Totoro Cookie Cake

The cutest thing I’ve ever made so far! This Studio-Ghibli themed cookie art will impress everyone who lays eyes on it. As a fan of anything Totoro, I was so happy with how this turned out. Making the cookie art takes some time and precision, but is definitely worth expending the effort for, especially when you see how it turns out in the end!

• Taste: ★★★
• Difficulty: ★★★★
• Ingredients: ★★
• Time: ~2.5 hours

Ingredients (makes one 8×8 pan)

• Biscuits
  • 6 tbsp of unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/3 cup of brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 cup of cake flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • Food colorings
• Blondie Base
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
  • 3/4 cup tightly packed dark brown sugar or white sugar
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 tsp of vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

Making the Biscuit Dough

1. Make the biscuits first by combining and creaming together softened butter and sugar. Then add one beaten egg and mix.
2. Sift in the cake flour and salt. Knead cookie dough until it holds together and can be molded. The texture should be similar to that of playdough!
3. Split two golf-sized balls and place them in separate bowls. Then split 1/4 of the remaining ball and set in a separate bowl. You should have 4 balls of dough: 2 small golf-sized balls and 1/4 and 3/4 of the remaining dough ball (that you had after taking off the two golf-sized balls).
4. Using food coloring or powders, color one small dough ball red and another green by kneading in food coloring. Color the largest dough ball gray. Leave the second biggest dough ball plain.
5. Wrap your colored dough balls in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30min-1hour. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
6. Preheat oven to 300F or 150C.
7. Shaping the TOTORO time! Roll out all your dough until about 1-2 – 1/3 inch thick (just eyeball it). Cut out a Totoro body shape (about 5-in tall) with a knife from the grey dough and cut out a circle (about 3-in in diameter) from the plain, non-colored dough.
8. Press down the circle (this will be the stomach) onto the bottom half of the grey Totoro body shaped dough.
9. Roll out red and green balls and cut out hearts and leaves either by hand or with cookie cutters!
10. Bake for 6 minutes until just set. Set aside.

Making the Blondie Base

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly butter and flour an 8×8-inch pan or a 9-in cake pan.
2. Whisk together the melted butter and sugar in a bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract and whisk.
3. Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix together until well combined.
4. Add add-ins and mix together.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, then take the pan out of the oven. Blondie will be slightly underbaked at this point.
6. Arrange the baked cookies onto the underbaked blondie. Put the pan back into the oven and cover with aluminum foil for another 8 minutes.
7. Unveil the foil and voila! Your own Totoro cookie art 🙂