My friend Deb is from Hawaii originally and has the art of omiyage down pat. If you are visiting someone – you bring stuff – and since she and I share a love of comics and food, I always get the good stuff when we see each other at conventions. This time was no exception, she brought me a jar of Blue Chair’s apple-meyer lemon marmalade.

Blue Chair is an artisnal jam company located in Oakland, they even have their own cookbook. And while I could just eat this lovely marmalade on toast, I thought why not bake with it and why not incorporate Hello Kitty!

ingredients:
pie dough (recipe, here)
marmalade
egg wash (1 egg whisked with 1 Tablespoon water)
lemon sugar (recipe here)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep baking sheets with silpats.

Roll out the dough to about 3/8″ thick. You want to make sure you get the impression of the cutter into the dough. Cut out the forms, remember you will need two per pie.

Place the cut-outs on a silpat lined baking sheet. Place one teaspoon of marmalade in the middle of the dough cut-outs.

Check out the chunkiness, so much sweet tart flavor! It reminds me of Hawaiian lemon peel.

Place another pie cut-out on top and seal the edges. Brush the tops of the pies with egg wash…

…and sprinkle with a little lemon sugar. This will give it a sweet crunch. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven, until the dough is cooked through.

Let cool on a wire rack.

Sweet, tart, crunchy AND adorable!

She knows my love of Hello Kitty and desserts so I knew this had to be good…

Whohoo! Hello Kitty shaped daifuku! Little tender cakes filled with a sweet chestnut filling. Have you ever seen anything so adorable?! Why don’t we sell this on the regular here in the states? I’d buy them and eat them everyday. This was even cuter than the things I saw at the Sanrio dessert cafe in Hawaii!

Cutest food ever from halfway around the world and man, was it tasty!

I stumbled across this giant sushi mold at Marukai (a local LA Japanese market) and immediately bought it. Nevermind that the instructions were in Japanese and I don’t speak/read Japanese – it was Hello Kitty and that’s all that matters. I knew it would be the perfect centerpiece for my Oshogatsu (Japanese New Year’s Day) celebration!

The basic parts speak for the themselves. The mold works like a musubi press or springform pan. You add sushi, press down layer upon layer and when you take the mold off, you have an adorable kitty head – tho not before you decorate her face with the liftable template!

It was all genius – and large, 8″ to be exact so it’s like making a traditional Hawaiian pan sushi. I took the liberty of making up my own fillings since I had no idea what the box said but this thing is pretty versatile.

sushi rice ingredients:
2 cups rice
3 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar

salmon filling ingredients:
1 (6 oz) can pink salmon
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sugar

face toppings:
1-2 pieces Spam, cooked
1 egg, scrambled
furikake

Cook the rice in a rice cooker. When it’s done and piping hot, scoop it out into a bowl and add the rice vinegar, salt and sugar. Stir together well to combine.

Scoop half the sushi rice into the press, layering it evenly, then push the press down to get the rice flat.

In a small bowl combine the salmon, soy sauce and sugar. Spoon that over the pressed sushi rice and press down again. Make sure you clean off the pressing plate after each press to make sure you have a clean surface.

Spoon the last of the sushi rice over the pressed salmon and one last time, press flat again.

For the bow I fried some Spam in a pan until cooked through, then used the template to cut out the bow.

I did the same for the nose by scrambling an egg and using the most yellow parts to cut out an oval nose shape.

I placed the template on top and sprinkled furikake for the eyes and whiskers then placed the egg nose and Spam bow into place.

There you have it, the most adorable giant sushi ever. It was so cute that when I made it for New Year’s Day no one wanted to cut into it – but one bite and they were hooked!

ingredients:
Hello Kitty Italian Cookies
large red heart quins
small red heart quins
yellow sprinkles
black frosting
frosted cupcakes

I happened to find these new Hello Kitty cookies imported from Italy of all places! They are almost like a biscuit, and have a really nice shape and profile.

All on their own they are adorable, but I thought I’d fancy ‘em up a bit using heart quins, sprinkles and piping. Turning large red heart quins on their side and placing a tinier heart quin in the center makes for a nice colorful bow. I used a yellow sprinkle for her distinctive nose (I tried to find the most oval-y shaped ones since I’m very particular about everything looking just so).

