The Hello Kitty Post (Part 2)

Continuing the theme of Hello Kitty cakes, I had intended to bake and decorate a Hello Kitty cake for the girl's birthday party. Then I stumbled upon this:

The minute I saw this cake set, I realised how simple making the Hello Kitty cake could be. From Edna's party last year, I realised that cutting the cake was usually a messy event. Making cupcakes would be far easier, but the effect isn't as nice as a large whole cake.

Therefore, the puzzle cake set was a perfect in-between - I had a big cake, and it's made up of cupcakes!

All singing "Meow"!

After baking the cake, I levelled the cups and arranged it like this:

I used my cookie sheet and wrapped it in foil as a base. After arranging, I filled in the spaces with frosting:

Then I frosted over the entire cake with white frosting:

After frosting over, I sketched out the pattern of how I'd be frosting the cake. Essential items of Hello Kitty would be the ribbon on her left ear. Also, the cake shape for the ear is curved, but I shaped it into a point. I figured that I'd deal with it when I outlined the cake later.

After frosting the cake, I used 2 chocolate Malteses for Kitty's eyes and yellow Nerd sweets for Kitty's nose. The cake was beginning to look like Kitty.

I outlined Kitty with the chocolate coating I used for Edna's cakepops. It was an inspired move because the chocolate hardened and helped hold the frosting together. I melted the choc in a HD plastic bag, cut a tiny hole at a corner and used it to pipe the outline. As there was already an impression in the frosting, the piping held neatly. I topped off Kitty's whiskers with Pocky sticks.

In case there wasn't enough cupcakes to go along, and in case of the usual "Could I have a smaller piece?" request, I also made mini cupcakes which I decorated like this:

I used the melted choc to pipe the whiskers and eyes. A Nerd sweet made up the nose. Two Jumbo hearts and a red M&M made the ribbon.

In all, we had 36 cupcakes - 12 mini ones and 24 normal size ones... more than enough for Edna's party. And on an environmental note, the cups can be reused because they are made from silicone. Therefore, before handing out the cups, we let our guests know that we were collecting the cups back, and they could help us by putting the cups into the cake box. =)

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe:

2 boxes Cream Cheese

1 block unsalted butter

Icing sugar to taste (about 1.5 cups to 2 cups)

Flavouring of choice

Beat cream cheese and butter together. Gradually add icing sugar until frosting stiffens. Add flavouring of choice.

For this cake, I used a Strawberry essence, which went well with the chocolate cake.