Teddy Bear Cake

Little Miss turned one last week (the days goes so slow, but the years go so fast!). My little darling loves cuddling teddy bears, and “bear” was one of her first words, so I had to make her a teddy bear cake:

Unfortunately, this was the only remotely-decent photo we got of the cake (and it was cropped out of a bigger photo). Unfortunately, I only finished decorating the cake (and a mountain of cupcakes) right at dinner time the night before the party and didn’t take any photos. On the day of the party, the toddlers were whipped up into a frenzy at the first sight of cake and I forgot!

Here’s a quick rundown of how I made the cake (sorry, no pictures):
1.  I made a single batch of plain vanilla cake – I made it from scratch with a recipe equivalent to a packet mix. I baked it in a rectangular Lamington Pan(30cm x 19cm, or 12” x 8”).

2.  I cut out a template for the teddy bear out of paper, making him nice and chubby to minimise the waste. I folded him in half to cut out to make sure he was symmetrical.

I placed the template on top of the cake, and carefully cut around the outside.

3.  I prepared a batch of buttercream. A third of the batch, I kept white and I added food colouring gelto the remaining two-thirds to make pink.

4.  I smeared the pink buttercream all over the top and sides of the cake, except for an oval for the belly and face. I wasn’t very precise (and even wiped a bit off where I forgot about the belly), but just tried to get the size of the belly and face about right. I didn’t bother leaving the paw pads un-iced. The beauty of the teddy bear cake is you don’t need to make the icing smooth – the rougher and fluffier it looks, the better!

5.   I then just used a spoon to blob white buttercream in for the belly, face and paw pads. I gently smooshed it around with the spoon to get the shape right.

6.  I used two blue Smarties (the Australian/Canadian version like M&Ms) for the eyes, and a brown Smartie for the nose. For the mouth, a cut a small strip of Raspberry Twist (you could also use liquorice straps) and cut a slit halfway up and spread it out for the two sides of the mouth.

The birthday girl was fascinated by the candle:

And was actually fairly tidy when it came to eating the cake:

I used the Teddy Bear Cake in the Australian Women’s Weekly Kids’ Party Cakes book as the inspiration, but made a much smaller cake. I was really happy with how it turned out (especially since it’s only the second time I’ve decorated a birthday cake).

More details of the party dress and food on the day to come…