe the ears. And then used a small round tip for the eyes, nose, and whiskers.

Boy, have these come a long way since the first ones that I made for her one-year birthday party!

This time instead of piping the bows, I used multicolored heart shaped confetti sprinkles (and just picked out all the purple ones!)

They turned out to be a big hit at her class party.  And even the boys liked the Hello Kitty favors!

Stay tuned for the birthday goodies I end up making for her class party this year!

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

purple hello kitty birthday cake

My daughter's fourth birthday is coming up in a few days, and I recently realized that I never got around to posting last year's cake!  Maybe it's because I thought the cake was just, meh, and it was nothing spectacular.  Or maybe it's because I baked and decorated it in a rush the day of her birthday, and I didn't have time to properly photograph it.  In any case, she had asked for a purple Hello Kitty cake, and that is what she got!

I still remember how cute she was that day; she wanted to "be a princess" and wear her pink tutu all day. She even got to lick the spatula after I finished making the whipped cream frosting!

I used the whipped cream frosting to fill and frost three layers of  homemade chocolate cake, for a very light and moist 6-inch layer cake.

After the top and sides of the cake were frosted, I finished it off with a shell border.

Then I piped a mini Hello Kitty face, and a birthday message for the birthday girl!

Since my little girl loves sprinkles, I threw some heart-shaped ones on along the shell border.

I kind of regretting adding the sprinkles though, it just all seemed to clash with the cake. But of course that was Melodie's favorite part. :)

Stay tuned for the cake I end up making for her this year - she has already placed her request!

thanksgiving pumpkin pie with hand-turkey cutout

Remember those Thanksgiving art projects you used to make in school, where you cut out the shape of your hand onto construction paper, or made a hand print with paint, and then turned it into a turkey? Something like this?

Well that was my inspiration for this pumpkin pie! (The hand print above was made by my 9-month old son at daycare!) I actually saw this somewhere on Pinterest, and just couldn't get the idea out of my head! So this pie was among the desserts that I made for this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

I started out by making my favorite all-butter pie crust, and fitted it into a 10-inch pie pan. I trimmed the excess dough from the edges of the pan, and crimped the edges with my fingers. Then I filled it with a simple pumpkin filling spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and ginger, and baked it until the crust was golden and the filling was set. Sadly, the crust shrank while baking in the oven, thus the slightly embarrassing edges!

With the trimmings of pie dough, I rolled it out and used a toothpick to mark the shape of my almost-four year old daughter's little hand, and then (without her hand there) I used a paring knife to cut out the shape.

I made sure to include the turkey's beak, eye, and feet!

Then I baked it on a cookie sheet at 375F for about 10 minutes until it turned golden brown.

Again, the crust cutout shrank (maybe I'm over-rolling my pie dough?) so I ended up with a teeny tiny hand turkey! But that's okay, a miniature turkey is just as cute!

Happy belated Thanksgiving!