Hello Kitty #3

There you go... Hello Kitty is requested again. This time it's from a thoughtful bride-to-be who ordered this cake for her baby niece who turns one on the wedding day. I thought it was really sweet of her to take the time to plan a little birthday surprise for her niece in the midst of all that wedding preparation. She saw my Hello Kitty #2 and knew it was just the cake for the occasion. Her wedding theme is rainbow and the birthday girl's mummy (bride's sister) loves Hello Kitty.

Here's Hello Kitty with a wedding touch

Happy Birthday Cordelia

Congrats Felise & Brian and all the best!

Hello Kitty #2

Adding to my Hello Kitty cakes is a decked high creation featuring Kitty at the top! I bought a special Hello Kitty bakeware for this and was really excited to use it.

Makes cute little Hello Kitty cakes

An ex-colleague from my days at Sony contacted me for a cake for her daughter's birthday celebration at school and I was told it must be a rainbow cake and a Hello Kitty one at that. Since it's hard to make a layered cake that's irregular shaped simply because I usually only have one of such pans (with the exception of round ones),  I suggested a regular round rainbow cake that's topped off with a fondant covered Hello Kitty. 

I made my regular Vanilla Butter batter, divided it into 5 portions for colouring with some left to fill the Hello Kitty pan. The pan is such a perfect size, it's great for mini cakes or a topper for part of a bigger cake and the grooves makes it an easy guide to add on Hello Kitty's features. I only have one complain, it was somewhat difficult to remove the baked cake. I had carefully loosened the sides but the cake was not coming off easily. I was careful not to lose any bits since Hello Kitty's face was at the bottom of the pan but alas, bits of the cake stuck to the base :( And yes, I did oil the pan generously! I hope a few more bakes will season the pan. More Hello Kitty cakes anyone?

So while the shape of Hello Kitty is perfect, the surface was a bit rough. I rectified it with 2 layers of fondant or I could have been more generous with the cream frosting. The result was not too bad.

Hello Kitty on top

Little bow and colourful M&Ms for the border

Happy Birthday Ning!

The birthday girl shared the cake with her classmates and the rainbow cake made the children smile but it was hard work for the adults to cut up and serve. So the next thing on my agenda is coming up with a simple guide on how best to cut and serve a rainbow cake that is 15cm tall. Look out for it!

Hello Kitty #1 (and counting)

How do you love Hello Kitty? Let me count the ways...

I've made a few Hello Kitty cakes last year and I am so sure she will be in my lineup again this year that I invested in some more Hello Kitty bakeware and cutters!

My first Hello Kitty cake for 2013 is a pink and pretty affair. A friend referred a mummy to me who wanted a Kitty cake she saw online and asked if I could replicate it. Doing a copy is both easy and hard to do... it's simple since you don't really have to think much about the design as it is there for you, but it also means if you do a poor replica, it's easy to make a comparison.

Well, I set out to follow the colours and details as closely as I could but at some point, I made some variations (I just can't help it!) But thank goodness, it's well received ; )

Here's what's involved...

Round cake with a pink bow

Lots of little sparkly flowers

Hello Kitty

And here's the finished product for a birthday girl who shares her birthday with her grandma.

Happy Birthday Tata

And Happy Birthday Grandma

For those of you who may be curious to see the cake that this design is based on, click here for a peek ; )

♥ Hello Kitty ♥

My friend's daughter Aeriel, the recipient of the My Little Pony cake, requested for a Hello Kitty cake for her birthday celebration in school. If you read my earlier post, you'll see I made a cream cheese frosted Hello Kitty cake for another little girl. The feedback I got was that while they enjoyed the cake, it didn't really look like Hello Kitty. Some kitty fans I know even told me it was a poor attempt. Well I thrive on feedback and challenges so I was eager to have the opportunity to give kitty another go.

This time round, I made Kitty with gum paste and fondant. You'll see why it is the preferred ingredient, it looks almost like the toy. You'll never have that smooth and neat finish with cream, hence my first kitty looked a little melty and perhaps my proportions weren't the best. Still I would recommend fondant for Hello Kitty orders from now on, even if it's going to be on a cream cheese cake. 

Hello, Kitty!

I baked a four-layer chocolate cake in a heart shape and had it covered in the softest shade of pink fondant. It's the first time I'm covering an irregular shaped cake and I have to say, it wasn't as difficult as I anticipated, but I did run into a troublesome spot - the tip of the heart. So what's a girl to do? Add on more hearts of course! Something I'm sure the birthday girl would be more than happy to have.

Work in progress

I also had Aeriel's name set on a heart. Instead of piping or stencilling, I decided to roll out a long piece of fondant and try my hand at some font-making. I was glad to hear that Aeriel signs her name with a heart for her 'i' too. 

Aeriel ♥ Hello Kitty

It was pure joy assembling this cake. It's girly, sweet and oh so Sanrio! For this order, I bought a really  pretty Hello Kitty cutter. It produces such a nice Hello Kitty shape that I made two with fondant to embellish the sides of the cake. I'm definitely looking forward to using them again!

No such thing as too many Kitties on one cake

Happy Birthday again!

♥ Hello Kitty ♥

To all Hello Kitty fans reading this post, tell me what you think? And do share any kitty cake ideas that you may have with me. 

Hello Kitty!

I knew it was a matter of time before the famous Japanese bobtail kitty cat finds me and my baking adventures. A friend recommended a mummy to me for a heart-shaped banana cake with Hello Kitty on it. The cake is meant for her little girl's birthday celebration in school, so I made a double layer heart-shaped cake and 12 cupcakes for the kids.

I love heart-shaped cakes and I've got a great silicone pan that consistently produces beautiful heart-shaped cakes. It's not often that I get a request for it, so I was delighted at this order.

This was going to be a fondant / cream cheese challenge again but because it was going to be picked up the night before the party, I was afraid it may have to go into the fridge because of the cream cheese. There is one thing worse than cream cheese for fondant and that is REFRIGERATION. Fondant doesn't do very well in our weather but putting it in the fridge just makes it sweat and weep its colours so don't ever put it in the fridge. And since we will NEVER have Californian weather , I always just recommend air-conditioning.

After frosting the heart with cream cheese (mmmm), I placed the carved Hello Kitty on top and decided to frost it in a whiter shade of sugar icing. Then I outlined Kitty's face with royal icing to give a definitive look. The birthday girl loves the colour yellow so the cream cheese was tinted buttercup yellow for the border piping. The result is not too bad but you can see why fondant is still a favourite when you want to achieve that clean and neat finish.

Hello Kitty

Happy Birthday Joie!

I have another Hello Kitty order coming up soon and will be trying the fondant approach next.
Stay tuned for more!