How to Make a Bear Cake 101

I've known Tess since her brother and I became good friends in high school, so that would make it about, hmm....15 years? Tess is all grown up now and recently she celebrated her 21st birthday. Tess' nickname is Bear so it seemed fitting to create a 3D bear for her.

I used my vanilla bean cupcakes recipe (made 1 1/2 batches) for this cake.

I decided to make this visually interesting by making different coloured and flavoured layers. Half was coloured pink using Americolor gel and the other half was made chocolate by adding two tablespoons of good quality cocoa and a couple of extra tablespoons of milk.

I baked two 20 cm cakes, halved them horizontally and stacked them in alternate layers, using buttercream between each layer. Using a serrated knife I shaped the cake into a pear shape. Cover the whole thing in buttercream and, using a bench scraper, smooth out any lumps or lines. Pop the cake in the fridge until the buttercream is firm.

I decided to make the head out of a white chocolate crackle, just for something different. I made this using 60g Rice Bubbles and 200g melted white chocolate. To shape it, I pushed the mixture into a small ceramic bowl lined with plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge to set.

Once the chocolate had hardened I removed the crackle from the bowl and shaped the bottom using a serrated knife.

I covered the crackle in buttercream and smoothed it out in preparation for covering it with fondant.

I had some premade chocolate fondant on hand but I found the texture to be a bit grainy, so I added some regular white fondant to improve its elasticity and shine.

I rolled out the fondant and covered the head, using a fondant smoother to ensure a smooth finish. Here's where it gets violent - stab a couple of toothpicks into the base of the head so that you can attach it to the body.

Pop the head on the body and use your fondant smoother to get rid of any bumps.

Use fondant to add accents such as ears, ears, nose, mouth and a bow.

To make the stitches I used a stitching tool, which is a wheel with a special cutter on the end. To make the mouth I used a circular cutter on an angle so that only half of the circle was cut into the fondant.

I used fondant for the arms and legs but you could certainly use chocolate crackle or cake for these.

So...here is the finished product! Cute!