Tort Hello Kitty/Hello Kitty Cake

Here I am starting the new year with a children's cake. Every year for my daughters' birthdays I think of something else to invent (please read 'to find on the internet') for their anniversary cakes. I already wrote once about my cakes for children or adults so I am not going to go into details about cakes now. The only thing that I still want to say about it is that there are many cakes which are impressive, beautiful and not very difficult to make. I am not very good on decorating, on the contrary, and still I managed to make some special cakes because I chose simple models. Last December my daughter Emi became 5 and I've been thinking for over a month about what to prepare. She had in mind one of the other cakes I've made for hers or her sister's birthday the years before. But I wanted something new. I can't remember how I came across the Hello Kitty cake, but I thought it would be easy to make and that Emi would love it because she likes Hello Kitty very much. I was inspired on how to ornate the cake here: You tube - Hello Kitty cake .

Ingredients

Sponge: 6 eggs

              6 tbsp water

              2 cups of sugar (measure in a 500ml measuring glass)

              2 cups of flour
              1 package baking powder

Syrup:  150-200 ml water boiled with sugar and rum essence or
             the juice from a can of fruit compote

Filling: 350 ml milk
             1 package vanilla pudding (if you use bourbon vanilla is better because its colour is lighter)
             120 g sugar
             2 white chocolates
             2 egg yolks
             200 g butter

To decorate: 100-150 g marzipan
                      red food colouring
                      1 roll of licorice(lakritz)
                      1 yellow candy
                      3-4 squares of bitter chocolate
                      (you may also need 200 ml of cream + 2 packages of vanilla sugar)

Preparation time: 1-2 hours

Difficulty: medium

Method

Draw or print Hello Kitty's face. Cut it out. Take the butter out of the refrigerator. Melt 4 squares of bitter chocolate on bain-marie or in the microwave. On an greased aluminium foil draw a few ovals for Hello Kitty's eyes. Spread melted chocolate on the drawings and refrigerate. (I have made 6 eyes just to be sure and eventually only two of them were rather equal and usable). 

Sponge

Mix 6 eggs, 6 tbsp of water and 1/2 l sugar very well until they whiten. Add slowly 1/2 l flour and the baking powder. Bake at high heat at first, then when it starts to grow lower it. It is baked in 30-45 minutes - use a wooden skewer to try it. For this cake I greased the stove baking tray with margarine, sprinkled it with flour and I put a baking paper. Since the sponge is thinner than that of a cake baked in a special round cake tray, it may take less to bake. Take the sponge out and let it cool. Cut the sponge into two even rectangles. Put the Hello Kitty face drawing on one rectangle and fix it with drawing pins. Cut it out carefully with a sharp knife (see the video above). Do the same for the second rectangle. 

Filling

Prepare the pudding as indicated on the package using instead of the given quantities 350 ml milk and 100-120 g sugar. In the meantime separate the egg yolks and break the white chocolate into little pieces. When the pudding is done and still hot add the yolk one at a time mixing with the hand mixer and then add slowly the chocolate mixing well. Leave the pudding cool for an hour or so - until it has the same temperature as the butter. Mix the butter with the hand mixer and add the pudding one tbsp at a time until adding it all. 

Put syrup on the cold sponges, but not to much or the second sponge might slip. Put filling in between the two sponges and over the second one and cover the entire cake. If the filling is to yellow, use whipped cream over it to cover the cake. Knead the marzipan mass with a few drops of red food coloring. Roll it out and cut it as a ribbon. Bring the ends of the ribbon to the middle. Shape the middle of the bow from the rest of the marzipan and put it in its place. Put the bow on the cake. Put the chocolate eyes and the yellow candy as the nose, cut the licorice ribbon (lakritz) into six pieces and add the whiskers.

Bon appetit!