Using black frosting and a #2 tip, I carefully piped over Hello Kitty’s most prominent facial features: the eyes and whiskers.

I let these set overnight and then placed them on top of the cupcakes right before serving.

This is an easy way to make a distinctive, cute cupcake with minimal work!

Topped with a Hello Kitty cookie, well – you’ll find no sweeter cupcake in all the land.

ingredients:
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/4 cups cake flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 cup whole milk
Strawberry Guava Jam

Strawberry Guava Cream Cheese frosting (recipe, here)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Carefully add the eggs one at a time until incorporated, then add the vanilla.

Alternate the milk with the dry ingredients until combined.

Hawaiian Sun jams and jellies (See all Jams and Jellies) are from Hawaii but can be found in most asian markets and online. They have great flavor and are great for breakfast, baking and I even make savory dishes with them!

Spoon the batter into prepped liners, then take a Tablespoon of Strawberry Guava Jam and drop it in the center. Bake approx. 15 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

At one of my many wanderings in snack aisle of the Japanese market I found these cute Hello Kitty shaped cookies. They were small and adorable and I knew they’d be the perfect cupcake topper! I love cookies as toppers because you get cute decor with no hard work!

When you break the cupcakes open the jam might sink, but that’s ok – it’s still delicious, trust me.

When cool, frost with Strawberry Guava Cream Cheese Frosting and top with the cookie!

When I was asked to make Hello Kitty cupcakes I jumped at the chance of course! Knowing my love of all things Hello Kitty I had lots of ideas but hold up, this no-longer-little girl was turning 8.

Turning 8 is a BIG deal. To me, it no longer means you’re a baby and well, the thought makes me a little weepy. But even when you grow up, you never outgrow Hello Kitty. That love will stay with you til you are well into your 30s…Um – just sayin’.

So I wanted to make Hello Kitty cupcakes that weren’t overly cutesy, but perfect for a little girl’s 8 year old birthday.

I drew Hello Kitty’s famous ‘bow’ (I can draw Hello Kitty things in my sleep that is how big a fan I am) and then printed it out on a high gloss paper. Using an x-acto I cut out the bows.

With just a dab of glue – I stuck the bows to the outer wrapped of small lollipops.

The birthday girl requested Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I made them slightly oversized – hey it’s a birthday party, let’s go overboard – and then stuck the lollipop into the center of the cupcake.

They came out adorable and you could tell right away they were Hello Kitty without being obvious about it. Heck, this would be good for an ADULT’s Hello Kitty birthday party! Hm…my birthday is four months…

Anyway, I think it was a good fit for a very grown up 8 year old’s birthday. Before you know it…the teen years! Yikes. Slow it down kids, Auntie Jenn is getting old. And while you’re at it get off my lawn.

To kick off the celebration Sanrio held a V.I.P. opening night party and pulled out all the stops. There were foodtrucks there: Kogi, Grilled Cheese Truck, Frysmith, just to name a few. Then inside Barker Hangar…

…was a kawaii fest. A mini golf course, ferris wheel, carnival games, cars – all Hello Kitty-fied. Total. Cuteness. Overload.

There was an amazing art gallery – all with custom pieces just for this event.

Also a pop up shop of tons of Sanrio product.

Since it was opening night there was a red carpet and loads of celebrities.

Lisa and Laura Ling, Lisa Loeb, Simone Legno of Tokidoki, Pete Wentz – those were just a few of the people I saw. For me, the highlight was being able to talk to Kimora Lee Simmons – I bumped into her at the pop up shop and we had a nice conversation about our kids, how she has two girls and a boy and I have two boys. Very cool. Also, I look like a midget standing next to her. She is amazing.

The Food Librarian also went and her highlight was meeting Erik Estrada. The night was pure craziness. This from someone who rarely leaves the house at night. Now I know what all of L.A. does while I’m sleeping. They party hard.

More on the food.

