winter snowflake hello kitty birthday cupcakes

For my daughter's 6th birthday a few months ago, we went with a winter/snowflake theme, since her birthday is in December, plus she's still really into Frozen right now! We had a small gathering to celebrate, to which she invited a handful of her best friends, and I ended up making her a Tokidoki Yuki Unicorno winter birthday cake, as well as snowflake cookies for the favors. So to stick with the theme, for her Kindergarten class celebration at school, I decided to make Hello Kitty snowflake cupcakes!

I started with a moist chocolate cupcake (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book), and topped it with a cream cheese frosting (recipe also in my book!), which I tinted blue and then used a basketweave tip to pipe my basketweave design (there is also a basketweave tutorial also in my book, but you can also find other basketweave examples throughout the blog).

Then I used white frosting to pipe Hello Kitty on top of each cupcake, along with black eyes and whiskers, a yellow nose, and for each bow I used two heart-shaped confetti sprinkles. (For more examples, see links here, here, here, and here. And this link for the first and original cupcakes that I made!)

And for the final touch I added a few snowflake sprinkles! (I got mine at Target, but you can also find them here).

The cupcakes turned out moist, minty and chocolately, and not too sweet!

One of the kids even thought it was the sprinkles that tasted minty :)

Miss Melodie loved her cupcakes, and I loved watching her eat them with her classmates!

Enjoy!

hello kitty pink basketweave cupcakes (and a hello kitty cupcake workshop!)

The first time I made these Hello Kitty basketweave cupcakes was back in 2010, when I made fresh strawberry Hello Kitty cupcakes with pink basketweave frosting for my friend Hsing's birthday! Since then I have made them several times (see here and here for more), and they even almost made it into my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book! While we ended up going with cupcake options that were simpler, you can still find a basketweave tutorial and a pink basketweave cake in the book!

Then around the time that the Hello Kitty exhibit opened (at the Japanese National American Museum), I was contacted about giving a couple of workshops. One was a cookie decorating workshop which I ended up giving at Hello Kitty Con, and the other was a cupcake decorating workshop which I gave at the museum last month! I decided to show everyone how to pipe these basketweave cupcakes, even though they were cut from the book, because you can use the techinque in so many ways! Even the technique of piping the little Hello Kitty face can be used with many things, such as on the sides of a cake, in piping Hello Kitty meringue cookies, and making Hello Kitty macarons!

To prep for the workshop, I baked 6 dozen chocolate cupcakes (recipe in the book!) and prepped over a hundred piping bags with tinted buttercream frosting (recipe also in the book!).

Here's the setup of each station at the workshop.

And here's the workshop in progress! 

After the workshop, the museum had a book signing event to promote the book. This was super fun, as I got to talk with so many different people and discuss our love of Hello Kitty and baking! :)

And while I was giving the workshop and signing books, my sweet husband took our two oldest kids to see the Hello Kitty exhibit! (Our youngest baby stayed home with Grandma).

I had so much fun giving the workshop and being at the museum, I'm going to be super sad when the exhibit ends in May! But I hear that the exhibit may be travelling soon, so keep an eye out for the exhibit in a city near you!

hello kitty pastel pom pom birthday cake and cupcakes

My sweet Melodie turned four this past December! Where does the time go?!?

Last year, she requested a purple Hello Kitty cake, which I made to for us to celebrate with at home, and then I made these Hello Kitty mini cupcakes for her party at preschool. But this year, she requested a "rainbow Hello Kitty cake", so I decided to make her a pastel rainbow pom pom cake!

For the cake layers, I made a white layer and a pink layer, and sliced each in half horizontally. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream.

After a quick crumb coat with whipped cream, I let the cake set in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, I colored portions of the whipped cream with pastel colors - pink, lavender, mint green, and sky blue - all using Americolor gel paste food coloring. 

I also colored very small portions with black, red, and yellow for the eyes, bow, and nose. After quickly piping a Hello Kitty face on the top of the cake (see here and here for more examples on how I do this), I started piping the pom-poms around it, by piping stars with a Wilton #18 tip.

Then I filled the sides with piped stars as well, varying the colors randomly.

I loved the finished cake! And so did Melodie!

As for her class party, I made matching cupcakes! Pink on the inside, pastel pom-poms on the outside, with piped Hello Kitty faces on top. (see here, here, here, here, and here for more example of how I pipe mini Hello Kitty faces!)

Happy Birthday to my little Melodie!

hello kitty mini cupcakes with purple bows

Along with the purple Hello Kitty birthday cake that I made for my daughter's 3rd birthday last year, I also made these mini cupcakes for her class birthday party at preschool.

