Cute Food and Bento Box Decoration: Japanese recipes cookbook ‘Cute Yummy Time’ by La Carmina

CUTE CHICKEN SUGAR MARZIPAN ON TART FROM TOKYO, JAPAN: ADORABLE CANDY FARM ANIMALS, PASTRY DECORATION TECHNIQUES.

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil… and eat lots of cuteness!

These mini tarts are from a Shibuya pastry store. The cone-headed chick with rosy cheeks is made of sugar marzipan. Too cute to eat, don’t you think?

- Check out healthy bento recipes from my book Cute Yummy Time, now available for pre-order here.
- To submit photos of cute food you found or made, click here.

SPECIALTY JAPANESE PASTRIES AND CUTE BAKERY GOODS: SHIBUYA FOOD CENTER, EXPENSIVE GOURMET FOOD IN JAPAN.

The Shibuya subway station has a wonderful (albeit expensive) food mart that sells beautiful bentos, pastries and other gastronomic delights. Many of them are adorably decorated, such as these pies.

A wonderful idea for a present:- fish sponge cakes. I love the painted gills, eyes, and tail.

And how about wrapping up nuts, chocolates and candies in these smiley teddy bear boxes? Cute overload!

- Check out fun, cute Japanese baking recipes from my book Cute Yummy Time, now available for pre-order here.
- To submit photos of cute food you found or made, click here.

FUNNY, STRANGE INSTANT CUP NOODLES FROM JAPAN: RAMEN WITH CUTE FACES ON CONTAINER. KAWAII FOOD IN TOKYO.

We’ve all eaten instant cup noodles before… but have you ever had ramen THIS cute?

I keep forgetting the name of these two characters, but they appear on a Japanese kid’s TV show and are quite popular.  These photos are from a Tokyo convenience store. I don’t know – I’d feel like I’m eating their brains!

- My cookbook, Cute Yummy Time, is now available for pre-order! Check it out on Amazon.
- To submit photos of cute food you found or made, click here.

CUSTOM CUTE PIG, ROBOT, JAPANESE BAKERY CAKES. FARM ANIMAL COOKIES, DESSERT DECORATING FOR KIDS PARTIES & BIRTHDAYS.

† Name
I’m Diana, and i work alongside my sister Tina, under the name Bake Inc.
† URL (if you have one)
We have a blog, but we rarely update it. so, our www.flickr.com/bakeinc is as good as it gets. :p
† How were you introduced to the art of “cute cooking”?
We were always curious of all these amazing cakes we see in bakery windows, and mostly in flickr pages! :D
At first, we weren’t actually the baking sort of people, i used to cook more than i bake. I thought of myself as a better cook than a baker. In fact, just a few years ago i always consider myself as a lousy baker because i always ended up ruining even the simplest cake. lol. But then curiousity strikes, on how ppl bake and decorate cool looking cakes, and what all those smooth cakes surfaces are made of, etc.

While i’m doing my research online (at first, all my source of information are all from the NET. ha. the most powerful tool indeed!! ;D ) i came across the most inmportant piece of information : a list of baking stockist/supplier near me.  Apart from having the wildest imagination and finding inspiration,  cake decorating is all about finding the right supplier.  so we did, and after we’ve compiled enough resources online (tutorials, recipes, tips) we then get our hands dirty and start bakin’ and kneadin’ , all from scratch :) Like all beginners, we experienced soggy cakes, tough dough, etc. But we keep on trying and trying until we get the result we wanted.  Our first successful project was our Turtle cake right on my birthday! I’m also into photography so the first thing we do after the cake is finished is too take as much pictures of it as possible. : )

After i shared the pictures with my family and friends, they started putting orders. and quite suddenly, what started as our experiment turned into a little business.  this what keeps us going, because we’ve got people asking for cakes (sometimes requests beyond our skills :p) that pushes us to explore and learn more :)

What inspired your cute creation?
any cute things! :) we still watch lots of animations, so yeah, i guess cartoon characters are great inspiration for shapes and colors.  i browse lots of pools and great cake artists in flickr. i think this is one of the greatest and most convenient source of inspiration around.  We also sometimes come across quite demanding customers, that would request the craziest cakes. Believe me, it’s as good as an inspiration as it gets. : p  after we decided to be quite serious with our cake decorating, we also start buying cake decoration books, which is great for inspiration and techniques.

