Hello Kitty (cup)cakes

Everyone knows my fascination (read: obsession) with Hello Kitty. It's an easy guess for my friends and family, what gifts I would like to receive, so I suppose it makes me predictable and transparent.

Ever more so, with these cupcakes I made.

I had my friends over last week for a mini-celebration with my new temporary position. I'm moving departments on campus, to one that's a little more lucrative, to cover a maternity leave opening. The temporary factor of it is great, because I can transition fields a bit more easily.

I had the bubbly ready, but needed some snacks for everyone. And what better than delicious cupcakes. Made by yours truly.

I love my friends because they are an endless array of gratification for me. So many of them commented that they didn't believe the pictures were of cupcakes I made. Or does this mean they have little faith in me? Nah. Right, guys?

I made a chocolate batter this time, uncommon for me because of my love for vanilla cupcakes. I used one of my cake recipes that are a bit denser and very chocolate-y, especially with the addition of espresso.

For the buttercream, I made my espresso flavoured one used in the race car cake I made a couple months ago. My original plan was to have a coloured buttercream, so that I could cut out plain white Hello Kitty faces and it would be a good contrast. Unfortunately, I always forget that the buttercream doesn't colour enough and it wasn't a good enough contrast.

I ended up using really dark grey fondant for her faces instead.

I think it worked out great, because it was easier to see the features on her face. Since I had cut outs that imprinted her face as well, I didn't bother with food grade markers to draw on her features.

Aren't they adorable?

Since I was using a cake recipe, I decided to use my cut little 6" cake rounds to make a tiny tall cake. I didn't cover it with fondant. Instead, I tried the "paper-towel frosting" trick, which didn't work as well as I was hoping. It might be because I don't have the right paper towels, or maybe I was pressing too hard. Either way, I didn't like how there was a slight embossment when I finished, so I scrapped it and just  smoothed out my buttercream with a hot offset spatula like I normally do.

I like that when I make my home made cakes for my friends, that they look a bit more rustic. I don't mine some blemishes in them because my friends don't really care anyways. When I make them for others, I will use fondant, but it's not my favourite thing to work with. I like to keep it simple with friends.

Chocolate (cup)cakes 

1/2 cup butter
2 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 egg whites
4 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate, melted and cooled
2 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup espresso
2/3 cup milk 

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. One at a time, add eggs. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined.
2. With a spatula, mix in the melted baker's chocolate.
3. In 3 additions, add the dry ingredient mixture, interspersed twice with the espresso-milk mixture (i.e., dry-wet-dry-wet-dry).
4. Pour into buttered and floured pans or into cupcake tins. Bake at 350F for 50-55 min (cake) or 20-25 min (cupcakes), or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cool 10 minutes before leaving on a rack to cool completely.
6. Frost with espresso buttercream. 

 

Espresso buttercream

1 cup butter, room temperature
 4 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp espresso powder
1 tsp hot water 

1. Beat butter until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually add icing sugar, one cup at a time until well combined.
3. Add the vanilla extract, espresso powder, and water mixture. Beat again until smooth, scraping down sides as necessary.