On a side note, this cake should have been really easy...at least it was in my head before I started. I used this template to help with the carving. It was really helpful and I just used the zoom button in my photo shop program to get it the size I needed.
Here's where I went wrong: I had two options on what size to bake this cake, my sheet cake pan and a 12 in round. I realized the sheet cake pan meant I would be able to carve Kitty out in one piece, but I would have GOBS of cake scraps leftover. If I used the 12 in. pan, I would have to carve Kitty's face and then carve and attach her ear's separately.
I opted for the 12 in pan because I thought it would save me lots of materials cost and carving the ears couldn't be that difficult, right?
I couldn't have been more wrong. Those little ears got the better part of at least 2 hours. And carving Kitty's face "just right" was at least another 2 hrs because my 12 inch cake pan was just a little on the small size.
Well, lesson learned! Don't ever try to cut costs with materials b/c it will just cost you in the long run with your time....which is far more valuable than materials most for the most part!
Oh, but isn't she just so cute!!!
And since Nina and I go back more than 20 years, I wanted to do something a little extra for her, so I made these super cute Hello Kitty cookies!