Inside the event I nearly fell to the floor when I saw free Beard Papa’s cream Puffs. About 1/3 the size of their regular ones, that still didn’t stop me from going for a few of them. Hey they’re making them, I’m eating them.

Next to that was a free Sanrio themed Yogurtland station, complete with toppings. I’m now a big fan of the chocolate and red velvet cake. It was GOOD and just too cute.

There were lots of cool cosplayers and people dressed in AWESOME homemade outfits, like my friend Renee. Hi, Renee!

While I didn’t dress up, I got a lot of compliments on my shoes:

If you lllllove Hello Kitty and Sanrio this is the place to be! You only have til Nov. 21st to visit Small Gift L.A., I highly suggest you stop by, it’s non-stop kawaii fun!

Want Hello Kitty recipes? Hello Kitty Oreos, Hello Kitty waffles, Hello Kitty cupcakes.

Located in the Pearl Ridge shopping mall, there isn’t much around here. At first glance you’d think it was just a regular ol’ Sanrio store, but right on the corner is a tiny storefront.

When I say tiny, I mean this place was TINY. No tables or chairs, just a walk up register. There were sandwiches and coffees, but of course the desserts were the first thing I looked at. So many cute things!

Hold on to your horses, I took a lot of pictures for you…

These desserts were just the right size, TINY. Just the way I like them.

Could you die? Little chocolate Keroppis – just like the Hello Kitty ones I attempted! These were so cute, I need those molds!!

Cutest brownies ever!

OF COURSE the mochi caught my eye – you know I love mochi - I wanted to take some back to L.A. but seeing as how it had a very short shelf life, I knew it wouldn’t make it home. ~sigh~ Next time.

Instead I went for a little dobash cake. So tiny and cute. The cafe had a great array of desserts, I wish I could have tried them all. And here’s a tip for people who follow my blog – the Cafe has lots of neat hard to find Hello Kitty cookie cutters/kitchen items! So all those cupcakes I’ve made…yeah, there’s more to come for sure!

I went back a few times during my trip (how could I not?!) and the desserts seemed to change every day which was pretty neat. This is a cuteconcept that I think would do great in other cities across the country. Hopefully they’ll open one on the mainland!

I made up a batch of Ovaltine cupcakes, which were delicious of course, but so dark. I wanted to play up the dark and light aspect of them and be subtle with the cuteness.

I took some plain white fondant and just used cookie cutters to cut out ‘Tippy’ and ‘Cathy’. (Those are Hello Kitty’s friends, for those in the know. I know entirely too much about Sanrio, obviously.)

The size was perfect to top a cupcake and the image wasn’t over powering, just clean and sweet. Exactly what I wanted.

I hand frosted some cupcakes, no piping just freeform – with chocolate frosting and some with cream cheese frosting just so that the box had a nice balance.

Well defined cookie cutters are great for fondant work especially if you don’t want to spend hours cutting by hand.

These would be great for a tea party! A classic black and white with just enough fun to make you smile!

I adore ice cube molds – they are NOT just for ice. When I made little chocolate Lego men they were so cute – how could these Hello Kitty ice molds go wrong? Er…

ingredients:
6 ounces chocolate (I used Belgian : Callebaut)

In a double boiler melt down the chocolate until you get a nice runny consistency. Spoon or pipe the chocolate into the molds.

Using a toothpick I swirled the chocolate around a bit to get rid of any air bubbles and ‘dropped’ the mold once just to be sure there were no air pockets.

To set faster, I put the mold in the freezer for 5 minutes. Then just pop them right out! Easy, right? Uh oh.

Hm. NOT so easy. Because this mold was hard plastic, not lovely silicone like the Lego mold, there were problems. Big problems. Loss of limbs. Crushed ears. Kitty carnage everywhere. So very sad. So I did what any good medic would do and SEVERED THOSE KITTY HEADS CLEAN OFF. It pained, me, but it had to be done.

I hoped that when I placed them carefully with love on top of a cupcake no one would be the wiser. So I made up some Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting…I know, I know, two things I hate: banana and cream cheese?? Don’t worry – these weren’t for me.

I think they still turned out adorable, but I am definitely going to try this again with a little more patience. Hopefully the poor kitties will survive next time…