I really am working on the stained glass gummy book. Really really. I’ve almost finished the first full draft and I’ve got all the pictures done.
I was going to work on it some more this evening but Bake A Wish sent out a desperate plea for a cake donation that nobody was picking up. Usually people vie for slots, so it was really odd that a cake was due tomorrow (by which I mean today, since it’s after midnight) and nobody had said they’d do it. A girl at a shelter was turning 16 and wanted a strawberry cake with a Hello Kitty theme. The Bake A Wish folks – who usually require home-baked cakes with home-made buttercream – were so desperate they were begging someone to buy a bakery cake and stick a plastic Hello Kitty on it.
No. I couldn’t let that happen.
So I called and said I’d do it. Quick, quick, emergency cake decorating needed!
I had to go shopping for ingredients since I hadn’t been planning to bake this week and since I don’t usually make strawberry cakes. I bought a mix and added extra real strawberries to it, all mashed up. I’ve done that before and it’s turned out okay (too sweet for me but kids seem to love it). I also added some Americolor Electric Pink to the mix so the cake will look bright pink inside, aside from the strawberry chunks. I figured that goes well with Hello Kitty.
Being so short on time, I couldn’t do anything fancy and even decided to go buttercream only, which I don’t really ever do on full-sized cakes. I mean, ever. And it turns out I’m mediocre at getting a nice even buttercream layer. I even goofed and got a couple crumbs up from the crumb coat. I considered trying to hide that by doing a frozen buttercream transfer but our freezer is jammed full.
In the end, I think I did okay with Hello Kitty herself (I printed off a picture from a Google image search and lightly traced it onto the white buttercream with a toothpick). A quick pair of star borders in more Electric Pink to hide my bad white icing job and voila, emergency Hello Kitty cake is ready to be driven to the other side of town in about 12 hours:
Not fancy, has some mistakes, but I say this still beats just sticking a plastic Hello Kitty on.
Here’s to hoping the birthday girl likes it! We rarely find out through Bake A Wish; most drop-offs are at the front desk of the shelters or group homes and we never see the recipients themselves.
Now I’ll do a bit of book work before I crash out for bedtime…I really am working on it, I promise!
That is a beautiful cake–a real birthday treat.
That was very kind of you.