† How did you make it?
1. For the cake :
if you are going to decorate it with fondant/ plastic icing (the ingredient iuse to cover my pig cake, looks and feels like play-doh but tastes like marshmellow), you’ll have to make the cake’s consistency to be firm, regardless of its flavour.  this means any recipe of butter cake, pound cake, or madeira cake would suffice.  as for the fondant, you can get it from most baking supplies stores.

an example of cake that i use :
Chocolate Pound Cake
YIELD: Makes about 6 1/3 cups batter.
Ingredients and tools:
* 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter, softened
* 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
* 6 eggs
170gr semi-sweet chocolate, melted
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup sour cream

: Originally this dense-textured, rich yellow loaf cake, originating in England, was made with one pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs, plus a flavoring like vanilla or lemon. A myriad of variations has evolved throughout the centuries.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray pan with vegetable pan spray.
In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, chocolate and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour and salt; stir baking soda into sour cream.
Alternately add sour cream and flour mixture to butter mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Cool 10 minutes in pan on rack; remove and cool completely before decorating.
after the cake is cooled, you are going to have to carve it if necessary (animal shaped, etc) and then cover it with buttercream (again, myriad of the recipes available online)
afterwards, the fondant will have to be colored ( i use wilton food coloring), kneaded (so the color would spread evenly), and rolled.
you have to do this quick, as fondants tend to dry out easily.
after you cover the cake with fondant, its then up to your design on how to decorate it.

2. For the cookies :
I use basic butter cookies recipes for the cookies.
(Makes 45 slice-and-bake cookies, 100 spritz cookies, or 30 cut-out cookies)
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 large egg
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for rolling and cutting
* Sanding sugar and other decorations (optional)
* Confectioners’-sugar glaze

Directions
1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter with sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well to combine. Mix in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour and mix just un-til incorporated (do not overmix).
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Space cookies 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until just barely golden around the edges, 7 to 12 minutes (depending on size of cookies). Cool completely on baking sheets.
3. Decorate, if desired. Let dry at least 2 hours. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

* If i have the desired cookie cutter, than i’ll cut it after i roll the dough. if not, than i’ll carve the rolled cookie dough based on the wanted design. (usually we’ll print the design on baking paper, as a guide)
then i’ll make the royal icing for the decoration :
Ingredients and tools:
Makes 3 cups.
* 3 tablespoons meringue powder
* 4 cups confectioners’ sugar (about 1 lb.)
* 6 Tablespoons warm water
Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).
NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.
* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.
**When using large countertop mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

† Any other comments or tips?
dont stop trying, even after constant failures.
you have no idea how much wasted flours and butter i’ve caused before i finally made my first fluffy cake. ; p

CUTE ANIMAL-SHAPED PET FOOD BISCUITS FROM TOKYO, JAPAN CONVENIENCE STORE. WEIRD, STRANGE FOOD FROM CONBINIS.

In Japan…. even PET FOOD is cute!

These doggie biscuits, sold at a Tokyo convenience store, are shaped like ambiguous animals. Dogs, I suppose? If you can’t read Japanese, you might accidentally eat them yourself!

- My cookbook, Cute Yummy Time, is now available for pre-order! Check it out!
- To submit photos of cute food you found or made, click here.

CUTE COOKING EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES FROM TOKYO DEPARTMENT STORE LOFT: KAWAII CHARACTER GOODS, BENTO FOOD DECOR.

Cute cooking isn’t quite the same without cute cooking equipment! These photos are from Loft, an awesome home goods store in Shibuya. You can buy anything with a kawaii face on it…

…including these piggy otoshibutas, or drop lids used in Japanese cooking!

- My cookbook, Cute Yummy Time, is now available for pre-order! Check it out!
- To submit photos of cute food you found or made, click here.

