Fondant Bear Tutorial

Did you know that there are Rules of Cuteness? Okay, I like to think of them as guidelines but you can check out some of them here: http://cuteoverload.com/tag/the-rules-of-cuteness/ Still with me? I hope you didn't get too distracted by all the cuteness! Here is a step-by-step tutorial on making a cute little fondant bear. You will need:

• Dark Brown Fondant


• Light Brown Fondant (small amount for ears, paws, tummy)


• White Fondant (small amount for eyes)


• Black Fondant or Food-Safe Black Marker (to make eye pupils)


• Small amount of water and a paintbrush


• Toothpick or paring knife

Step 1: Take a little less than half of the brown fondant and roll into a ball. Make it slightly wider than it is tall. Make two little balls for ears. Remember - small ears are cute!

Step 2:

To attach ears (or anything), dip paintbrush in water and then wipe almost all water off the brush. Dab a tiny amount of water onto fondant surface and stick ears on. Roll out a small ball of light brown for the muzzle. Tap with finger to flatten or use a smooth jar to roll out. Attach with water.

Step 3:

Flatten two tiny light brown balls for the inside of the ears and attach with water. Roll tiny amount of black fondant and squish on for a nose. Take tip of a knife or a toothpick and make the mouth. See how my mouth is lop-sided and close to the nose? Cute!

Step 4:

Roll two small balls for the eyes and flatten them. Place them wide apart for maximum cuteness. You also want them fairly large in proportion to the rest of the face so play around a bit until you're happy with them.

Step 5:

Flatten two balls of black for the pupils and attach them. I decided to make my bear a little more smiley, too. The head is done!

Step 6:

For the body, roll out a brown ball that is slightly smaller than the head and taller than it is wide. You will also need a small amount of light brown fondant for the tummy part.

Step 7:

Flatten the light brown ball (a rolling device does come in handy here) and attach to the torso with water.

Step 8:

Roll four balls for the limbs. Here's a tip for making balls of the same size: take one ball of fondant and break in half then break those in half. It's more accurate than trying to break one ball into four equal parts.

Step 9:

Squish you balls into elongated jelly bean shapes. Don't make them too long and skinny, though, because...yes, stubby arms and legs are cute!

Step 10:

Attach legs and arms with small amount of water. Don't be afraid to really squish them on. You might end up with little wrinkles but that's okay, in this case. It is NOT cute when your bear's leg falls off!

Step 11:

Make 4 small light brown balls for paws. Flatten slightly and attach.

Step 12:

Attach the head using a little water again. You may want to support him against something while he dries. Or, if you're worried that the head will fall off, you could put a toothpick through the body for support and then stick the head on that.

L'il Bear with a Kite

I made this cake for one of my sister's co-workers who just had a baby boy. I've really wanted to make a cake with a kite this spring and thought the cute little bear cub would be perfect for celebrating a new baby boy. I could have gotten my buttercream a little smoother and my piped chocolate "string" could be more even (a hazard of piping at 11pm, I think), but overall I'm very happy with the design. The kite, the grass, the bear, and the clouds are all fondant, in case anyone was wondering.

I'll post a tutorial for the bear in the next couple days! Happy Spring!

Tower of Flowers

I got a chance to visit the Macy's Flower Shower in downtown Minneapolis this week (it runs all week during daytime business hours). Which is a good thing because there is nary a green thing to be found outdoors here in the Land of the Neverending Winter. Ugh. Anywho, here are some pics of the show. The lighting in the auditorium is really weird so some of the colors are wacky. I really like the mosaic tower with shelves for potted plants. Hmm, maybe I could make a mini version?

Bluebird of Happiness

Ly at Sweets Bakeshop showed me how to make this sweet little bird. Cute, isn't he? This is the top of my mom's birthday cake. I made an orange and grapfruit cake with the same flavor buttercream. It was delicious and a nice flavor for spring.

Rainbow Bright

Top o' the mornin' to ya! Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm not in the least bit Irish but I do enjoy the color green, loved the four days I spent in Dublin a million years ago, like cute boys with Irish accents, and love the idea of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I couldn't resist making these rainbow cupcakes, even though they have been done so many times in blogs all over the place. They are a lot of fun, but take a while to layer all of the different color batters into the cupcake liner. I would recommend using cheap white liners because then the rainbow pattern will show through (for once, those cheapies come in handy! don't waste the pretty, expensive ones you have. Unless you have gold liners, which would be pretty awesome)

I also think it might be a good idea to put the different color batters in ziploc bags with a hole cut in the corner so that you can control the amount of batter in your cupcake liner. I used a spoon and it was somewhat challenging. I also used cake mix and I think a runnier cake batter might work better for these, giving you more even layers.

Above is my cupcake display, each cupcake topped with sprinkles and jelly beans in the appropriate colors. The candy at the end is the gold at the end of my rainbow. Also, I had this sparkly container below so decided that would be my pot o' gold. No ugly black cauldrons for any leprechaun of mine!

A Baby Shower

I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower over the weekend for a friend of mine. She had a caterpillar-themed invitation so I wanted to carry that theme into the decorations. This would be a cute theme for a spring birthday, too.

I also made my first diaper cake! What do you think? It's a little lop-sided, I know, but it was still cute. They're a lot easier to put together then you would think. I googled and found very good directions on the internets.

Anatomy of a Cupcake

This image has been floating around a few blogs and such. Pretty awesome! You can find the original post here and even order a copy:

http://www.allenhemberger.com/blog/2011/02/07/happy-lesleigh-day/