One of the girls at work is obsessed with Hello Kitty.... for example, yesterday as we sat around April's desk staring at her Hello Kitty adorned office space, we decided that we needed a little Rosa's Cafe in our lives and headed out for lunch. When we got into the car I couldn't help but notice the bouncing little Hello Kitty figurines dangling from the rearview mirror and as we sat down to lunch and April placed her newly purchased Hello Kitty hot pink purse next to her in the booth, the little girl in the booth next to us (complete with hello kitty earrings) couldn't stop hanging over the partition to sneak a peak. So when it was brought to my attention that April's birthday was this week of course I knew exactly what kind of cake she would be getting! Thankfully Hello Kitty is a pretty simple cartoon critter, but fun to create nonetheless :)
Even though I pretty much had in mind what the little kitten looked like, I kept a basic photo of the Sanrio feline close by to make sure I got it all just right. I started by using 2 8-inch round cake pans and 2 single cupcakes (for her ears). After cooling and keeping in the fridge overnight, I did a little sculpting so her face would be a little more oval. I also cut the cupcakes each in half and placed the two halves on top of each other so they would be the height of the cake. I have found that baking a cake the night before and keeping it in the fridge overnight makes it easier to mold and carve when it comes crunch time.
The more I work with fondant, the more I learn and I feel like I'm getting half way decent at it, for being self taught that is... Although sometimes I've been known to make my own Marshmallow Fondant, this time I went with the store bought: Wilton's Rolled Fondant. Even though I think the marshmallow tastes better using the store bought fondant guarantees the strength and right consistency, not to mention its a lot less messy than making your own. After crumbing coating the cake and attaching the ears with frosting and a couple toothpicks, I covered the cake with white fondant and then colored/molded the bow, whiskers, nose and eyes with the leftovers. This was actually the first time I have been completely happy with how the fondant covered cake has turned out.. it was perfectly smooth... basically, I'm getting goood ;)
I meant to take a picture of the whole process, but got in the zone while creating the cake and completely forgot! SORRY!
April absolutely loved the cake, which also made me completely happy. The cake itself was a Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Icing. I tried something a little different with a white cake recipe that I've used before and I think I'm going to keep using this change in cakes to come.