Recently I was enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon with my daughter and mentally scrolling through the contents of our refrigerator, planning her lunches for the upcoming week, when it occurred to me that I hadn’t made her anything particularly cute for lunch in a while. Since she had just put on her little apron for a session in her play kitchen, I thought she might want to help me with this project– and of course then I knew that it had to feature cats in some way.
Remembering my previous piggy bun project, I thought I might try a variation on it and make “kitty buns.” Since I didn’t have any savory fillings ready I decided to use my currant bun recipe for the dough. All was going well– the dough mixed up just fine, rose nicely– and then it was time shape the kitties.
I divided the dough into 12 equal pieces, and cut off a small portion of each piece to make small balls for the kitty noses and muzzles. I shaped the dough into 12 round buns and snipped each one with kitchen scissors to make ears. I rolled the small balls between my palms, then used a fingertip dipped in egg wash to make little indentations in the faces for them to rest in. Finally, I poked holes in the balls with a chopstick and inserted dried currants for eyes. I egg-washed the finished faces and set them to rise again before baking. I had high hopes.
Once in the oven, however, the buns grew. And grew. Not evenly, I might add. And what had started as reasonably cute kitty faces turned into, well…
Yeah, not particularly cute. Or even remotely resembling a cat. Some of them might have looked something like fish if turned on their sides, but others just looked kind of obscene. My husband burst out laughing when he saw them. My daughter didn’t care– she thought they were great.
But let’s just say this is one project that I won’t exactly be chalking up as a success…
It's All Frosting... 