Cat in the Hat Desserts and Cake

A close family friend was moving overseas and they wanted to host a Cat in the Hat-themed farewell party for their daughter. Guess who volunteered to coordinate and do the bakes? Yep, I looove parties. I get sad after the first quarter of the year cuz all of my kids' birthdays fall within 3 months of each other and it's a long wait until the next year's celebrations!

Cat in the Hat desserts

My friend chose the Cat in the Hat as the theme cuz of all the great quotes in book! Well, Dr. Seuss in general has a lot of great quotes, with "Off to Great Places!" being particularly apt.  For the dessert table, I made cookies, cake pops, cupcakes, macarons, jelly shots & the cake. 

shading makes a big difference!

For the cookies, I of course had to make the Cat in the Hat's hat and I had to import the cutter in from the US. And to go with the hats, I made fish!I You know, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish? I managed to find a fish-shaped cutter in my kids' playdoh collection (of course, I washed it thoroughly before using). 

drawing on the fishes' details

With the help of a black edible ink marker, I sketched out the hat & fish on the cookies as a guide, before outlining and filling with royal icing. I drew the shading on using the edible ink marker after the royal icing had fully dried. Love how the fish turned out!

Dr. Seuss-inspired cookies

The cake pops were made of red velvet cake, crumbled and swirled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. After rolling them into balls and freezing, they were dipped in white chocolate dyed red, using powdered food colouring. Head on over to my cake pops basics page on more tips on how to make cake pops and how to make your own cake pop stand. 

Thing 1 & Thing 2 cake pops

To decorate, I put some blue chocolate "hair" on top the cake pops using a toothpick, making sure to get it all nice and messy. And to finish the cake pops off, I added a white circle of fondant on the front, with Thing 1 & Thing 2 lettering drawn on it. 

Thing 1 & Thing 2 cupcakes

The cupcakes were Thing 1 and Thing 2 inspired as well. They were red velvet and chocolate cupcakes, with a fun swirl of blue frosting and topped with a Thing 1 or Thing 2 paper topper. I love the special red cupcake wrappers as well, which totally add to the effect of these cupcakes! Both the toppers and wrappers were printed by One and Only Gallery. 

lemon meringue & dark chocolate ganache macarons

For the macarons, the red ones were filled with dark chocolate ganache and the blue ones were filled with lemon curd in a pillow of vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. I wanted to have smoked salted caramel in there, but since the event was outdoors, it would have oozed out the sides and made a sticky mess. 

macaron displayed on a mini tower

The jelly shots were red and blue agar agar jelly, which were suppose to be in nice striped, distinct layers in the cups. For whatever reason, the cups ended up looking like purple jelly shots instead! Must be the way the light hits the layers. After all, red and blue does make purple. At least there were the fun Cat in the Hat paper toppers to save the day.  Mental note to add white layers in between the colours next time so they can be properly seen!

Agar-Agar jelly cups*

Now, for the cake, the top tier was vanilla butter cake, filled with vanilla bean creme Mousseline. I dyed the cake so that it was alternating layers of red and white inside, just like the Cat in the Hat's hat! 

sneak peak of the vanilla cake layers!*

The bottom tier is the ever-popular Devil's Food Cake, filled with whipped dark chocolate ganache. 

and a messy shot of the Devil's Food Cake!

I really like the style of the illustrations in Dr. Seuss' books, everything is outlined in black and shaded in a fun way. So, I wanted to give the same whimsical feel to the cake. The top tier was covered in red fondant, with two strips of white fondant for the stripes. I outlined the strips with black edible ink marker and added some shading as well. 

Cat in the Hat-inspired cake

view from the side

To make the brim of the hat, I rolled out some white fondant on an 8" cake board (since the bottom tier was 8"), and then stuffed crumpled up pieces of paper towel randomly around the brim to give it a bit of movement. I let that dry until it was stiff enough for the "waves" on the edges to stay in place (about 4 hours in aircon.)

lots of fun edible image cut outs

The bottom tier was wrapped in blue fondant. By wrapped, I mean, instead of rolling out one big piece of fondant and draping it over as is usually done, I rolled out one long strip of blue fondant and then wrapped in around the sides of the cake. I chose this method because the top part of the cake would be covered by the white fondant "drip" anyway, so there was no point doubling the amount of fondant on the cake. People don't really eat it anyway, and it just makes the cake that much heavier! 

shading running badly from condensation & humidity!

To achieve the white fondant "drip", roll out a piece of fondant about 3" larger than the diameter of your cake, then cut random waves up and down around the edges, taking care not to cut too far in to the middle section, since that's going to cover your cake top. Then, drape the piece over the cake and smooth it down as usual, using a little bit of water to stick the edges down, if necessary. 

Cat in the Hat dessert table*

lots of fun red & blue treats*

To "Dr. Seussify" the entire cake, I cut out edible printed images of characters in the book, stuck it onto thinly rolled fondant using a little bit of water and then cut the shapes out with an Xacto knife. I stuck the edible images in strategic places on the cake, leaving Sally and a couple of books to be the cake toppers. The cake was finished off with the perfect Dr. Seuss quote: Off to Great Places!  

Off to Great Places!*

All these Cat in the Hat-inspired desserts and cake went on this fabulous dessert table, styled by One and Only Gallery.  The backdrop and the tablecloth were perfect for this theme. And I loved the use of the Dr. Seuss cutouts, generously given to me by my best friend after my god-daughter's Cat in the Hat-themed 2nd birthday party. 

waiting for the little guests to arrive*

This dessert table was part of this epic farewell party, which included a photo booth, two bouncy castles, live popcorn, cotton candy & roti prata stations, organised games, face-painting, and even a Cat in the Hat mascot! Click here to read all about the party!

fun Dr. Seuss-inspired treats*

all in red and blue*

fondant cake shiny from the humidity outdoors*

gotta have a few Dr. Seuss books!*

Kailing reading one of the books*

view from the ground*

finally time to attack the table!*

choices, choices*

who's that guy with the tall funny hat?!*

My kids are definitely going to miss playdates with Kailing (especially my eldest daughter!) and my hubby and I are going to miss the fun conversations over "beverages and fine cheese" with her parents!  Wish you guys all the best!! Can't wait 'til we meet up again!

All dressed up!*

Viel Spaß und bis zum nächsten Mal!*

All the best to Kailing & her family!*

"I'm glad we had the times together just to laugh and sing a song, seems like we just got started and then before you know it, the times we had together were gone." - Dr. Seuss

*photos by Cloud Chew Photography