hello kitty pink basketweave cupcakes (and a hello kitty cupcake workshop!)

The first time I made these Hello Kitty basketweave cupcakes was back in 2010, when I made fresh strawberry Hello Kitty cupcakes with pink basketweave frosting for my friend Hsing's birthday! Since then I have made them several times (see here and here for more), and they even almost made it into my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book! While we ended up going with cupcake options that were simpler, you can still find a basketweave tutorial and a pink basketweave cake in the book!

Then around the time that the Hello Kitty exhibit opened (at the Japanese National American Museum), I was contacted about giving a couple of workshops. One was a cookie decorating workshop which I ended up giving at Hello Kitty Con, and the other was a cupcake decorating workshop which I gave at the museum last month! I decided to show everyone how to pipe these basketweave cupcakes, even though they were cut from the book, because you can use the techinque in so many ways! Even the technique of piping the little Hello Kitty face can be used with many things, such as on the sides of a cake, in piping Hello Kitty meringue cookies, and making Hello Kitty macarons!

To prep for the workshop, I baked 6 dozen chocolate cupcakes (recipe in the book!) and prepped over a hundred piping bags with tinted buttercream frosting (recipe also in the book!).

Here's the setup of each station at the workshop.

And here's the workshop in progress! 

After the workshop, the museum had a book signing event to promote the book. This was super fun, as I got to talk with so many different people and discuss our love of Hello Kitty and baking! :)

And while I was giving the workshop and signing books, my sweet husband took our two oldest kids to see the Hello Kitty exhibit! (Our youngest baby stayed home with Grandma).

I had so much fun giving the workshop and being at the museum, I'm going to be super sad when the exhibit ends in May! But I hear that the exhibit may be travelling soon, so keep an eye out for the exhibit in a city near you!

sweet pea baby shower cake

Our good friends Cindy and Kai (the same couple who I made wedding cupcake pops for a couple of years ago) were going to have a large co-ed baby shower, and asked me to make a small cake for the dessert table.  The cake would not be intended to feed the guests, rather it would just be a little cake just for Cindy and Kai to enjoy together afterwards.  They mentioned that the colors would be yellow and green, and that they would like a "sweet pea" theme, so I set out to make them a little 6-inch sweet pea baby shower cake!

For the filling, I decided on freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries, since I know Cindy likes her desserts on the lighter side and not too sweet.

For the cake, I made two 6-inch chocolate cake layers - the layers came out rather tall, so I decided to split them in half, giving me 4 chocolate cake layers.

Then I whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream, colored the majority of it a golden yellow, did a quick crumb coat of frosting, and then covered the sides with a basketweave design using a Wilton #47 tip.

After mixing all the frosting colors that I would need for my sweet pea design (chocolate brown, green, darker green, and ivory for a flesh tone), I piped the sweet pea in the middle of the cake, followed by a congratulations message in chocolate brown frosting.

The baby shower was a blast; there were lots of games and activities, and they had a mix of all their favorite foods and desserts.

My favorite part was the hands-free baby bottle beer drinking contest!

Congratulations Cindy and Kai!  Thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you, and I hope you enjoyed the cake!

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!

baby shower duckie cake and cupcakes

To go along with the baby shower duckie and onesie cookies that I made a while back, I also made an 8-inch red velvet cake, one dozen chocolate cupcakes, and one dozen vanilla cupcakes.  For the red velvet, I used a recipe from Martha Stewart's "Cupcakes" book, except that I baked it in two 8-inch pans instead of making cupcakes.  Then for the filling, I whipped up a batch of cream cheese frosting and spread it onto the first layer of cake.

For the frosting, I made a batch of buttercream, and then added a stick of cream cheese to it at the end (this is my favorite frosting to use lately).  Then I tinted it lightly with sky blue coloring, to match the blue in the onesie cookies that I had made.

After first adding a "crumb coat" of frosting and letting that set in the fridge for a bit, I added another layer of frosting to the top only, and smoothed it out as well as I could with an offset spatula.  Then I piped on a basketweave design on the sides of the cake.

To finish off the basketweave design, I piped on a shell border around the top and the bottom of the cake.

Next I piped on a duckie using yellow frosting for the body, orange frosting for the beak, and brown frosting for the eyes.  I filled in the duckie body with a star tip, and used a #3 tip to pipe a swirly design for the wing.

The final touch was to pipe on a congratulations message with melted chocolate!

Since the cake would not be enough to serve the guests, I also baked one dozen chocolate cupcakes, and one dozen vanilla cupcakes.  I used the same piped basketweave design to cover half of them with blue frosting, and half of them with white frosting.  Then all of them were topped with a little piped yellow duckie, the same way I did the duckie cupcakes that I made a couple years ago.

I hope the happy parents-to-be enjoyed all of the goodies!

hydrangea cupcakes - lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting

When I saw this post on I Am Baker's hydrangea cake, I immediately wanted to make it, except in cupcake form!  With Mother's Day coming up, as well as Teacher Appreciation Week at Matthew's preschool (I had signed up to make a dessert for the luncheon), it was the perfect opportunity to make them.

I went to my Martha Stewart "Cupcakes" book for a lemon cupcake recipe.  The recipe calls for lemon zest as well as lemon juice, for lots of lemony flavor.  The cupcakes turned out super fragrant, moist, and soft.

For the frosting, I made a basic cream cheese frosting and also added some lemon zest and a tiny bit of lemon juice.  Once the cupcakes were cool, I piped the lemon cream cheese frosting on the cupcakes in my signature basketweave design.

Then made a batch of buttercream frosting (which I divided in thirds and then colored  pink, lavendar, and purple) to pipe on as flowers.  I thought they turned out pretty cute, but not as impressive as a cake.  So maybe one of these days I'll try making the cake too!

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

more hello kitty cupcakes

My good friend's daughter Naomi loves Hello Kitty (just like me!), so I made her some fresh strawberry Hello Kitty cupcakes for her 3rd birthday this past week.

Ever since my original post on these cupcakes, I've made them so many times I can't remember!  They are probably my most requested cupcake.  The first time I made them, I paired them with my fresh strawberry buttercream.  But I thought the combination was too sweet, and a little too much strawberry.  So now I prefer topping them with my tangy cream cheese frosting instead.

The hardest part about making these cupcakes is dicing the strawberries for the batter.  You need to dice them extra extra tiny, or else you'll get huge chunks of wet strawberries in your cupcake (which scared me the first time I made these because at first I thought it was uncooked batter!)  One of these days I'm going to try pureeing the strawberries instead, but I have a feeling it just wouldn't be the same as a delicate white cake speckled with tiny pieces of strawberries.

Hope you had a happy, happy birthday little Naomi!  I can't believe you're three!