Hello Kitty Cake

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. It’s because of something really exciting – we bought a townhouse! I’ve been busy moving and redecorating. We’re into a rustic industrial theme for the main part of the house and have been completely engrossed with finding the right pieces. It’s been fun (Right J???)!

Along with the townhouse came a gas convection oven. I’ve only used an electrical oven in the past and heard great things about convection, so I was really excited about trying it out. Um…frustrating!! I can’t get the hang it! Nothing is working! Previous recipes are completely failing! This can’t be happening! As though I don’t have enough confidence-shattering fails as it is!

Enter: My friend’s daughter’s first birthday – Hello Kitty themed. I decided/was asked to make a Hello Kitty cake and cupcakes. I started baking the night before, and of course I had to make each twice because the first ones failed miserably, and the second batch wasn’t quite like when I had baked them before, but were acceptable. 

Anyways, if you’re on good terms with your oven because you know how it works, or if you’ve just moved and want to test your oven-relationship, and want to make a Hello Kitty cake, here are some pieces that I used.

Check out this video for decorating the cake: http://youtu.be/_hvSWuLWkJ0

I used this recipe for the cake: http://bit.ly/1rxVGUS

*I used 2, 9-inch cake pans and made sure the stencil was large enough

I used this recipe for the Italian meringue frosting: http://bit.ly/1pygqJD

I used chocolate covered almonds for eyes, a stencil and pink sanding sugar for the bow, and strawberry Pocky for the whiskers.

I also made cupcakes and strawberry Rice Crispy Treats for the Hello Kitty birthday party. I halved the cake recipe to make 12 cupcakes and made the following frosting:

Strawberry Lemon Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

4 cups icing sugar

3 Tablespoons seedless strawberry jam

½ teaspoon lemon extract (I used LorAnne)

2-4 Tablespoon cream (depending on how soft you want it)

Directions 

Combine all ingredients and beat until fluffy. 

Pipe using a 2D or 1M tip, starting from the center of the cupcake. 

Verdict: Luckily, everyone enjoyed the cake and cupcakes! I personally really liked the flavour of the frosting – it reminded me of a Japanese candy that I had when I was a kid. We topped the cupcakes with Hello Kitty figurines. The Hello Kitty cake actually turned out! Loved the Pocky whiskers – an idea I got from friend who made a similar cake!

The birthday girl just went for it, but in a polite sort of way – she just grabbed at the edge of the ear. What a cutie!

Strawberry Rice Crispy Treats recipe to come soon.

Rainbow Cake

Remember this baby and this cake that I made for her?  Well, she's now 4 years old (!) and wanted a rainbow cake for her birthday. I decided to try out the petal technique, which looks pretty and seemed simple to do. And I envisioned an explosion of sprinkles on top - because what 4 year old girl (or grown woman) doesn't like rainbow sprinkles everywhere??

                                                 

Plus, check out this painting she made for me for my birthday this year!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Vanilla Funfetti Cake

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 Tablespoon butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups sugar

4 + ½ large eggs, room temperature

3 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups pastry flour

1 ¾ cup all purpose flour

2 ¾ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1.5 cups buttermilk, room temperature

1/2 cup whipping cream

2 Tablespoons sprinkles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Grease and flour 3, 8 inch rounds. Place parchment on the bottom.

3. In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  Set aside.

4. In the bowl of standmixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy with the paddle attachment. 

5. Add eggs and vanilla and beat to incorporate.

6. Alternately mix in flour and milk, starting and ending with flour.

7. In a small bowl, whip whipping cream to a soft peak. Fold whipping cream into batter.

8. Add sprinkles and fold into the batter. 

9. Distribute between pans and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

10. Cool in pans for 15 minutes before cooling completely on rack.

Rainbow Swiss Meringue Buttercream

1. Make full recipe from here for 10 cups.

2. Divide buttercream into 5, with one portion a little bit bigger for the crumb coat.

3. Colour each portion with a different colour of gel food colouring.

Assembly

1. Put a small dollop of buttercream on the cake plate. Place the first cake layer on the plate.

2. Add a layer of buttercream (any colour). Place a layer on top and add more buttercream. Top with the final layer.

3. Crumb coat the entire cake with the extra portion of buttercream. Place cake in freezer for 15 minutes.

4. Place each colour of buttercream in a piping bag with the same round tip or with the tip cut to the same size.

5. Follow these directions for the petal technique or check out this video.

I had leftover frosting so I made this 5-inch rainbow cake. Thought I'd give you an alternative way to decorate a rainbow cake.

