My baby turned nine last week, which is still young enough I think to get away with making a cute little teddy bear birthday cake —namely the kind of cake for those of us who don't have the skills or desire for piped icing and hours spent in the kitchen when we'd rather be making presents and decorations for the occasion! Are you with me?
This bear birthday cake will put a smile on your little one's face just as much as a complicated fondant covered cake that could take hours and hours, and very likely tastes much better! Would I love to be able to make some of those complicated cakes? Well, maybe for a grown up party it might be fun, but I think all that effort is generally lost on kids...so take my advice and go for simple and cute!
You'll Need:
- a bear cake pan
- a large tray
- basic chocolate cake recipe
- non dairy whip icing, or the icing of your choice
- licorice or sour sticks, ribbon candy (not sure what it is called, but the candy that I used for the shirt placket and collar), round m&M type candies
- larger flat hard candies to use for eyes, or in my case rounds of bread
- sprinkles
- skewers
- balloons
- colored paper stock
How To:
Bake your chocolate cake ahead of time and defrost on the day of the party. Make icing and add details with sour sticks, and other candy. To join the sour sticks to form a circle, cut the ends on a diagonal and use a little water to stick them together. Carefully fill in circles, nose and ear areas with sprinkles. Make a crown and grass with colored card stock, make a little flag on a skewer and balloons on skewers.
Now get to work making tons of colorful paper garlands, homemade cards and even some little gifts, which I"ll share with you soon! The cake will get eaten, but the cards and gifts will be around for awhile!
