homemade oreos (homemade TKOs)

A few years ago, I tried making homemade oreos but I wasn't happy with them. The cookie was too crumbly, and the filling was too soft. Later on, I tasted the TKOs (Thomas Keller Oreos) at Bouchon Bakery. Delicious! I eventually bought myself a copy of the Bouchon Bakery book, and the homemade oreo recipe was the first thing I tried!

After rolling out the (very chocolaty) dough between two sheets of parchment paper, I cut out my scalloped circles with a 3-inch decorative cookie cutter.

And then baked them for about 16 minutes.

For the filling, I followed the white chocolate filling recipe in the book, but it didn't work for me. It came out very, very runny. So instead I whipped up a vanilla buttercream and used that instead.

The book tells you to pipe the filling in teardrop shapes, to accent the scalloped edges of the cookie. So pretty!

I have to admin, these were much much better than my first attempt at homemade oreos years ago. This cookie was more chocolately, with a slightly salty bite, and the texture was perfect to hold in the delicious filling. So addictive!!!

coffee and cream ruffle cake

For my best friend Sue's birthday this past March, I wanted to make her a cake flavor that she hadn't tried yet. In the past, I've made her Hello Kitty ice cream cake, Boston cream pie cake, triple chocolate mousse cake, Hello Kitty chocolate mousse cake, and a piped petals chocolate mousse layer cake (for her baby shower). This time I decided to go with something lighter, so I went with a light and fluffy coffee chiffon cake!

After baking four 6-inch layers of coffee chiffon cake, I filled it with freshly whipped cream which I flavored with a paste made of espresso powder and hot water. Then also covered the tops and sides of my cake, and smoothed it out with an offset spatula.

For the decoration, I wanted something girly and frilly, so I chose to pipe continuous swirls of ruffles, as I did with my recent green tea ruffle cake and pink velvet ruffle cake.

I think this is definitely my current favorite way to decorate a cake!

The cake ended up being soft and moist, and reminded both of us of a mocha cake that my mom used to buy for me every year on my birthday, ever since junior high. (Too bad that bakery is no longer around, or else I would gladly continue that tradition!)

To one of the most fun and thoughtful people that I know, Happy Birthday, Sue!

year of the goat (or ram) cookies

Along with these decorated egg cookies for my friend Selena's red egg and ginger party for her baby, I also made these Goat cookies, since it is the Year of the Goat! I again used my favorite sugar cookie and royal icing recipes, which can be found in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book, and for the cookie cutter I had my husband create me another custom copper cutter! He's so handy :)

Selena and I had decided on purple and red for the color of the cookies, since those are "lucky" colors for the Year of the Goat. Once the cookies had baked and cooled, I used stiff purple icing to pipe an outline of the goat, and then filled it in with runny purple icing.

Once that had dried for several hours, I used stiff red icing to pipe the Chinese character for "goat".

I thought they looked pretty cute as-is, but I decided to also add eyes with stiff black icing, which I regretted because afterwards I thought they looked like little dinosaurs instead of goats!

Oh well, they still looked cute :)

Happy one month, little Dominic!

decorated egg cookies for a red egg party

Remember these baby face cookies that I made for a baby shower several months ago for my friend Stephanie, who was hosting a baby shower for her twin sister Selena? Well Selena's adorable baby boy was welcomed into the world last April, and when he turned 1 month she asked me to make decorated egg cookies for his Red Egg and Ginger Party!

In case you're not familiar with it, here is a description that Selena had sent me: "A Red Egg and Ginger Party is a Chinese tradition that celebrates a newborn's 30th day (1 month of life).  Eggs were considered a delicacy in China and were usually the present brought by the maternal grandmother.  The egg symbolizes fertility and renewal of life, and when it is dyed red it is believed to bring good luck to the child."

For the design of the cookie, I referenced a picture that Selena had sent me of a decorated egg cookie, which I later found on the blog Lizy B Bakes (love her work!). For the cookie cutter, I used a custom copper cutter that my husband had made me a few years ago. It was meant for these Spiderman cookies, but worked just as well for egg cookies! And for the cookie dough, I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe which can be found in my book The Hello Kitty Baking Book (and I also used the royal icing recipe in the book as well!)

Once the cookies were baked and cooled, I piped an outline around the egg with stiff white icing, and then filled it in with runny white icing. Once that had hardened after several hours, I again outlined it with stiff red icing.

Next I used stiff yellow icing to pipe the baby's name at the bottom of the egg.

