LIVE. LAUGH. LOVE.: Winnie-the-Pooh Cake

When my sister asked me to make a Winnie-the-Pooh cake for my niece's birthday party, I said, "Sure, no problem." Then I started to panic a little bit. I love to decorate cakes, but nobody had never asked me to make a cake for them. I have no artistic ability (Seriously, on a good day, I can draw stick figures), so the task of drawing a Pooh with frosting was overwhelming to say the least. I would not have been able to make Arianna's cake without looking at Pooh cakes that other people had made, and now I am passing on the steps to this cake to maybe help out somebody else. This is the cake that I attempted to replicate.

The first thing I had to figure out was how to cook a cake that was half chocolate and half white. (When Sarah asked me if I could do that, I said, "Of course!" but I really had no idea how to go about it). I copied the lady in this video on the "rolled-up towel method" and successfully made one cake with two flavors. I used one chocolate cake mix and one white cake mix in an 11x15 pan. The line in the middle was not exactly straight, but it didn't seem bad for a first try.

When the cake was cool, the fun really started - keeping Collin's fingers out of the icing while I decorated the cake! I frosted the entire cake with white frosting and let it harden just a little bit.

My original thought for drawing Pooh was that I could place a picture of Pooh on the cake and use a toothpick to poke holes around the edges into the cake. Instead, I poked holes all around Pooh before I placed the picture on the cake. When I put it on the cake, the backs of the holes actually left a decent outline for me, and I just sort of guesstimated the rest.

I bought a tube of black frosting, because I've never succeeded in making my own. (If you have ever had any success with making black or red frosting, please let me know how). I used a #2 tip to outline Pooh in black.

I used a mix of ivory and yellow food coloring to get the right color for Pooh. I filled in his body with stars using the #16 tip. I built up his hand, cheeks, and snout by putting on a few more layers of stars.

I bought a tube of red frosting as well and filled in his shirt with red stars. I used red frosting for his tongue and just kind of smeared it around with a toothpick until it looked like a tongue. :-)

I used chocolate frosting for his nose and the inside of his mouth.

I used green and yellow frosting to make balloons and strings and wrote my niece's name on the balloons with red frosting using the #2 tip. I used green frosting and the #16 tip to do the edges.