Verdict: I didn't try this cake, but the guests at the party, and the birthday girl loved it! Apparently the moms at the party initially wanted smaller portions, but ended up going for seconds! And the birthday girl's brother, who normally doesn't like cake, asked to bring it to school the next day! I'd say that's a success!

Ritz Cookies

The other day, I saw that Momofuku Milk Bar put out a Ritz Cookie. It sounded amazing! Buttery Ritz in cookie form with an explosion of salty, sweet, and chewy. Too bad I couldn't get my hands on them, and the recipe is not in the cookbook. So I decided to try to create them on my own - even though I don't really know what the real thing tastes like. Oh well, it'll be fun.

Just did a quick search and apparently the Ritz cookie came out 2 year ago. I am a bit slow.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Ritz Cookies

Makes 18 large cookies

Inspired from Milk Bar.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup bread flour

1 1/2 cup Ritz crumbs - from 40 crackers (see directions below)

1/4 cup milk powder

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 baking soda

Directions

1. Make Ritz crumb by pulsing the crackers in a blender or food processor until fine and crumbly. Set aside.

2.  Beat butter and both sugars in a bowl until fluffy, 3 minutes.

3. Add egg and beat for 4 minutes.

4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add vanilla, and beat to combine.

5. In a separate bowl, mix flour, Ritz crumb, milk powder, baking powder and baking soda. Add to the butter mixture and mix slowly just until combined.

5. Portion dough with an ice cream scoop onto a baking sheet. Cover with foil and let marinate in the fridge for 2-3 days.

To bake

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Place 4 on a baking sheet and press down to slightly flatten. Bake for 14 minutes until the edges are golden.

8. Let cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

 

Before baking.

After baking.

Verdict: These cookies turned out buttery, rich, and chewy! They were delicious and I'll definitely be making them again - maybe with some larger chunks of Ritz for a variation in texture.

Pavlova + Cake = at least it sounds good!

It was the fiance's mom's birthday and I wanted to make a not-your-average cake for the dinner we were having at a restaurant. At first, I wanted to make a pavlova, but as I started making it, things were not working out and I had to figure out a way to salvage it. I didn't have time or ingredients to start over! I decided to make a single layer cake on the bottom, top it with the pavlova (or whatever came out of the oven) and add whipped cream to hold it together. I'll tell you right now that it didn't turn out as I'd hoped, but at least I learned a few things along the way:

Lessons learned while making this cake:

Do not wrap cake with a slice of bread. I read that to keep a cake moist overnight, a trick is to leave it out with a slice of bread on top. Well, I thought, Wouldn't it be better to wrap the cake in plastic wrap with a slice of bread on top? The answer is NO. The cake layer was waay too moist - like a pudding cake as someone described it. Ick. I should've just wrapped it in plastic wrap with out the bread as usual.

Making meringue in humidity is dangerous. OK, maybe not dangerous but inconsistent. The pavlova was supposed to be big and fluffy. It didn't get big, and it didn't get fluffy. The egg white and sugar mixture never formed stiff peaks on this humid Vancouver day.

Two tablespoons of egg whites out of the carton does not equal a large egg white from a shell. This is an eyeball comparison, but although the carton said they are equivalent, next time I'd use 3 tablespoons of egg whites to replace one large egg white.

If you want to have a go at this cake, take your favourite pavlova recipe (here's the one I used), half of a vanilla cake recipe (I used this one), and make some stabilized whipped cream, like this. 

Second time around, I would use a sponge cake for the bottom, like from here. 

Good luck! 

Here's a peek at the inside.