hello kitty giant macaron cake (cake that looks like a hello kitty macaron)

Since the first time I created my Hello Kitty macarons five years ago, I have seen them pop up all over the place, on the internet, and even in bakeries and shops. They were one of my favorite things to make, have been requested at bridal showers, and I have even made them for a wedding dessert table! It is one of my most popular blog posts, and so I had to include the recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!

Last year for my birthday, I made a cake decorated with (nut free) Hello Kitty macarons, and a few months later when I was brainstorming ideas for a Mother's Day cake, my husband suggested a different type of Hello Kitty macaron cake - one that actually looks like a Hello Kitty macaron! Genius!

Since I have an obsessive love for all coffee flavored desserts, I decided to make it a coffee chiffon cake. I baked up three 8-inch coffee chiffon layers, let them cool, and then used a Hello Kitty template (the same Hello Kitty pan sushi mold used for my Hello Kitty tiramisu cake) to cut each cake layer into a Hello Kitty shape. Then I topped each cake with a layer of coffee whipped cream ...

... and a pile of smashed oreo cookies (since I love coffee oreo ice cream SO much!).

Then I added more coffee whipped cream and smoothed the whole thing out with an offset spatula.

Next came another layer of cake, more coffee whipped cream, and more oreos.

After the final layer of cake, I covered the whole thing with coffee whipped cream, and smoothed it out as best as I could with an offset spatula.

Then I went to work making it look like a macaron! I used a large round tip to pipe a ring of pink around the sides of the cake (meant to look like the macaron filling layer), and then used an offset spatula to smooth it out. Then I used a small round tip to pipe little "dots and bubbles", meant to look like the ruffly sides of the macaron shells. 

I finished it by piping black eyes and whiskers, and a yellow nose. For the bow I of course had to pipe hearts to make up the bow, since my Hello Kitty macarons have heart sprinkles for the bow.

And there it is! A cake that looks like a giant Hello Kitty macaron!

Happy Mother's Day!

hello kitty macaron cake with neapolitan layers (and nut-free sesame seed macarons!)

I've been wanting to make a macaron cake for a long time now, ever since I saw this snowman macaron cake at Rasberri Cupcakes. (And even before that, when I saw her heart macaron cake! SO adorable!) Since Hello Kitty macarons are my thing, I decided to make a Hello Kitty macaron cake for my birthday this past April! And since I've been obsessed with neapolitan ever since making my daughter's neapolitan birthday cupcakes, I decided to make it a neapolitan cake! Wheee!

Since my daughter is severely allergic to all nuts, and macarons are normally made with almond flour, I set out to find a nut-free recipe to use since I wanted her to be able to enjoy a slice of my birthday cake. So I ended up trying out this recipe at Pizza Rossa, which uses ground-up sesame seeds instead of almond flour!

Since these macarons were going on top of a neapolitan cake, I decided to fill my macarons with a rich strawberry chocolate ganache (recipe here!)

The sesame in the macarons ended up tasting delicious, and with the strawberry chocolate ganache the combination reminded me of eating a peanut butter, strawberry jam, and chocolate sandwich! (Which is sorta scary to me because my daughter is severely allergic to peanuts!)

The only thing I didn't like was that I had used roasted sesame seeds, which caused lots of dark specks in my macaron shell, so next time I would use raw sesame seeds instead.

Once the macarons were done, I moved on to the cake! I wanted a light and fluffy neapolitan cake, so I found use this neapolitan sponge cake recipe at Not Quite Nigella (except I cut the recipe in half because I didn't want my layers so tall).

Once I had my vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate batters in my ungreased 8-inch pans, I baked them and let them cool.

To assemble, I started with the chocolate layer, which I topped with rich chocolate mousse.

Then came the vanilla cake layer ,which I topped with a vanilla whipped cream.

And finally the strawberry layer, which I topped with a strawberry whipped cream.

Then I proceeded to cover the sides and top of the cake with strawberry whipped cream. I'm telling you guys, this stuff tastes just like strawberry ice cream! So good!

And finally, I added my nut-free Hello Kitty macarons.

