Hello Kitty theme was a must when my youngest niece had her first birthday last friday. Her mom had asked me to make a Hello kitty cake and I supplied it with a batch of sweet Hello kitty cupcakes with pink butter cream frosting. The cupcakes was inspired and the recipe was taken from my favorite baking blog Passion4baking!
What lovely cupcakes! I have never succeed with cupcakes really, something which is a bit strange since I am pretty good at baking other goodies. Maybe I did once some years ago, but not that I can remember lately. What actually happens to my cupcakes is that they are nice and soft when they come right out of the oven, but when they have set some hours they starts getting dry and next day they are totally dry.
That is why I am not a big fan of baking cupcakes even though they are the hottest stuff in baking world at the moment. But my niece had birthday and I just had to bake some cupcakes, I had very little time and I went straight into passion4baking, noted down her latest cupcakes recipe which is from the Magnolia bakery. I love her blog, she is so inspiring and she makes the most delicious mouth watering cakes! And what I love the most about this lady is her personality, she is such a wonderful kind hearted human being!
I had to add a little more butter, but oh my goodness, what lovely soft and moist cupcakes! They had a great texture and even the next day (I stored them in refrigerator) they were totally soft like the first day. I will definitely bake these cupcakes often and recommend them highly. If you want to follow step-by-step pictures, you can go to Passion4baking and search for Magnolia cupcakes (the recipe there is in norwegian).
I n g r e d i e n t s
185 g self-raising flour *
150 g allpurpose flour
300 g butter, soft
450 g sugar
4 eggs, large, room temperated
2,5 dl milk
1/2 - 1 tbsp vanilla extract / essence / powder
* (or mix 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 ts baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt into 175 g plain flour - mix until well combined)
1. Whisk the softened butter using a electric mixer until it becomes fluffy
2. Add the sugar and mix it for about 3-4 minutes on high speed until creamy and fluffy
3. Add eggs, one at a time and mix about 1-2 minutes on medium-low speed between each until it becomes nice and fluffy
4. Add vanilla extract or vanilla sugar and mix until combined
5. Sieve the flours two times and add the flour and milk alternately in two times preferabely folding in with a spatula for softer cupcakes (you can add chopped chocolate etc if you wish to)
6. Fill the cupcake forms about 2/3 full
Bake in a moderately hot oven at 175 C for about 15-25 minutes until they become slightly golden and firm to the touch (Start checking them after 15 minutes, sometimes they bakes fast)
Magnolia's Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
226 g butter, soft
10 dl icing sugar
2,5 dl milk
1-2 tbsp vanilla extract/essense/powder
1. Add softened butter and 1/4 part of the icing sugar into a bowl and mix using an electric mixer
2. While it is mixing, add gradually milk little by little alternately with the rest of icing sugar
3. Mix for about 10 minutes, until it becomes pale in color and fluffy
4. Add vanilla extract or vanilla powder, mix a little more and add coloring of choice
Pipe as desired on cooled cupcakes
The Hello kitty cake is a two layered cream cake consisting of sponge cake layered with whipped vanilla cream and whipped cream along with strawberry jam. The cake was baked in a large flat baking pan and then cutted into the shape of Hello kitty using a template. The rolled fondant was made with white syrup, gelatine powder and icing sugar. I did not have crisco fat and glycerine available, but I guess they would make the sugar paste more smooth and elastic. The eyes and whiskers was colored with a mixture of red, green and blue color. It took me about an hour to turn the white sugar paste into pure black color (the color was gradually turning darker from muddy to brown, dark brown to black). The ribbon is made of marzipan colored with pink.
The color bled a little and made red marks on the cake beside the eye which kind of ruined the cake.
Note! These supercute Hello Kitty cupcake wrappers can be found at this website for free print-outs.