Hello Kitty Garden Cake, Cookies and Macarons

A lady that I used to work with was celebrating her baby girl's 1st birthday with a Hello Kitty-themed party! She's an avid Hello Kitty fan and has the complete set of of SingPost's SG50 Hello Kitty limited edition stuffed toys! And since baby Sophie is too young to choose her party theme, naturally her mummy picked Hello Kitty! As a side note, people here are really crazy over Hello Kitty. A few years ago, when McDonald's launched Hello Kitty Happy Meal toys, things got really ugly, with people snapping up basketfuls of Hello Kitty toys and selling them online at ridiculous prices. Poor kids didn't even stand a chance against full grown adults for these babies...

Hello Kitty Garden Cake

Anyway, back to the cake!! Sophie's mummy wanted a cute garden-inspired cake, with a Hello Kitty topper like the Cheongsam Hello Kitty stuffed toy. Both cake tiers are a decadent Devil's Food Cake, filled with whipped dark chocolate ganache.

Cheongsam Hello Kitty fondant topper

When making anything Hello Kitty, it is really important to get her features the right proportion, or else she doesn't really look like Hello Kitty. The placement of the eyes, nose and whiskers is important too! I carefully hand-moulded the Hello Kitty topper, having her wear a pretty red cheongsam, adorned with some purple flowers, just like the Cheongsam Hello Kitty stuffed toy. She also has a matching purple and red bow in her hair. 

Hello Kitty and a couple of cute birds

I made a few little birds too, one to represent Sophie and one each for her mummy and daddy! 

one more bird hiding here

Working with a pastel colour scheme, I covered the cake with a light pink fondant, and added light purple, light blue and light yellow daisy flowers all around, bordering the bottom of the top tier with light green grass. The bottom tier is decorated with a  hand-cut white picket fence. I embossed a woodgrain pattern on the fence to give it more detail. I love the sweet Happy Birthday bunting hanging from the fence, in the same sweet pastel colours. 

lovely flowers in the garden

sweet pastel rainbow bunting

To go with the birthday cake, I also got to make cookies and macarons. The cookies are sugar cookies, flavoured with vanilla and a hint of lemon. I used fondant to decorate these cookies, giving the pink background a quilted pattern to make things more interesting. 

view from the top

I used a Hello Kitty cookie cutter with stamp to make Hello Kitty's face. Her bow is made from two fondant hearts, with the centre of the bow being a red m&m mini. 

Hello Kitty sugar cookies

The macarons are three shades of pink with the flavours being dark chocolate ganache, smoked salted caramel and strawberry. I actually had to make these macarons twice. Because after I had finished the macarons, I put them in a plastic container in the fridge to mature, but then when I was taking them out of the fridge, I accidentally dropped the entire container on the floor! Bang, crash, broken crackerons. Gosh darnnit, why am I so clumsy!?! I mean, they still taste good and everything. But of course you can't display broken macarons at a party!!

dark choc ganache, strawbeery & smoked salted caramel macarons

sad, sad crackerons

So, I had to go whip up another batch of three shades of pink macarons. Sigh. Luckily, I dropped it a couple days before the party and not the morning of! Of course, I'd rather not have dropped them at all and used my spare time for other things!

macarons in 3 shades of pink!

lovely feet, ready for the party

Anyway, Sophie's mummy set-up her own Hello Kitty-themed dessert table. She did a pretty awesome job, with nice pink ruffle table skirting, a big Hello Kitty backdrop and even a silver block in the middle to elevate the cake and some other sweet treats. Of course, her Hello Kitty collectibles were on display as well. She also individually packed all the Hello Kitty cookies in cellophane bags, and had really cute Hello Kitty give-aways like stationary sets, bowls and luggage tags for all her guests!

Hello Kitty Dessert Table*

Hello Kitty macaron & cookie tiers*

It was the perfect sweet pink Hello Kitty set up to celebrate baby Sophie's milestone birthday! Happy 1st Birthday, little Sophie!  

Happy 1st Birthday, sweet Sophie!*

*thanks to Sophie's mummy for these pics