no churn mint chip ice cream

When making the mint-chocolate Keroppi cake, from my new book "The Hello Kitty Baking Book", you may end up with leftover green minty whipped cream (depends on how thick you layer on the filling and frosting! Plus, I was recipe-testing so I had a bunch left over!). If you do have some left over, here's what you can do with it the leftover whipped cream ... turn it into no-churn mint chip ice cream!

All you need to do is add a few tablespoons of creme de menth liquor (or I suppose you could add any other minty liquor, or even a tasteless one like vodka), and toss in a few handfulls of mini chocolate chips. Then freeze it for a few hours, and you'll get no-churn ice cream!

I'll be the first to admit, the texture of this no-churn ice cream is not quite the same as regular churned ice cream. It's a little harder, and not as creamy, but hey I'm never one to waste leftovers and this is a great way to use them up :) Enjoy!

hello kitty meringue cookies

After making the mini s'mores cupcakes for my first wedding dessert table, I had a ton of Swiss meringue left over.  As I don't like to let things go to waste, I decided to make meringue cookies with it!  After all, meringue cookies are simply made with meringue, and then baked at a low temperature until the meringue hardens.  So re-whipped my Swiss meringue, and filled a piping bag fitted with a large Wilton 2D tip.  Then I piped rows of pretty stars on a baking sheet lined with a silpat.

But while I was piping my stars, I realized that I could actually make any shape I wanted ... and what I wanted was Hello Kitty meringue cookies!  So I switched to a  large round tip to pipe my Hello Kitty faces, and a Wilton leaf tip to pipe my Hello Kitty ears (similar to how I've piped Hello Kitty onto cupcakes using frosting, or this cake using Swiss meringue buttercream).

For the Hello Kitty bows, I used heart-shaped sprinkles, just like with my Hello Kitty macarons.  And then they were ready for the oven!

I ended up baking them at 250F, for about an hour with the Hello Kitty meringues (and a little longer for the large star meringues).

After they were baked, I thought I could draw Hello Kitty's eyes, nose, and whiskers with edible Foodwriter pens (as I did with my Hello Kitty macarons), but alas the edible pen would not write well on the surface of the meringue!  But no matter, I still thought that the Hello Kitty meringues came out adorable even without faces!

Even the star meringues came out quite cute as well!  Hooray for using up leftovers!

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

japanese cheesecake (soufflé cheesecake, a.k.a. salvaged cream cheese frosting)

I was really rushed when making these fresh strawberry Hello Kitty birthday cupcakes for my friend's daughter's birthday.  As a result, I not only messed up on the cupcake batter (that's a whole other story), I also messed up on the frosting.

While making the cream cheese frosting, I had decided to add some pureed strawberries... bad decision.  I normally make my fresh strawberry buttercream using strawberry puree, and the frosting comes out great because my buttercream always needs a bit of liquid to buttercream anyway (usually milk or water).  But I had forgotten that cream cheese frosting is already a very loose frosting, and when I added the strawberry puree it became very goopy.  And un-pipeable.  I tried adding small pieces of cold butter, thinking it would make it thicker.  But it only made it really lumpy.  So I had to start over with a new batch of cream cheese frosting!

After I was finally done decorating the cupcakes, I still had a batch of goopy, runny, lumpy strawberry cream cheese frosting, unused and sitting in my fridge.  I didn't want to throw it out - what could I turn this into?  And then I remembered a recipe for Japanese-style cheesecake that I've been meaning to try out.  I quickly checked the recipe - it called for cream cheese.  Check.  It also called for sugar and butter.  Check, and check - all of those were already in the frosting.  All I needed to add was flour, cornstarch, salt, and eggs!

So I ended up turning my runny frosting into a fresh strawberry Japanese-style cheesecake.  I used this recipe - It requires one-fourth of the cream cheese required in NY-style cheesecake, and the batter is lightened with whipped egg whites.  After I baked it in a water bath and then let it cool, I couldn't wait - I had to try it.  The cake turned out light, fluffy, and lived up to its nickname of "cotton cake".  I usually see this cake decorated with fresh fruit and glaze, but I actually thought it tasted great just plain.  The next time I make it, hopefully I'll have the will power to refrain from cutting into it before it's decorated!