Build-A-Bear Cakes

It was last summer on a spur-of-the-moment trip to Portland while we had an out-of-town guest that I stumbled upon a cake pan on clearance at Williams Sonoma. It was to make a standup Build-A-Bear cake and I had to have it.

One issue with impulsive purchases is that the thrill of the find is sometimes more rewarding than the actual item itself. This seemed to be the case with this particular cake pan. I mean, that isn’t to say that I didn’t go home, wash the pan and bake a cake out of it that same day, because I did, but since it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped (or anywhere near what they looked like on the box) I boxed it up put it away. Over a year later I finally decided to give this cake pan another shot.

Our choir director at church had been there for twenty years and yesterday’s service, unbeknownst to her, was wholly devoted to her. Our pastor wanted a special cake to commemorate this event and commissioned me to come up with something. Being the procrastinator I am, it wasn’t until the day before that I started researching what kind of cake I could make. I already figured that I’d make mostly cupcakes and have a centerpiece cake that I’d actually spend time decorating. I mean, there have been times I spent hours decorating cakes only to have them completely cut and plated before anyone got to see it, and honestly, what is the point of wasting all that time? Eventually I decided to attempt another Build-A-Bear cake and dress her up like a choir director.

Now, this isn’t to say that this time it went smoother because, well, it only went slightly better than my previous attempt nearly fifteen months ago. However, It did work out well enough. I’m sure with practice I’ll be able to perfect the technique, especially the “fur” application, which is where after making a glaze, demerara sugar is applied to create a fur-like texture. That actually looked really cool, but did make it a little more difficult to cover with fondant clothing, so in the future I may forgo the texture where any coverings are going to be. She still turned out great, but I’ve run into another issue that seems to run rampant with some of my cakes in which people don’t want to cut into them because, well, I really don’t know. Sometimes I wish I always carried a cake-cutting knife with me to just slice right down the center of a cake to make people get over it because, c’mon people, it’s cake. Eat it.

And just so you know, the cake wasn’t eaten. Instead, the choir director took it to her office where it will sit until Wednesday when they meet for practice. I assured it that it won’t be any good, but we’ll see. I might be proven wrong… or it might fall over due to a little thing called gravity.