Hello Kitty Cupcakes

I made these Hello Kitty cupcakes for a little girl's third birthday. I made vanilla cupcakes, and topped them with strawberry frosting. Normally I use strawberry flavoring in my icing, but I was all out. I didn't want to leave the house to get more so I checked my fridge and cupboard to see what I had on hand. I found some strawberry daiquiri and decided to give it a try. Here's the recipe:

3/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup strawberry daiquiri mix

They were delicious! the color was perfect, and the texture was smooth and creamy.

For the Hello Kitty toppers I had to get creative again as I didn't have a hello kitty shaped cutter. I looked through all my cookie cutters and found a tulip shape with 3 top petals. So I rolled out some white gumpaste and cut out 18 tulip shapes. Next I cut off the stem at the bottom and the middle petal, then I used my fingers to smooth out the shape.

I added some pink coloring to the gumpaste and cut out small triangles. Two triangles together made a bow. I rolled some tiny balls and attached them to the middle of the bows to help them stay together.

For the nose I piped dots of yellow buttercream, and for the whiskers and eyes I used a tube of black buttercream.

They were a huge hit.