Little Miss Sanrio

Last month, I received a request for a Hello Kitty birthday cake. A friend had asked me to bake a vanilla butter cake topped with strawberries and a Hello Kitty figurine (see last entry). It was the one order which I delved into enthusiastically because I once obsessed over Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters - Little Twin Stars and My Melody.

I think I was 9 nine years old and the Atria then housed a Japanese departmental store called Kimisawa. It was end of the year school holidays and my classmates agreed to meet at Atria for someone's birthday. Whose birthday it was, I couldn't remember but I do remember jumping with joy upon discovering those whimsical Sanrio stickers. It was a special edition of scratch & sniff stickers with gorgeous scents like gardenia, ice cream soda, chocolate, raspberry, rose and jasmine, to name a few.

I was such an avid collector that I had a little clear holder to hold my stickers. I also remember slotting the stickers back into their original plastic case after holding them under my nose for a good whiff. I daren't scratch them as I didn't want to lose those lovely scents. The scents were so powerful that my sticker holder smelt of a wonderful mishmash of sweet scents. All in all, I had a total of 16 Sanrio scratch & sniff stickers.

I still remember saving half of my $5 monthly pocket money to buy Sanrio stickers which cost $2.20 each. At the end of the month, I'd badger my parents to make a trip to Kimisawa or Printemps (at Yow Chuan Plaza) to get another scratch & sniff sticker for my Sanrio collection.

Of course, after 20 years, those sweet scents are all gone but they are still lovely to look at.

Hmm, I see some whimsical designs that can be translated onto my cakes.