Grace's Bear Cake (or Don't Be Afraid to Try a Shaped Cake Pan)

I've made all sorts of birthday cakes in Grace's short five years: a pineapple upside down cake, an enormous princess castle cake, a hideous purple cake, and a couple of Elmo cakes.

Whatever cake she wants for her birthday, she gets.

This year, Grace was having a party at Build-A-Bear Workshop (and it was amazing! More on that on Wednesday.), so she decided that a teddy bear cake would be perfect.

I wasn't quite sure how I would accomplish a teddy bear cake, but I finally decided to look for a shaped cake pan.

Armed with a 40% off coupon, I headed to the craft store. Fortunately, they had a pan that was perfect.

Making a cake using one of these shaped cake pans is no different than using a normal cake pan. You just plop it in the oven and bake. 35 minutes later, the cake comes out of the oven. You let it cool a bit, flip it over, let it cool completely, and frost it. It's that easy.

So, I thought I had it made with this cake. Compared to a princess castle, it was simple.

It was not as simple as I thought.

I had only enough white frosting to do the purple parts, so I had to make my own frosting.

Why I didn't consult The Joy of Cooking or one of my other 27 cookbooks is beyond me. I Googled how to make frosting and found a recipe using powdered sugar and milk.

I made my frosting, spread it on the cake, and walked away. While I was gone, the frosting turned into glaze and ran right off the cake.

{sigh}

I should've sent Joe to Walmart to buy another can of white frosting, but I was determined. I thought back to the chocolate butter cream frosting I made and decided to add some butter and vanilla.

I softened the butter (but did not let it melt) and whisked it into what was left of my glaze. It was ugly, but it behaved and tasted more like frosting.

After getting the colored parts the way I wanted, I put on the chocolate frosting. The black came from one of those squeeze tubes I'd gotten at the craft store.

Aside from my frosting flub up, this was so easy! The cake tasted great (it was just a box mix that Grace picked out), and everyone raved over the cute birthday cake.

So. Next time you need a cute birthday cake, go for one of those shaped cake pans. They're really easy, as long as you make sure you have all of the appropriate supplies.

{ahem}

This post was not sponsored by anybody, lest you wondered.