frozen elsa cake with white chocolate drizzle and fondant snowflake cutouts

My best friend Sue's daughter, Leia, turned four last May, and at the time she was super into Frozen, so she asked me to make her an Elsa cake! Just like the year before, Leia requested a chocolate cake, except this time we decided that I'd make it extra chocolatey and fill it with chocolate mousse (instead of the fresh strawberries and whipped cream filling that I did for her Curious George birthday cake!)

For the cake, I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe (in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), and baked it two 8-inch round cake pans. Then once the cake was baked and cooled, I sliced each one in half horizontally, giving me four cake layers. Then I filled it with a rich chocolate mousse filling, using a piping bag fitted with a large round tip to give me even layers of mousse which I smoothed out with an offset spatula.

For the frosting, I whipped up a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream, which I tinted turquoise using a bit or royal blue gel-based food coloring. Then I covered the top and sides with a quick crumb coat, let it chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, and then did a final smooth coat.

Then I let the cake chill overnight, and I was ready to decorate the next morning!

First I added a white chocolate drizzle around the top and and sides of the cake. (Note: I didn't spread out the chocolate on the top of the cake fast enough, so I wasn't able to get a smooth finish. Then again, it did look a bit like ice!)

Next, I added various sizes of snowflakes, which I had cut out of fondant a head of time using this plunge cutter. (Note: use lots of cornstarch on the cutter, because I had a really hard time getting the cutouts to come out!)

Then I added a piped beaded border using white buttercream, and then it was time to add the Elsa topper! We chose this funko pop figurine as the topper, because it was super cute, and plus Leia would have an Elsa toy to play with afterwards!

I thought it turned out really cute!

Here are some picture of Leia with her cake (Isn't she the cutest?! She has the best smile!)

Happy Birthday, Leia!!!

curious george birthday cake with handmade fondant topper

My best friend Sue's daughter Leia turned three this past summer, and since Leia love Curious George, she asked me to make a Curious George cake for her party! Leia's only requests were: a) it was green, and b) it was chocolate. (She doesn't like "yellow cake", only "brown cake"!) So we decided on a chocolate cake filled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, decorated with piped green grass frosting and a fondant George on top!

A couple of weeks before the party, I started making George out of fondant, since I knew I'd need time for the fondant to harden. So I tinted my fondant with brown gel-based food coloring, and shaped the pieces that I would need.

Next I attached the legs to the torso with a little bit of water, and used ivory tinted fondant to make his little feet (the back of a paring knife worked perfectly to make his little toes).

Next came the arms, complete with little hands.

And finally, the head!

I used an edible food marker to color in his eyeballs and lashline, and added tiny white nonpareils for the white dot in his eyeball.

Then I attached his head to his body (with a toothpick connecting the two), and then he was done! He looks a little sleepy, in my opinion, but still cute nonetheless?

Next was the cake, which I made the night before the party. I baked up two 8-inch round chocolate cakes (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) and let them cool before slicing them in half horizontally with a serrated knife. This way I would end up with four cake layers.

Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries.

Once the cake layers were assembled, I whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream (recipe also in my book!) and tinted the majority of it green. Then I used an offset spatula to cover the top and sides of the cake with a quick crumb coat.

After letting the crumb coat chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, I did a smooth final coat, and then used a grass tip in a disposable piping bag to pipe the grass on the top of the cake. (see here and here for more examples of piping the grass!)

Finally I piped her name with gray frosting on the side of the cake, and placed little George on top (with a little bit more frosting on his bottom to hold him in place!).

His arms looked a little wonky, but at least Leia recognized him!

And here are some pictures from her party. So much fun!

Happy Birthday, sweet Leia! Hope you enjoyed your cake! <3 p="">

rainbow sprinkle first birthday smash cake

In addition to the Princess Leia cookies that I made for my best friend Sue (who was having a Star Wars themed first birthday party for her daughter Leia), I also made a rainbow sprinkle smash cake for the birthday girl!

Since this would be the first time Leia would be trying cake, we didn't want to go with anything too overpowering, so we decided to go with a vanilla cake, filled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. So I baked up two 6-inch vanilla cake layers (half of the recipe of the vanilla cake from my boo, The Hello Kitty Baking Book), let the cakes cool, and sliced each one into half horizontally, giving me four cake layers. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and chopped strawberries (normally I slice the strawberries, but in this case I wanted them in little pieces for baby Leia).

Then I whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream, and covered the tops and sides of the cake with it (crumb coat, then chilled for 30 minutes before applying the final coat).

The final touch was adding rainbow sprinkles!

In order to let the number 1 show up in white frosting through the sprinkles, I drew a big "1" on a piece of cardstock, then placed it on the cake before adding the sprinkles.

Here's a picture of the birthday girl enjoying her first cake ever!

Happy Birthday, Leia!!! Hugs and kisses from Auntie Michele! :)

princess leia cookies for a star wars birthday party

My best friend Sue named her daughter Leia, so of course for Leia's first birthday they had to throw a Star Wars themed party! To go with the theme, I made Princess Leia cookies for the favors. But instead of the heart sprinkle mouth from my previous attempt at Princess Leia cookies, we decided that a cute little smile would be more appropriate for baby Leia :)

Since I was making about 100 cookies, I made four batches of my favorite sugar cookie recipe (which is in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!). I rolled out my dough and used a monkey cookie cutter to cut out shapes, which works perfectly for a Princess Leia shape!

After baking and cooling the cookies, I started on the royal icing (recipe also in my book!). I used brown stiff icing and a small round tip to pipe the outline of Princess Leia's hair, and then filled it in with brown runny icing.

For the face, I used ivory food coloring to tint my icing a flesh tone, and then used the ivory stiff icing to outline the face, and ivory runny icing to fill it in.

Once the cookies had dried for several hours, I used brown stiff icing to pipe the outline of the hair, as well as swirls for Princess Leia's hair buns.

Finally I used black stiff icing to add the eyes and cute little smile.

Aren't they cute? :)

Once the cookies had completely dried, I wrapped them individually in cellophane favor bags, and tied them closed with raffia.

Happy Birthday, little Leia! Hope you had fun at your party!

Stay tuned to see the smash cake that I made her as well!