As the older of the 2 Smallish Ones has a birthday that falls in the Summer Holidays, we always celebrate twice...once with friends...and cake number 1...and once with family...on the actual day...and of course, this means a second cake...Emily asked for a "From Me to You" cake...but not just a nice round cake with sugar paste toppers....no...that would be too easy...she wanted an actual bear shaped cake!!!
So off to internet land I went, looking for ideas and inspirations...and boy were there loads!!! Too many to list, but one that really caught my eye was this tutorial from a guy named Paul Bradford...now I knew that I was using a different technique from the start, but as far as the decorating goes, this was a great video to watch and learn from...
So what did I do? Well to start with I baked 3 cakes...2 in a 1pint pyrex bowl, and 1 in a 1l pyrex bowl...I used a basic vanilla sponge recipe...using 3 large eggs for the larger cake and 2 each for the smaller ones...I weighed the eggs and used the same quantity of self-raising flour, unsalted butter and caster sugar with a tsp of vanilla and a drop of milk...to make the batter just short of a dropping consistency...
...The bowls were well oiled...and I baked them low and slow...about Gas 3-4/160-170c until done...it was a bit of a cook for 20 minutes, check, put back in the oven cook another 20mins check again...kind of thing...in the end the smaller ones took around 45 minutes each (I only had 1 bowl that size!!!) and the larger one took about 55 minutes...
...once all the cakes were cooked and cooled, I stored them overnight (I find them better to work with the following day)...and then the real work began...forming the Teddy Bear!!
...I decided to slice and fill the larger cake, as it would probably seem a bit unfair getting a slice of just cake and no filling...plus it added a wee bit of height to the body...originally I was working with off cuts of cake to make arms, but decided to switch to mini-rolls at the last minute...
...that way they would match the legs!! The head was made by sandwiching the 2 smaller cakes and cutting down to the right size...the head was then placed on the body and attached using several drinking straws to keep it balanced and in place...
...a bit of sugar paste and some sculpting left me with the bare bones of my Teddy design...which then got wrapped and left overnight again...
...the morning of the actual birthday was when the hardest part took place...the decorating and finishing off...as this was to be Tatty Teddy...who is grey, fluffy and a little rough around the edges...I had to make a double batch of grey butter cream for his fur...I used the same recipe as here...as it is the best one I have come across to date...in fact, I made it the night before and stuck it in the fridge overnight...anything to cut time...all I had to do before frosting was let it come to room temperature and mix well...
...I used a small star nozzle with a disposable icing bag...and carefully piped fluffy fur all over him...I doubled up on the legs to make them look a bit thicker...
...starting to really take shape...
...he slopes back a wee bit, as it was the only way I could keep the head balanced...and I forgot his little stubby tail...but no-one will know!!!
...we have a Tatty Teddy...almost...
...some sugar paste paws, eyes and patches...a bit of gel icing for the finishing touches...
...and a great big bow...blue of course as it is Emily's favourite colour...
...not forgetting the candles...I don't want to cut into him...he looks so cute and fluffy...
But we did cut into him, and the sponge cake was moist and delicious...
...and enjoyed by all...this is what we are left with...the head all went....
Wow! This is so pretty. This is every childs dream's cake!
ReplyDeleteThanks Alida...she really liked this one x
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