CAT-tastrophe averted!

Mmmmmm... cake.
I've been feeling overly ambitious lately. I have this little folder on my computer called "projects" that I have subdivided into woodwork, quilts, jewelry, furniture (yes, furniture!), cakes, and when I'm nursing Wyatt- which is pretty much all of the time- I sit in front of the computer and google image my cares away. Sometimes this goes horribly wrong. For example, if you're curious about uterine prolapse because your doc casually throws it out there at an appt and doesn't really expand, DO NOT google image this term. Don't do it. You just did it? Didn't you? Are you okay now? Did you vomit? Not a good plan. Don't worry- I don't have a prolapsed uterus, just a doctor with a horrible bedside manner. Usually, however, google images is my favorite way to waste my time. If I'm thinking of something I'd like to do/make, I plug in terms like "make coffee table ottoman" and see what I can find to inspire me to go for it! This is in the plans, btw, this is my favorite inspiration picture for this particular project:

So anyhow, when Fin decided she'd go with Hello Kitty for her party, I started googling and this is what I found:

Cute stuff, right?? There are some super talented people out there! Fin wanted the tiered cake with the tiara, but I was pretty sure that was a disaster, or CAT-tastrophe if you will, in the making, so I decided to go with a two-tiered cake with the beading like the 3rd picture. And the cupcakes, because they're just too darn cute and I love me some cupcakes!! Having tasted many a fondant cakes, though, I opted to give making my own marshmallow fondant a shot because, well, the pre-made stuff you can buy at Michael's is just gross. The marshmallow fondant is more like circus peanuts, which I LOVE, a lot of people don't, but it's my kid's party, we're celebrating the fact that I haven't dropped her, lost her, beat her or given up in 3 YEARS folks, so yeah, basically this party is all about me :)  I found the recipe here http://candy.about.com/od/fondantcandyrecipes/r/mm_fondant.htm BEWARE! It is VERY sticky. Until it's not. And eventually, it's not. But you have to get there first. 

 I went ahead and cut out kitties for the cupcakes at this point using a little tulip shaped cookie cutter I found (I squashed down the middle petal to make it into a kitty) and put the rest in the fridge until I was ready to make the cake the next night. I also let the kitties sit covered, but not refridgerated until the next day, when I decorated them with giant heart sprinkles for the bows, tiny yellow circle confetti sprinkles for the noses- both glued on with royal icing, and used an edible marker to draw on whiskers and eyes. I'm thinking there is a much better way to do this. That marker DID NOT like the marshmallowy goodness of these kitties. I struggled with this and it should have been the easiest part!! Ugh! Oh well, they still looked sufficiently cute. How could they not? They're hello kitties! 

 

Onto the cake... I was able to find a hello kitty cake pan at Michaels but it was $15!!! Really? No, I don't think so. It's a frickin' cat head, this can't be too difficult. So I made a strawberry cake- Fin's request and was going to refrigerate it for a bit and give cake carving a shot. 

Oops. Hmmm. Stupid oven. Not my fault for sure. Must be the oven's fault. Let's try that again, but lemon this time. 

Much better. I cut out a printed picture of Hello Kitty and jabbed toothpicks through her precious little face onto the cake. That sounded vicious, right? I'm in that kind of mood, I guess. I used a plain old knife and going in from the top, carved around the kitty shape. Then frosted with buttercream, leaving me with this: 

Pretty non-spectacular looking. I then rolled out my fondant and draped it over the cake, pulling it close to the sides and cutting off the excess with my pampered chef kitchen scissors (best. scissors. ever.). I've got to tell you, I was expecting this to turn out so badly, that I didn't take any more process pictures at all. I was that confident that this was going to be an epic fail. I'm sad that it didn't have round cake to sit on top of- it would have been much grander this way!! Stupid pink strawberry cake.... However, I think it ended up pretty dang awesome:

Ack!!! Poor kitty :(  

I used fondant for the nose, hairbow and beading, but dying fondant is super messy. My hands are still kinda pink.  So there was no way I was dying a black batch for the eyes and whiskers. Who wants black fondant anyways!? I decided tootsie rolls would work- rolled them flat and cut them to my desired shapes. Did I mention how fantastic my pampered chef scissors are??? Anyhow- that's it. My first ever experience making and using fondant- I've watched my mom do it a few times and never had the nerve to try until now. Super fun times. Y'all give it a shot and let me know how it goes! Can't wait to see what you come up with!