hello kitty floral wreath crown cake

It's my birthday month! Hooray!

One of my favorite things about my birthday month is all the coupons that I get from all of my favorite stores! And of course, celebrating with my friends and family! But also one of my favorite things is that I get to make myself a cake, and I try to think of a different Hello Kitty design every year. Last year when it was time to make my birthday cake, I was really into make floral wreath cakes, so I thought it would be really cool to make a Hello Kitty floral wreath cake, where the wreath in essense becomes a crown wreath for Hello Kitty!

I love coffee chiffon cake, and I love Neapolitan cakes, so for the cake insides I decided to do a Neapolitan combination of coffee (instead of chocolate), vanilla, and strawberry chiffon cakes. And then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream.

For the frosting, I chose to do a Swiss Meringue buttercream (you can find the recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) because I wanted something light and not too sweet, and I didn't want it to melt too quickly like a whipped cream frosting does.

After covering the top and sides of the cake with a quick crumb coat, letting it chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, and then doing a final smooth coat, it was ready to decorate!

I started by piping black frosting for the eyes and the whiskers, using a disposable pastry bag fitted with a small round tip, and then using a similar tip to pipe the nose with yellow frosting.

For the ears I attached fondant shapes that I had cut out ahead of time (you'll need to let it air dry for at least a day or two, so that the fondant is no longer floppy and will stand up on it's own). Since I knew I would be adding buttercream flowers, I piped a ring of whipped cream along the perimeter of the top of the cake, which helped to hold up the ears as well.

Then I added my buttercream flowers, which I had piped ahead of time and let harden in the freezer. (You can see more on this technique here). I chose to do a deep pink and white flowers, partly to match the inside of the cake, and partly because I like the color combo!

To finish it off, I piped dark green buttercream leaves (using this leaf tip) to fill in the gaps in between the flowers, and then it was done!



Doesn't Hello Kitty look so pretty with a floral wreath crown?!

And now, for the inside of the cake.

The cake was soft and airy and light, with just the perfect amount of sweetness.

Happy Birthday to me!

     

succulent floral wreath cake

In continuing my obsession with making wreath cakes, I made a succulent version for my best friend Sue's birthday last March. And because when we were in high school, our favorite cake was always a mocha cake that my mom used to get for me, I decided to make her another coffee chiffon cake!

I started by baking my coffee chiffon in four 6-inch cake pans, and once they were cooled I filled them with espresso whipped cream. Then I covered the tops and sides of the cake with (non-espresso) whipped cream.

After smoothing it out with an offset spatula, I piped a ring on the top of the cake, as a way to prop up my pre-made buttercream succulent flowers. (You can read more on how I pipe my buttercream flowers here!)

Then I added the succulent flowers one by one, and filled in the gaps by piping buttercream leaves.

I thought it turned out rather pretty! Especially since I love succulents!

We celebrated her birthday by going out for hot pot, which was so much fun and so delicious!

Happy Birthday Sue!




Stay tuned to see what I ended up making for her this year!

purple and white floral wreath cake

Every year for my Mom's birthday, I make her some sort of coffee-flavored cake. It started out with tiramisu cakes, mocha cake, and lately it's been coffee chiffon cakes. For her most recent birthday, I made coffee chiffon cake again, but this time covered with Swiss meringue buttercream and topped with purple buttercream flowers! (I've been super into make wreath cakes lately, and this was no exception!)

I started out by making four 6-inch round coffee chiffon cake layers (I forgot to take pictures of the cake layers, but you can get the gist of it here). Normally with coffee chiffon, I like to use a whipped cream frosting because chiffon cake is so light an airy, and American buttercream is usually to heavy for it, but this time I though I'd try a lighter buttercream by using a recipe for Swiss Meringue buttercream (you can find the recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book).

I typically do a quick crumb coat of frosting first, the let the cake chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, and then do a final coat of frosting, smoothing it all out with a long metal icing spatula.

Then it was time to decorate with my buttercream flowers! I had piped onto small squares of waxed paper ahead of time - using a pastry bag fitted with a petal tip, I piped each flower onto a flower nail (which you can use to easily spin your flower around when piping petals). You can see this post for more details on this technique, but you basically pipe the flowers ahead of time, and then put them in an airtight container in your freezer, so that they can harden and are easier to handle when placing them on your cake.

Before adding the frozen buttercream flowers, I first piped a ring of frosting on the top of the cake, so that you have something to nestle and position the flowers on. Then I started adding my flowers, one by one.

The final step was to use a leaf tip to pipe green leaves all around the flowers - this fills in the gaps in between the flowers (and also hides the ring of frosting that you are placing the flowers on and around).

And then it was done! Don't the flowers look so pretty?

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!