hello kitty birthday cake for melodie

To go along with the Hello Kitty mini cupcakes that I made for Melodie's first birthday party at daycare, I made a two-layer cake in the shape of Hello Kitty's head (thanks to this awesome cake pan!) for a small family gathering at my mom's house.  The bottom layer was chocolate cake, the top layer was strawberry cake, and it was filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting.

Unfortunately, the strawberry cake layer turned out very dense and heavy - not what I was going for.  I had used Martha Stewart's strawberry cupcake recipe, which turned out great for cupcakes here and here, but I guess it is a battter that is not meant for a whole cake.

In any case, I proceeded to decorate Hello Kitty, until she was completely covered in piped stars.

And in the end, Melodie loved her cake anyway :)

*** Update: I made this cake again several months later for a bridal shower. You can find the post here!

hello kitty mini cupcakes

Last Thursday was my little Melodie's first birthday!  I wanted to make Hello Kitty cupcakes to bring to her little celebration at daycare, so I decided to make mini cupcakes since there would only be babies and toddlers there.  I decided on a fresh strawberry batter from Martha Stewart's "Cupcakes" book for the cake, and cream cheese frosting to go on top.

I used the smallest scooper I had to fill the mini cupcake pan.  Once the mini cupcakes were cooled, I piped Hello Kitty with cream cheese frosting, and gave her a pink nose and bow.

Then I made regular-sized cupcakes for the teachers.  I had found cute Hello Kitty cupcake liners a while ago, and this was the perfect time to use them!

To make them look a little different from the mini cupcakes, I did a basket weave piping with cream cheese frosting, and then piped Hello Kitty on top in pink (the exact opposite from the Hello Kitty birthday cupcakes I did before).

At the party, Melodie was a little confused by the cupcake at first, but once she tasted it there was no stopping her.  She loved it and ate the whole thing!