Jul 23

Jul 23 How To Make An Adorable Pink Bear Cake

Hey hey hey! Thanks for dropping by this week to see this little cutie in action! It seems like I've got a new obsession... it started with the unicorn for Burns Night, took a giant forward leap with lil miss llama and now we've got a cute-tastic bear. And what do they all have in common? Luscious curly locks on top! I'm sure it's rooted in the fact that I can't have them myself so I'm living vicariously through cake.

Ever since I saw Pretty Woman (when I was way too young to watch it) I've been begging the universe to give me a mass of red curly hair. Instead, I've got the worlds straightest hair. I can spend hours with a curling tong and a strong wind can easily come take it all away. Oh, the horror! But it's ok, cos now I can live my curly mop dreams through the power of cake! Woohoo! I'll need to start bingeing Secret Life Of The Zoo again for inspiration. I see a lemur in this blogs future, just call me Mystic Meg already.

And the best thing about this style of cake is how easy they are to make! It kinda reminds of lego, simple shapes, built up, and altogether they make something really cool. It's like being a kid again, what could be more fun than that??

Shall we get going so you can be as excited as me?

Ingredients

Cake

8oz sugar

8oz butter

4 eggs

8oz self-raising flour

2 tbsp milk

Decoration

250g butter

100g cream cheese

1tsp vanilla

500g icing sugar

250g pink fondant

100g white fondant

50g black fondant

Gel food colouring, blue and pink

Method

1. Knead the pink and white fondant for ten minutes each until they're easy to work with. Tear off a small piece of pink and roll flat to 1-2mm thick.

2. Using a small round cookie cutter cut out 2 pink circles big enough for the bear's ears.

3. Now roll a piece of white fondant to the same thickness and cut 2 more circles, this time slightly smaller.

4. Using a fondant tool, brush out from the centre of the white circles towards the edge. Attach the white circles to the pink with a little water.

5. With a sharp knife, cut out sections from the bottom of the ears like the picture above. Insert 2 damp cocktail sticks into the ears where you made the cuts and leave to dry.

6. Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan and line two, 6-inch cake pans with parchment paper.

7. Cream together 8oz of butter and 8oz of sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in 4 eggs and 2tbsp of milk gradually and mix until fully combined. Mix in 8oz of self-raising flour until just combined.

8. Split the cake batter evenly between the two lined pans and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

9. When baked, leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

10. While the cake is cooling, beat together 250g of butter and 100g of cream cheese until smooth. Mix in 500g of icing sugar, the frosting should be easy to spread but stay on the beaters when lifted out of the bowl.

11. Colour the frosting pink.

12. Using a sharp knife, cut the cakes into two layers each. Spread a layer of frosting over each layer and build the cake up until all the layers are on. Cover the cake in a thin layer of frosting all over and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

13. After the cake has chilled, cover with another layer of frosting (thicker this time) and smooth out with a bench scraper or palette knife. Return to the fridge.

14. While the cake is chilling. make a template for the eyes like the one below. Roll out a small piece of white fondant to 1-2mm thick and use the template to cut out 2 eyes. Remember to flip the template over on the second one.

15. Roll out a small piece of blue fondant (use gel food colour to colour a small piece of white fondant) and use a small cookie cutter to cut out 2 circles. Place each circle on top of the white eyes with a little water and trim the excess.

16. Repeat the last step, this time with black fondant. Again, trim off the excess.

17. Roll out 2 tiny balls of white fondant and press into the top left corner of the each of the eyes, securing with a little water.

18. Attach each of the eyes to the front of the cake by misting the cake with a little sterilised water and then hold the eyes in place until they're secure.

19. Roll 4 pieces of black fondant into ropes that taper at the end into a point. Brush the top of the eyes with a little water and place the first black rope on top, pointed end towards the outside and then flick upwards to create an eyelash. Trim any excess on the inside edge.

20. Repeat for the second eyelash on this eye and then add the last 2 ropes to the other eye in the same way.

21. Roll 2 small ropes in pink fondant, not tapered this time and attach to the underside of each eye. Trim any excess.

22. Roll flat a piece of white fondant to 1-2mm thick and cut to the shape of the muzzle above. Roll flat a small piece of pink fondant and cut into a tiny loveheart.

23. Attach the loveheart to the muzzle with a little water. Roll another small pink rop and run this from the bottom of the loveheart to the bottom of the muzzle.

24.. Attach the muzzle to the cake with water. Roll out a small black rope in fondant and run it along the bottom of the muzzle for lips.

25. Cut 2 small pink circles in pink fondant and attach to the cake where the cheeks should be.

26. When the ears have dried, gently push them in to the top of the cake, lining up the indents with the top corners of the cake.

27. Pipe a small line of leftover frosting top and centre of the cake, between the ears.

28. Roll out small pink ropes of fondant that taper at the end and place on top of the frosting. Twist and twirl it to make hair. Repeat until your bear has a full head of lush curls.