Moms 1st Birthday Bear Cake

by Amy Woodcock
(Churchill, Ontario, Canada)

For the Bear Birthday Cake you'll need:

- A bear shaped pan
- grease it with shortening,
- put in cake mix, I used carrot cake for a first birthday
- after it's baked and cooled, use a thread to slice a layer into the cake, if it breaks when transporting the top layer, don't panic, it's much easier to put back on after you inserted the filling.
- for filling I used custard, it comes in a can already made and you just spread it on.
- Then it's time to do the icing. Beginners like myself will find it very messy.
- have yourself a cake decorating kit and choose the smallest icer to make outlines of how you want the bear to look, kind of like lines you will colour in later.
- then pick the star decorator and star making little stars all around like bear fur. I used white icing as it was less work then making a coloured icing with the dyes that usually come in your kit. I also used whipped icing, it's lighter and easy to use.
- once the bear fur is done, start mixing colours for the accents and the paws etc. I tried for a purple but it kind of got muddy looking.

This was my first cake for my daughter so it was experimental, i hope next year I will use different colours and try not to do it hours before the party.

Good luck