First I made mini chocolate cupcakes, and then piped a Hello Kitty face on each one with cream cheese frosting. I used a large round tip to pipe an oval for the face, and a leaf tip to pipe the ears. And then used a small round tip for the eyes, nose, and whiskers.

Boy, have these come a long way since the first ones that I made for her one-year birthday party!

This time instead of piping the bows, I used multicolored heart shaped confetti sprinkles (and just picked out all the purple ones!)

They turned out to be a big hit at her class party.  And even the boys liked the Hello Kitty favors!

Stay tuned for the birthday goodies I end up making for her class party this year!

*** Update:
You can now find my recipe for Hello Kitty Mini Cupcakes in my new book, "The Hello Kitty Baking Book"! Enjoy!

pastel hello kitty cookies, macarons, and bow cupcakes for a bridal shower dessert table

Way back in December of last year, I was contacted by a bride-to-be named Julieta, who had been following my blog and asked me about making goodies for her bridal shower dessert table.  When I found out that: a) she wanted Hello Kitty themed desserts, and b) she lives about 10 miles from me, I couldn't refuse!  At the time I was still pregnant with my third baby and due in February, but her bridal shower was set for April so I convinced myself that it would be fine, since my newborn would be about 2 months old by then.  But boy oh boy, when April rolled around, I was not prepared for the amount of work and lack of sleep that I was in for!

In the chunks of time that I had available for baking, I started with the cookies, since they could be made days in advance and would still be fresh.  We had decided on Hello Kitty cookies with pastel bows, as well as "J" and "D" monogram cookies after the bride and groom's names.  So I found all the cookie cutters that I would need, and baked up my favorite sugar cookie recipe.

For the Hello Kitty cookies, the steps were pretty much the same as the Hello Kitty cookies that I made last summer, except this time the bows would be pastel shades of mint, yellow, and peach.

As for the "J" and "D" cookies, she had decided on pastel mint and peach for the letters, with a white beaded border (just like the monogram cookies that I had made last year for my cousin's wedding favors).

Next up were Hello Kitty macarons, which could be made 2 days in advance, especially since the macarons needed "age" for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator to ensure the proper consistency.

See links here, here, and here for tutorials on making my Hello Kitty macarons.

Once the cookies and macarons were done, I only had one more dessert to make - mini cupcakes decorated with Hello Kitty bows!  These I made the night before her bridal shower.  I started with my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which I baked in mini muffin tins and liners.

For the frosting, I whipped up my favorite cream cheese frosting, and divided it in portions to be colored pastel mint, yellow, pink, and peach.  Then I used white frosting to outline my Hello Kitty bows, and filled them in with little dots of colored frosting, using a small round Wilton tip #3.

And then I was finally done.  After an entire week of juggling three kids and baking nonstop, I could finally rest.  Well, as much as one could rest with a 2-month old newborn, but that's another story.  It was all worth it though, because I loved how all the desserts looked together in the end!

Happy bridal shower, Julieta!  Hope you enjoyed the goodies!

*** Update:
You can now find my recipes for Hello Kitty Macarons, Hello Kitty Cookies, and Hello Kitty Mini Cupcakes in my new book, "The Hello Kitty Baking Book"! Enjoy!

hello kitty cake and cupcakes

To go along with the Hello Kitty cookies for my friend Vicky from my last post, I also made a Hello Kitty cake!  And since the cake wouldn't be enough to feed everyone, I also made matching cupcakes.

For the cake, we decided on a chocolate cake, filled with strawberry whipped cream, and covered with cream cheese buttercream.  So I started by making my favorite chocolate cake recipe.  The recipe usually makes two 8-inch pans, but since I was using a large Hello Kitty shaped pan, I used one recipe for each cake layer, which I mixed and baked in separate batches.  Once each cake layer was baked and cooled, I whipped up a quick batch of freshly whipped cream, and added a few tablespoons of freshly pureed strawberries.  Then I piped a layer of it on top of my bottom layer of cake, and spread it out evenly with an offset spatula.  Next I added the top layer of cake, and then the entire cake went into the fridge to set while I made the frosting.

For the frosting, I whipped up a couple of batches of a simple cream cheese frosting, which I used to cover the entire cake in a crumb coat.

Then I piped on the details (the eyes, nose, bow, and whiskers).

And then filled in the rest of the face using a medium star tip.

For the cupcakes, I made three dozen chocolate cupcakes covered with yellow cream cheese frosting, which I piped using a basketweave tip.  Then I piped big ovals for Hello Kitty's face, used a leaf tip to pipe the ears, and used a small round tip to pipe the eyes, whiskers, nose, and bow.  (See this post on how I pipe Hello Kitty step-by-step).

I thought the cake and cupcakes turned out super cute, and I loved the grey and yellow color scheme that Vicky chose!

I hope everyone enjoyed the goodies!