Helloooooooo Kitty!

Ty’s pal Cassie had a birthday last week, and I got to make this cute cake for her. Ain’t it adorable?

I remember Hello Kitty being popular when I was a kid. Anybody remember that store “Sanrio Surprises” that used to be in our mall? Loved that store!

Cassie chose a strawberry cake for her birthday. I iced the cake with my homemade buttercream rather than covering it with fondant. (I still think buttercream tastes waaaay better than fondant. Everything’s better with butter, right?)

The flowers and writing are made out of fondant, and I used a combination of fondant and gum paste to make Hello Kitty. The gum paste dries a little harder than the fondant so it really helped Miss Kitty to stand up nice and tall on the cake.

I also made a cake for Cassie’s brother, Luke, a couple of weeks ago. Luke had an indoor “campout” party. Ty got to go, and he had such a great time. This was Ty’s first sleep over, and he did fine. Mom and Dad sure did miss their little monkey, though. (Aren’t we pitiful?) Luke’s not a big fan of cake and icing, so he wanted a cookie cake with a campfire in the center.

I tried out a new technique to make the fire. Poured sugar! I’ve seen people do this on TV before, but I’ve never tried it myself. So I researched the process and gave it a whirl. The result? It turned out perfect. Beautiful! It looked just like glass. Only one problem. I forgot to take a picture of the finished cake. The Tool Man did snap a couple of shots with his phone, but the picture quality wasn’t blog worthy. So, alas, all I have to show you is the few pictures I got of the sugar right after I poured it.

After the sugar cooled and hardened, I smashed it with a hammer. Great therapy for relieving a little stress!

This technique was so much fun. And so easy! I’ll definitely be trying this again. I have to make a mallard drake cake in a couple of weeks, so I’m thinking about pouring a pond of sugar for the duck to swim in. Can’t wait to try it!