Then I used stiff brown icing to pipe branches and a tiny bird nest in the middle of the cookie.

After that I added a red egg and two little blue birds.

Next came more branches with red blossoms, along with little green leaves on the bottom branches. And the final touch was the eyes and beaks for the little blue birds.

Although they weren't as perfect as the ones by Lizy B Bakes, I thought they came out pretty cute!

To go along with these decorated egg cookies, I also made goat/ram cookies, as this is the Year of the Goat/Ram (details in my next post)!

Happy one month, little Dominic! Hope you had a wonderful Red Egg and Ginger Party!

hello kitty cannoli

A few years ago when I wrote about making this Hello Kitty rhubarb tart, my good friend's husband, Charlie, responded with a comment about reaching my creative limits with Hello Kitty. When I told him that I had more up my sleeve, he proposed a challenge - he wanted Hello Kitty cannoli! And so (several months later) this is what I came up with!

I wanted to do a lighter version of the traditional fried cannoli, so these are actually baked instead of fried. And instead of making a dough, I used won ton wrappers, which makes it a super easy dessert to whip up!

I brushed melted butter on both sides of my won ton wrappers, and then wrapped them around metal cannoli forms before baking them in the oven until golden and crisp.

I also changed up the traditional filling, which usually contains ricotta cheese. Instead I chose to use mascarpone cheese whipped with heavy whipping cream, lightly sweetened with powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Then I used a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip to fill the cooled cannoli shells.

To decorate the Hello Kitty face, I followed the same steps as when piping my Hello Kitty cupcakes. I used a Wilton #352 leaf tip to pipe the ears, and a small round tip to pipe the black eyes and whiskers, and yellow nose. Finally I added two heart-shaped confetti sprinkles to form the bow.

While I ended up loving the filling, I didn't totally love the shells. While they were crispy, they weren't as flakey as I'd like, so next time I'd probably try using homemade pie crust, but still baked instead of fried.

These cannoli were originally going to be in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book, but they didn't end up making the final cut. However, they are still a fun, cute, and easy dessert to whip up!

baseball cookies and onesie cookies

Remember these pastel Hello Kitty cookies, macarons, and mini cupcakes that I made for a bridal shower a couple of years ago? Well recently that bride contacted me about making goodies again ... this time for her baby shower! So exciting!!!

She had originally wanted a cake and cookies with a baseball theme, but the weekend of the baby shower was the same weekend that I was to be in LA to give a Hello Kitty cupcake workshop. So she opted for just the cookies to be done several days in advance, as I could wrap each one individually to keep them fresh for the baby shower.

For the baseball cookies, I used my go-to sugar cookie recipe (which can be found in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), rolled the dough out to 1/8 inch thick, and cut out shapes with a 3.5 inch round cookie cutter. Then after baking and cooling, I whipped up a batch of royal icing (recipe also in the book!), piped a circle outline with stiff icing, and then filled it in with runny icing.

After the white icing had dried for several hours, I used red stiff icing and a Wilton #2 tip to pipe my baseball stitches on the cookies.

I repeated the same process for the onesie cookies, except with this onesie cookie cutter, and with blue icing for the onesie details.

So cute!

Congratulations Julieta! Hope you had a wonderful baby shower!

ombre ruffle coffee and cream cake

For my mom's birthday every year, I typically make some sort of coffee flavored cake, since I know that she loves coffee flavored desserts! In the past I've made her a Hello Kitty tiramisu cake, a mocha pocky layer cake, and a tiramisu layer cake. So this year I decided to continue the tradition by making her a coffee chiffon layer cake! (Boy, have I come a long way since my first coffee chiffon cake a few years ago!)

So I baked up three layers of coffee chiffon cake, and filled them with espresso-tinted whipped cream.

Since I wanted to do an ombre effect with piped ruffles along the sides of the cake, I covered the top with regular whipped cream, and the sides with espresso whipped cream. Then using a Wilton #104 petal tip, I piped three rows of ruffles with the espresso whipped cream, and then piped three rows with chocolate whipped cream (I basically just folded in melted and cooled bittersweet chocolate).

To finish it off, I sprinkled a few gold and silver dragees and white sugar pearls along the perimeter of the cake.

I think I could have even gone with a fourth layer of cake, just to give the final cake more height. But I still thought it looked cute.

Here's a quick shot I took (with my camera phone) of the inside of the cake. Love the striped look of the layers!

Happy Happy Birthday, Mom! Hope you enjoyed the cake and dinner party! :)