I have a daughter turning five, and she has a problem. Two problems, really. The first is an inability to decide what she wants for a birthday theme. The second is a mommy who thoroughly enables this indecisiveness. Last year it resulted in a cake shaped like Gotham City with a bat signal on top of a Hello Kitty village with a Spider-Man web connecting them. This year the superheroes got replaced by pirates and Mario, but Hello Kitty stuck around.
Lucky for me, short of something they make a cookie cutter for, there is no easier fondant request than Hello Kitty cupcakes. The cat’s head is an oval with ears, two dots and some whiskers. You can do this in your sleep. And as tired as moms always are, you might have to.
To make Hello Kitty, Keroppi, andBadtz-Maru, you’ll need:
- Fondant: Black, white, green, yellow, pink
- Black and red food markers, which you can buy in the cake supply aisle of your craft store
- #7 and #12 Wilton tips
- 1¼” and 1½” round cutters
- A wet paper towel
- These templates
There are some tips for making or buying the fondant in my Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy cake instructions. It’s hard to get a true black with dye, so I don’t make black fondant except in very small amounts. I definitely recommend buying some if you want to make Badtz-Maru. If you can’t find Satin Ice locally or if it’s too expensive, Wilton sells a package of Natural Colors fondant that includes black. Michaels stores also now carry the Duff (Ace of Cakes) line of supplies, including tubs of colored fondant.
Hello Kitty
- Roll out a piece of white fondant until it’s roughly ¼” thick. (How much depends on how many cupcakes you’re making.)
- Use the Hello Kitty template to cut out the heads.
- Roll a small piece of pink fondant very thin.
- Use the narrow end of the #7 tip to cut out tiny pink circles. Squish them into ovals with your fingers. (These are her noses.)
- Use a black food marker to dot her eyes and draw her whiskers.
- Dab a nose on the wet paper towel and attach it to her face.
- Cut one-inch by half-inch rectangles out of the pink fondant. Pinch the center of a rectangle to make a bow. (You’ll notice in the photos some of mine had purple bows instead. But if you’ve already made pink, go with the pink. I happened to have extra purple around.)
- Wet the bow on the paper towel and attach it over HK’s ear. Use the #12 tip gently in the center (don’t press all the way through) to make the knot of the bow.
Keroppi
- Roll out the green fondant until it’s roughly ¼” thick.
- Use the Keroppi template to cut out the heads. The dashed line indicates where you should cut the fondant, but the solid line shows where the eyes go. You could also cut out a full shape, including eyes, and place them entirely over the green. I like to conserve fondant.
- Roll out the white fondant, also about ¼” thick, and use the 1¼” round cutter to cut out the eyes. Keroppi’s eyes are not perfectly round, so flatten them more toward oval shapes with a rolling pin or even your finger.
- Wet one side of the eyes on the paper towel and attach them to the face.
- Roll a piece of black fondant very thin. Use the #12 tip to cut out black circles for his eyeballs. Wet them and place them on the eyes.
- Draw the V shape for his mouth and red lines on his cheeks using the food markers.
Badtz-Maru
- Roll out the black fondant until it’s roughly ¼” thick.
- Use the Badtz-Maru template to cut out the heads.
- Roll out the yellow fondant about ⅛” thick. Use the beak template to cut those.
- Draw the line across the beak with a black food marker.
- Roll out the white fondant about ⅛” thick. You can use the template to cut the eyes, or you can try the trick I used. Cut a circle with the 1½” cutter. Cut off the top ⅓ with a knife. (Or use the template to judge the right size.) Flatten the eye a bit so it’s more of a half-oval. Use the size 7 tip to cut out the indention at the top.
- Wet the eyes and beaks on the paper towel and attach them.
The directions above are separated by character. But before you begin, decide how many of each character you want to make and cut all of the pieces of one color at once. For example, when you roll out the white for Hello Kitty heads, cut out Keroppi’s white eyeballs. That will keep you from re-rolling any more than you have to. If you’re making all three characters, here’s the checklist of what you’ll need from each color of fondant:
Black
- Badtz-Maru head
- Keroppi eyeballs
White
- Hello Kitty head
- Keroppi eyes
- Badtz-Maru eyes
Yellow
- Badtz-Maru beak
Pink
- Hello Kitty bow
- Hello Kitty nose
Green
- Keroppi head
Once all your characters are assembled, place them on top of cupcakes you’ve lightly frosted with buttercream, and your Hello Kitty celebration is ready to go! I made 12 Hello Kitty, 6 Keroppi, and 6 Badtz-Maru cupcakes in only two and a half hours, from the first egg cracked to the last eyeball placed. I told you these were easy! But be warned. You never know when Hello Cthulhu will attack.
