A Very Hello Kitty 5th Birthday

Next week marks my niece's birthday, I can't believe she's five already! I can still remember getting the phone call in the middle of the night to announce her birth, I was in Southampton at uni at the time and we all got up for an hour too excited to see oo-ing and ahh-ing over the photos they'd just sent over on our phones.

I love being an aunty, she's so clever (I know I'm biased - but she is!) and she's so funny as well. We loving baking together, it's a good thing the girl likes cake with me around! Cake pops don't last long around her that's for sure. Unfortunately we won't be able to go to her party this weekend as we're away on holiday, but I did manage to make her a cake and cake pops for it.

Last year she was all about Snow White, this year however she's been sent back to the cottage with the dwarves - sorry Snow White, there's a new girl in town.....Hello Kitty! So there was no question really about what her cake should be. I always like to go one better though - so she got some cake pops as well :), I have actually made these cake pops before but she didn't see them so they definitely needed to make a reappearance.

For the cake I made a big vanilla cake iced with pink (of course) vanilla buttercream. The fondant was coloured with Claret Sugarflair colouring paste and Hello Kitty herself was made from a stencil, I love my stencils. I printed out a few sheets of an outline drawing of her and cut out all of the pieces I wanted to make. I layered up the colours keeping her whole white body as a base and laying on the red top, flower and bow etc. I'm actually really happy with how she turned out...I do tend to end up as the 'angry baker' as people call me when I'm decorating - I was a little stressed at times... but overall I'm really happy with her.

For her name, top and bow I used Christmas Red colouring paste which just felt wrong in July and the flowers, butterflies and other top I used lilac concentrate colouring, varying strengths which went really nice with the reds and pinks.

Now moving onto the cake pops, using vanilla cake I crumbled it all up and mixed it with vanilla buttercream and rolled it into little Hello Kitty head shapes. After leaving them to cool I dipped them in white chocolate and then piped on the face details and bow. They're so easy to make and look brilliant...what's more they taste epic!

I can't wait to see photos of my niece blowing out her candles and enjoying her party and cake... have a happy birthday Sophie Chops!! Pin It Now!

I Hate Mondays Cake Pops!

Last week was a horrible week at work it was so busy we all felt physically drained by the end. So a few of us thought we'd cheer everyone else up by making cakes for Monday, have a little bake off. 
I had planned to make some cake pops and a batch of snickerdoodles, but as soon as I put a picture of my cake pops up online I soon realised that I didn't have enough...so I put the snickerdoodles back on my 'to bake list' and made another batch of cake pops instead.

Monday's are always manic at work and while cake was a great idea, I think everyone went slightly mental on the sugar so it may have to be toned down next time! In the end we had my cake pops, shortbread, a pink ombre cake which was brilliant and also a shop bought cake which didn't make it 5 minutes after tasting for us to realise we were being tricked! There's still loads left....so another hyperactive day tomorrow perhaps?

 

Now for my cake pops I went for a variety, there are loads of different designs I have been wanting to try so this was a great excuse. All of the cake pops are dipped in white chocolate, in my first batch I made the standard hundreds and thousands dipped ones, then I got more adventurous with the pink leopard ones that I've been wanting to try forever and finished off with little pink owls with pink wings and yellow feet which are just too cute.

For the leopard ones I used a brush to dab on some pink petal dust and gave them a rough outline with black food colouring paste, the trick is to not outline them completely so they look more realistic. I really do love these and am tempted to invest in some other colours for more looks.
As for the owls, I coloured the chocolate pink and when they were cool I piped some pink royal icing on for ears, and writing icing to make the eyes and beak. In hindsight I wish I'd make the ears out of the cake and then dipped them in chocolate.

For the second batch I made hearts, cherry blossom and Hello Kitty cake pops. The hearts I actually used a heart cutter to make them and after dipping them in chocolate, absolutely covered them in blue sprinkles and hundreds and thousands. The cherry blossoms ones caught my eye a while ago and I'm really happy I finally got around to trying them out. They looked really oriental and exotic I love the fine piping detail. Now I have to say the Hello Kitty ones might actually be my favourite, I just hope my niece never finds out I made them and she didn't get one! This time I did make the ears from the cake before dipping them. The decoration was quite simply but effective too with black eyes and whiskers, a little yellow nose and a cute red bow, done! I'm sure my niece will be seeing some of these for her birthday they were so fun to make :).

I think I'm becoming mildly obsessed with cake pops now...anyone know any good books?

Nom! x Pin It Now!