{"id":330,"date":"2017-11-06T22:22:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T03:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/?p=330"},"modified":"2021-05-19T12:55:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T16:55:43","slug":"hello-kitty-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/?p=330","title":{"rendered":"Hello Kitty birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

So this is how I know I’m never going to make it as a food blogger: I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished cake that I made for the the little one’s third birthday.<\/p>\n

Circumstances meant that the cake actually turned out quite nice – she was sick on the day that we’d scheduled her party, so the cakes, baked but not yet decorated, went into the freezer until the following weekend. That’s how I learned that it’s much easier to frost a frozen cake than a fresh one. The cake is sturdier and crumbles less, so the surface for the fondant layer turned out much smoother than it had been for my previous efforts. I made a chocolate cake with strawberry frosting, with a Hello Kitty on it, because that was what the little one requested.<\/p>\n

Well, to be honest, that’s not quite how it went. I was going to make her a Hello Kitty cake anyway, because she’s really into Hello Kitty right now, and plus I already had Hello Kitty cookie cutters that I’d bought for her birthday last year, so I figured I’d get as many uses out of them as I could. She was happy with Hello Kitty, she specified the flavors, and that was that. But then, a week prior, we were going past the cake display at Costco and she pointed at one and said, “I want that cake for my birthday!”<\/p>\n

I may not have entirely disguised my dismay. “But I was going to make you a cake with Hello Kitty on it.”<\/p>\n

“I want that one!” Determined pointing. Kids have no respect for your desires. This is something you learn very quickly as a parent.<\/p>\n

Then I wised up and said, “You know, last year you wanted a Hello Kitty cake and I was worried that you would be upset when I cut into it. So I asked you if you would be okay if we cut it and you said, ‘I want to poke her in the face with a fork!’ Wasn’t that silly?”<\/p>\n

She took the bait. “Yeah! That was silly! I want to poke her in the face again!”<\/p>\n

“So you want me to make Hello Kitty cake again?”<\/p>\n

“Yeah!”<\/p>\n

Oh, two years going on three, so malleable. At five years old, the older kid is already wise to these tricks and requires more straightforward negotiation.<\/p>\n

Anyway, my objective restored, I made marshmallow fondant (I use this recipe<\/a>, recommended to me by a friend whose intensity re: baking is at levels I can only admire), kneaded up some of it with a drop or two of red dye (if you want an arm workout, may I recommend kneading fondant?) to make pink, and executed Hello Kitty cake toppers and chocolate cake. (Three batches of smitten kitchen’s “I want chocolate” cake<\/a>, for two layers of 9″ round and one dozen cupcakes.) Also strawberry cream cheese frosting, because the kid wanted strawberries, and I like cream cheese.<\/p>\n

The little one helped with the cake toppers. I used the cookie cutter twice – once for the head on the white fondant, and once for the bow with the pink fondant. (Now it’s a multitasker! j\/k) Then I picked out the features with a bit of melted chocolate on the end of a toothpick. I even let her decorate a couple of the faces. Because (and I do have to keep reminding myself of this) this is for her, not for me.<\/p>\n

\"in-progress<\/p>\n

For the big cake, I drew Hello Kitty on the top with melted chocolate and a coffee stirrer. Pretty proud of executing a 3D ribbon with the pink fondant. And the kid was happy with it, which was, honestly, the whole point.<\/p>\n

Then I didn’t take any pictures. Oops! Fortunately K took pictures during the actual event, so I was able to crop this one out.<\/p>\n

\"sideways<\/p>\n

I did finally remember to take a picture, while we were cleaning up after the party.<\/p>\n

\"partly<\/p>\n

Happy birthday, little one. May I always be able to fulfill your desires… in a way that pleases both of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this is how I know I’m never going to make it as a food blogger: I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished cake that I made for the the little one’s third birthday. Circumstances meant that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,24,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebration","category-kid-birthday-cake","category-kid-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}