CUTE TEDDY BEAR SANDWICH BENTO: JAPANESE LUNCH DECORATION, HEALTHY LUNCH BENTOS FOR KIDS.

† Name: Fuorukuna Asuri
† URL: www.flickr.com/people/37198067@N08/
† How were you introduced to the art of “cute cooking”?
Wow… I don’t know, really, haha! Probably through anime. I’ve always been interested in Japanese culture and the language, and I think it was another way for me to immerse myself as much as I could in the culture despite not being able to live in Japan and see things first hand. :] But now I’m passionate about bento-ing! What can I say? I fell in love with it! Haha~ <3
† What inspired your cute creation?
I draw my inspiration from many places, mostly from other bento-ing friends on Flickr. I don’t know what made me want to make a bear sandwich, but once I started it, it really came together! I think a bear is just something that’s fairly simple to make and that’s why I chose that X3 No real significance, sorry for the lack of glamour here! <33
† How did you make it?
Eto… I’m not sure how to explain considering I was absolutely winging it. Haha! Hmm… Well, to make this would be a lot simpler if you use a fairly large bear shaped cookie cutter, but when I made it I cut it from the bread myself just using a serrated knife (which is important, because such knives are best for cutting through the texture of bread.
When cutting the bread shape out (if you do it the way I did) have patience with it, go slow and try to be as precise as you can :] One thing I’ve learned is that cute cooking, Kyaraben especially, takes time and cannot be rushed! A good thing about learning this technique is that a lot of simple shapes can be made this way :3 Like, for example, a cat shape or a doggie could probably be made this same way (breads are so hard to work with though! D: I am beginning to prefer onigiri heehee). Also, remember to cut your bread shape out before you put in fillings (in this case, I used chicken salad).
I sort of cheated with the little bear’s face, though > w > I was so desperate for kyaraben that I used whatever I could find!! The eyes are two m&m’s and the mouth and nose are lettuce, which was a total pain to try to cut myself (see the picture’s description to hear some of my complaining on it XD). I recommend investing in face punches! (which I have yet to do D: )
As for everything else, it’s just a matter of filling the box with color and things that you like. In this case it worked out well and was super quick, to just throw some lettuce down under him and call it ‘a bear in the woods’ :] Often you have to work with what you have at the time.

† Any other comments or tips?
Heehee~ Cooking cute is very fun and doesn’t have to be incredibly hard. Making things easier by looking for cute cookie cutters (which you can use on almost anything! They’re wonderful~) and other items and just remember to pack what you like and arrange it cutely. No one always has time to make super cute kyaraben, but it’s just as lovely to open a box of cutely arranged food that’s colorful and fun!

Also, look around on the web for good sites to use and take a look at what other people are doing. There’s no shame in asking for help or trying to do what they did also. <3

- Check out healthy bento recipes from my book Cute Yummy Time, now available for pre-order here.
- To submit photos of cute food you found or made, click here.

BABY BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES, CUTE KID’S DESSERTS WITH TEDDY BEARS, ANIMAL FACES. JAPANESE CHARACTER DESIGN ON FOOD.

† Name: Sharon Wee
† URL: www.weelovebaking.com
† How were you introduced to the art of “cute cooking”?
I was first introduced to all sorts of cute creations on Flickr. There are so many amazing people with all sorts of talents out there :)

† What inspired your cute creation?
I am inspired by colours and whenever I make my cupcakes, I try to come up with a common theme for them. The bear cupcakes were for a 2 year old boy so I thought bears, suns and clouds would be the most suitable.

† How did you make it?
The cupcakes were made from scratch and the decorations were made using rolled icing. I coloured the rolled icing and then cut out the different shapes for the cupcakes.

† Any other comments or tips?

Using rolled icing isnt hard, just give it a try, you’ll find it’s a lot like play doh and what you can create is only limited by your imagination :D

- My cookbook, Cute Yummy Time, is now available for pre-order! Check it out!
- To submit photos of cute food you found or made, click here.