WHEEEEEE!

This is probably my most favorite Hello Kitty birthday cake. Well, besides this ombre Hello Kitty cake. And this Hello Kitty baked alaska.

Oh who am I kidding, I love all Hello Kitty cakes!!!

And the neapolitan inside! LOVE! :)

Happy Birthday to all you April babies out there!

pastel hello kitty cookies, macarons, and bow cupcakes for a bridal shower dessert table

Way back in December of last year, I was contacted by a bride-to-be named Julieta, who had been following my blog and asked me about making goodies for her bridal shower dessert table.  When I found out that: a) she wanted Hello Kitty themed desserts, and b) she lives about 10 miles from me, I couldn't refuse!  At the time I was still pregnant with my third baby and due in February, but her bridal shower was set for April so I convinced myself that it would be fine, since my newborn would be about 2 months old by then.  But boy oh boy, when April rolled around, I was not prepared for the amount of work and lack of sleep that I was in for!

In the chunks of time that I had available for baking, I started with the cookies, since they could be made days in advance and would still be fresh.  We had decided on Hello Kitty cookies with pastel bows, as well as "J" and "D" monogram cookies after the bride and groom's names.  So I found all the cookie cutters that I would need, and baked up my favorite sugar cookie recipe.

For the Hello Kitty cookies, the steps were pretty much the same as the Hello Kitty cookies that I made last summer, except this time the bows would be pastel shades of mint, yellow, and peach.

As for the "J" and "D" cookies, she had decided on pastel mint and peach for the letters, with a white beaded border (just like the monogram cookies that I had made last year for my cousin's wedding favors).

Next up were Hello Kitty macarons, which could be made 2 days in advance, especially since the macarons needed "age" for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator to ensure the proper consistency.

See links here, here, and here for tutorials on making my Hello Kitty macarons.

Once the cookies and macarons were done, I only had one more dessert to make - mini cupcakes decorated with Hello Kitty bows!  These I made the night before her bridal shower.  I started with my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which I baked in mini muffin tins and liners.

For the frosting, I whipped up my favorite cream cheese frosting, and divided it in portions to be colored pastel mint, yellow, pink, and peach.  Then I used white frosting to outline my Hello Kitty bows, and filled them in with little dots of colored frosting, using a small round Wilton tip #3.

And then I was finally done.  After an entire week of juggling three kids and baking nonstop, I could finally rest.  Well, as much as one could rest with a 2-month old newborn, but that's another story.  It was all worth it though, because I loved how all the desserts looked together in the end!

Happy bridal shower, Julieta!  Hope you enjoyed the goodies!

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

my first wedding dessert table!

I'm so excited to finally reveal (in full) the wedding dessert table that I worked so hard on a couple of months ago!  Cherish, the bride, was such a joy to work with, and is seriously one of the sweetest and thoughtful people I have ever met!  She had envisioned a classic rustic wedding, and handmade many of the wedding details, down to the paper doily flower chandelier that hung above the dessert table.  Her wedding color scheme was greens and blues, so when I arrived the dessert table was laid out with a bright blue tablecloth, ready for me to decorate with goodies!

First up were my Hello Kitty macarons.  I decided to display these in gallon-sized giant glass jars so that we could see all the cute Hello Kitty faces peeking out, and also so that they would also stay fresh in the contained jars.

Next up were the potted plant chocolate puddings.  I had decided to display them on either side of the dessert table - one one side of the table they would be stacked on a two-tiered ruffled cake stand, and on the other side of the table I used a single tier white milk glass cake stand.

Next came football-shaped and tooth-shaped cookies, which I displayed on four long white rectangular platters, side by side.

And finally the mini s'mores cupcakes, which I served on a white square three-tiered pedestal cake stand, right in the center of the table.

To sum it all up, here is my initial sketch of what the dessert table setup would look like:

And this is how the dessert table ended up!

This was seriously one of the funnest and coolest things that I have ever taken part in, and I'm so glad that Cherish asked me to do it!  Thank you, Cherish!

And now, a few images from Cherish's classic rustic dream wedding!

Congratulations, Cherish and Steven!