Hello Kitty Butter Cupcakes

This is for those Hello Kitty fans out there! I was overwhelmed by friends' reaction when I put this photo on my Facebook.

I bought these silicone cupcake moulds from a homeware department store in Japan - Tokyu Hands - they have everything from bathroom fixtures to wigs and costumes! If you want to check this place out, you should expect to spend at least 2 hours going through 12 floors of this store!

When I came back to Hong Kong, I used a butter cake recipe on these moulds and they turned out very smooth and fluffy, and I was so happy when Hello Kitty's face came off the mould in one piece!! If you don't have these cute Hello Kitty moulds, you can also use muffin pans. Here's the recipe I used to make about 6 cupcakes:

1 3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks of butter (softened)

1 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1 1/2 tsp orange zest

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

Use: 2 mixing bowls, an electric handmixer, muffin pan

1) Preheat oven to 190C and grease muffin pan with butter or vegetable oil

2)Mix flour, baking powder and salt in the bowl

3) Mix butter, sugar and egg in a separate bowl with an electric mixer until it becomes a yellow smooth mixture

4) Add orange zest, vanilla extract to egg mixture

5) Add flour and milk to egg mixture and mix with an electric mixer until you can't see any lumpy flour and it has the consistency like glue (you do not want it to be too runny)

6) Fill mixture to the top of each greased muffin cup (the cake only rises a little) and bake for 20-25 mins until the top turns light brown. To test if the cakes are cooked through, put a knife through the cake and it should come out clean. Otherwise, let the cakes sit in the oven (heat off) for another 5 mins.

I gave one of the cupcakes to my friend and she posted on FB documenting the destruction of Hello Kitty - which i thought was pretty funny! (apologies to those who are upset by these gruesome pictures).