Hello Kitty and Bunny Drip Cake

One of my husband's friends asked if I could make a cake for his daughter's 2nd birthday. He wanted a Hello Kitty figurine and the birthday girl's favourite stuffed toy bunny as a figurine too. Apparently, she has three of the exact same stuffed toy bunny (I'm guessing one for home, one for bringing out, and one for her grandparents' place??) so that they can rotate the bunny to be washed and she would never know the difference! Apparently she never goes anywhere without this bunny. It's too bad that Mothercare has stopped production. Better treasure the three that you've got, Emalyn! Haha. 

Hello Kitty & Bunny drip cake

Anyway, other than the two figurines, and the request for either a strawberry shortcake or a strawberry cheesecake, I was given free reign on the cake design. Whoo! Love it when that happens cuz then I get to do whatever I want! In this case, I decided to go with a fuss-free drip-style cake, keeping everything in shades of pink and white. 

lots of fresh strawberries & cream

And, just for the heck of it, I baked BOTH types of cakes that they wanted! I didn't actually intend to make a super tall cake, but it ended up to be almost 6" tall, cuz the top half was a strawberry shortcake (strawberry sponge cake with ripe fresh strawberries and whipped cream), and the bottom half was a strawberry-cheesecake cake! (There is a cake board separating the two flavours for easy cutting). I joking told Emalyn's father that they should invite more people to the restaurant cuz they're getting twice the amount of cake! 

strawberry shortcake & strawberry cheesecake layers!

I frosted the outside of the cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, in shades of pink, "watercolour"-style. I didn't worry too much about completely covering the top nicely cuz there will be a drip added on later. Here it is chilling out in the fridge. I had to remove the shelving to accommodate all the cakes this weekend...must consider getting a second fridge. 

Just chillin'

For the drip, I went with a white chocolate ganache, in a 1-to-1 ratio of cream to white chocolate. In hindsight, I think I should've gone with a 1-to-2 ratio cuz the consistency was just a bit too runny for my liking. It may have gotten a little runnier cuz I added Americolor Bright White to get a whiter shade (white chocolate itself has an off-white tinge to it). 

white chocolate ganache drip

I carefully dripped little spoonfuls around the sides of the cake first, and then went back in to fill the middle. I didn't want a whole lot of ganache showering down on the cake. I tried to keep a space open between the drips in the front of the cake for the name plaque to go on, but since the ganache was a little thinner than I would've liked, i ended up having to wipe away some of the drip to make room for the name plaque. 

front of the cake

I love the tiny fondant letters, which I moulded using a Katy Sue mini domed alphabet silicone mold. The background was cut using a plaque cookie cutter. The pink outline was cut out of fondant using the same plaque cookie cutter, but I lightly stretched it out with a small rolling pin so that it was just slightly bigger than the white plaque cutout.

fancy fondant name plaque

I had a lot of fun making the two characters sitting on top of the cake! The first was Hello Kitty, which I dressed up in a polka dot skirt with matching polka dot ribbon. I made a little bow on her waist for a little added cuteness. After I had sculpted her sitting down with her skirt on, I realised that she was sitting in a most un-ladylike manner, so I added a teeny little cupcake in front of her to solve the problem. Hahah. 

a closer look at Hello Kitty

I sculpted Emalayn's favourite light pink stuffed toy bunny too, creating "fur" on the bunny by scratching it lightly using grass piping tip no. 233. Initially I wanted to make the bunny smaller so it looked like it was Hello Kitty's "toy", but the birthday girl's father wanted both figurines to be the same size., which makes them look like they are friends!

cute little stuffed toy bunny

I lightly dusted the the bunny's ears with pink petal dust to give it some depth and I decided add in a little no. 2 balloon floating above the cake for that extra bit of whimsy. 

Hello Kitty & pink bunny, ready to party

The top of the cake was decorated some pink macrons (filled with dark chocolate ganache), a few halved strawberries, pink Sixlets and an assortment of white and pink sprinkles. 

view from the top!

I'm so glad we managed to get pics of the cake before it was picked up by the birthday girl's daddy. I really hate it when the cake gets to the venue and it's not looking optimum. So once again, I will curse the humidity and heat of our climate here. 

What happened?? Well, when the family had finished eating lunch at the restaurant and the cake was brought out, poor Emalyn exclaimed, "Hello Kitty crying! Bunny runny nose!" Yep, you guessed it, the black fondant had started to run from the condensation on the figurines due to the humidity. Humidity is one of the major enemies of fondant. (lengthy rant here.) 

When fondant is exposed to ambient conditions in the tropics (that means no aircon!) for too long, condensation develops on it (like what happens when you take a can of Coke from the fridge on a hot summer's day and let it sit on the counter). The water from condensation starts to dissolve the sugar in the fondant, causing it to run and the colours to bleed. It is especially more noticeable in dark colours, like black and red. I always stress the importance of keeping the cake in a cold and dry air-conditioned room to prevent this from happening, with the cake being moved quickly between air-conditioned venues. It is not advisable to have fondant cakes at outdoor events. I highly recommend that people get me to deliver the cake to the celebration so that everyone can have peace of mind that the cake will get to the venue in an optimal state. 

Tear-free Hello Kitty & no runny nose on bunny

I sure hope poor Emalyn wasn't traumatised seeing her favourite bunny with a black runny nose!! Anyway, I'm glad that Emalyn's family still enjoyed the cake, despite the crying Hello Kitty and runny nose bunny!! Happy 2nd Birthday, little Emalyn! I promise, no runny bunny nose next year!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Emalyn!

Still smiling even when Hello Kitty's crying!