Care Bear Cake

It's January! That means that my adorable little niece is turning four! My family is always giving me new and inventive cake ideas to push my frosted creations to new levels. This Care Bear Cake was a great first challenge for a new year of cake decorating!

The biggest challenge for this cake was time. A lot happened this week. First it was a whirlwind weekend trip to North Carolina. Then there was the sad news of a high school friend passing. And to top it off there were mandatory work and dance class meetings. Fortunately I was still able to squeeze cake awesomeness in there. Sometimes life just happens all at once.

The only thing that I requested of my sister-in-law when she announced a Care Bear party for her daughter was that I would create anything she liked - as long as it did not include modeling Care Bears. Trademarked items are so hard to recreate! I have seen some true disasters in this area and have decided to leave all that cake jazz to professionals. So my sister-in-law ordered these adorable Care Bear cupcake toppers that worked perfectly for the cake!

Pinterest was the original inspiration for the cake design. I already had the cake stand used in the picture so that was set. Most of the pieces were pretty easy to sculpt by hand. I only had fondant on hand (no gumpaste) so I had to let them dry for several days. The stars were made with a handy cake mold that I got for Christmas (I used a cookie cutter for the stars on the sides of the cake). I didn't cover the cake in fondant since it was a children's party. Most kids just aren't fond of that chewy solid frosting. And parents? Forget about it!

Of course the biggest modeling challenge was the connecting rainbows. Fondant remains pretty soft unless you let it dry for weeks at a time. I didn't exactly allow myself weeks for this cake! Thankfully a 72 hour span seemed to work for this cake's rainbows but if I were ever to make it again I would use a gumpaste/ fondant mixture and let it dry for a week. The other challenge was the swing attached to the rainbow. I initially wanted to hang it from a hook attached to the back of the rainbow but the handle I made for the swing broke. So instead I used toothpicks "glued" in with piping gel. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention!

And so it all worked out. The cake was awesome. The party was awesome (have I ever mentioned that my sister-in-law is an amazing party planner?). My niece turned four with grace and... well.... awesomeness. Here's to a great year of new cakes!