hello kitty dia de los muertos sugar skull cookies

Along with the Dia de los Muertos sugar skull cookies that I made for my friend Sara's food truck in my last post, I also made Hello Kitty ones as well!

Again I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe (in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), and rolled the dough out to 1/8 inch thick before cutting out my shapes (using this cookie cutter) and baking them at 350F for 10-12 minutes  (until golden brown). 

Once cooled, I used stiff royal icing (recipe also in my book!) that I tinted pink, and piped Hello Kitty's bow on each cookie. Then I used stiff white icing to outline the head, before filling both the bow and head in with runny icing.

I let the icing dry for several hours, and then used black icing to pipe the eyes and whiskers.

Then I piped the finishing details. I started with blue dots around the eyes, then gradually added flowers and dots and swirls in pink, orange, green, and blue. Finally, I finished by adding a yellow nose and a final pink outline around the bow.

Hello Kitty sugar skulls!

I thought they turned out rather cute! And it was so much fun to pipe the designs!

Happy Dia de los Muertos!

dia de los muertos sugar skull cookies

When I was in the 5th grade, my family moved us from San Diego to the Bay Area, and my first friend was a girl named Sara who introduced herself to me on the school bus. We became fast friends, spent afternoons after school together, and often had slumber parties at each other's houses. But somewhere in junior high we drifted, and the last time I remember seeing her was in high school. Until recently, when we reconnected on Instagram of all places!

Sara now owns and runs the Soda Craft food truck with her fiance, and sometime last fall we thought it would be fun to have some of my cookies on her truck! They had a Dia de los Muertos event coming up, so we decided that would be a perfect event for me to bake up some cookies!

I knew I wanted to make sugar skull cookies, but since I didn't have any skull cookie cutters I asked my sweet hubby to make me one! Armed with my shiny new copper cutter, I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe (in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), rolled the dough out to 1/8 inch thick, and cut out my skull shapes.

After baking the cookies at 350F until golden brown (about 10-12 minutes), I let them cool and then whipped up a batch of royal icing (recipe also in my book!). I used stiff white icing (in a disposable pastry bag fitted with a small round tip) to pipe an outline on each skull, and then filled it in with runny white icing.

After letting the icing dry for several hours, I used stiff pink icing to pipe heart outlines for eyes.

Then I filled in the eyes with runny pink icing, and used stiff black icing to pipe the nose and mouth.

Then came the fun part - adding all the decorative details on the sugar skulls!

I looked online for pictures of sugar skulls as inspiration, and tried to make it colorful and festive with details in blue, green, orange, and pink.

It was so much fun working with Sara, and I can honestly say that after so many years she somehow looks exactly the same!!!



And the cookies did great on the truck! It was a successful first collaboration.

Happy Dia de los Muertos!

pumpkin spice mini cupcakes with brown butter cream cheese frosting

Okay, wow. I just checked the date on these pictures, and turns out I made these about four years ago, but never had a chance to blog about them. Whoops!

Anyhow, sooooo I made these little mini pumpkin cupcakes four years ago! I had leftover pumpkin puree from something or other (I can't remember at this point!), and so I decided to turn that into mini cupcakes. Just for fun. So for the batter I used Martha Stewart's trusty pumpkin cupcake recipe from her "Cupcakes" book (also used for these Halloween Jack-o-lantern cupcakes, as well as this pumpkin layer cake with piped roses).

For the frosting, I took my basic cream cheese frosting (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book), but instead of regular butter, I browned the butter by melting it in a pan over medium heat, waited for it to brown, and then chilled it until it because solid again. Then I let it come to room temperature before incorporating it in my frosting. (Yes, sounds like a lot of additional work, but SO worth it for that brown butter flavor!!!)

To get the cute little dollop-shaped frosting on top, I used a pastry bag fitted with just a coupler (or you could also just use a large round tip). Holding the bag upright above the center of the cupcake, squeeze your frosting out slowly, and use a pumping motion to keep the frosting moving outwards. Once the frosting has spread almost to the diameter of your cupcake, stop squeezing the piping bag and slowly lift the pastry bag up and away from your cupcake, to give you that cute little point on the top.

And there you have it! Super simple yet tasty. And perfect for Halloween, or even Thanksgiving! Enjoy!

hello kitty jack-o-lantern spice cookies

It's Halloween! So I thought I would show you these Hello Kitty jack-o-lantern spice cookies that are in my new book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book! 

I originally made these a few years ago, when I got the idea to make cookies that looked like the jack-o-lanterns we had carved for Halloween. So when I was working on recipes for the book, I of course had to include a version of these cookies, as well as a few other Sanrio characters!

So I also made Keroppi ..

... and Badtz-Maru ...

... and Chococat!

Aren't they cute? :) You can get the recipe for the spice cookies, as well as the royal icing, in my new book! 

Happy Halloween!

baked pumpkin donuts

Last year for Halloween, I made fun jack-o-lantern cookies, based on jack-o-lanterns that we had actually carved at our house.  And the year before, I made jack-o-lantern cupcakes with a spiderweb frosting.  But this year, I didn't have time to make anything elaborate!  I was, however, able to whip up a quick batch of baked pumpkin donuts on Halloween Day!

I've been meaning to use these donut pans that my friend Reggie gave me for Christmas a while back, but never had a chance until now!  For the donut batter, I found a great recipe at Kirbie's Cravings, and they were a breeze to make!  You basically just combine all the wet ingredients, and then add the dry ingredients, and then you're done!  

After filling the donut pans 3/4 full, I baked them for 15 minutes and they were done.

After they cooled for a bit, they went for a quick dip in a cinnamon and sugar mixture.

And then, they were ready to be eaten!  

They turned out really moist and flavorful, had great texture, and were full of pumpkin flavor.

I shared a few with my neighbor Cindy, and I just love the picture that she posted on Instagram!

I had enough batter to make some mini donut as well, using this pan (also from Reggie - thanks Reggie!)

One thing to note is that these donuts are best eaten the day they are made.  I ate some the next day and they were quite soggy.  But it wasn't anything that a quick dip in cinnamon sugar couldn't fix! :) Perhaps next time I'll store them unadorned and then dip them in cinnamon sugar until right before serving.

One last note, I also used the same batter to test out baking them in muffin tins, topped with a brown sugar and cinnamon crust before baking, and these still tasted great the next day!  

Enjoy!

halloween cookies - jack-o-lantern pumpkin spice cookies

I was recently invited to participate in McCormick's Halloween baking blogger contest through KitchenPlay, and since I love baking how could I resist?  For my inspiration, I chose the pumpkin cookies from Peabody of Culinary Concoctions, except that I modified a few things:

• I substituted the cookie mix for homemade sugar cookie dough
• Instead of using a container of vanilla frosting, I made royal icing to decorate it with.
• Instead of adding the pumpkin pie spice to the cookie dough, I added it to the icing.

I also added a jack-o-lantern face, similar to the ones on my Halloween Cupcakes from last year.

After adding a few jack-o-lantern faces, I decided to make cookie replicas of the jack-o-lanterns that we carved with the kids this week!

From left to right - daddy's scary jack-o-lantern, mommy's hello kitty jack-o-lantern, Melodie's classic jack-o-lantern (with a little help from mommy), and Matthew's funny jack-o-lantern (drawn all by himself!)

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

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