Care Bear Birthday Cake - Share Bear

I really wanted to make a Care Bear birthday cake for my daughters 3rd birthday, as I had bought a brand new Care Bears cake pan of Kijiji a year ago, right after my daugther's 2nd birthday! Of course I wanted to make Share Bear, as it is the purple Care Bear.

I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to pipe this Care Bear cake, as I never piped anything before, other than the Hello Kitty Cupcakes, in order to practice. I'm not very artistically inclined, so I figured doing anything with icing would be even harder than drawing with a pencil etc. However, thanks to my sister-in-laws amazing Frosting Recipe and my sister, who did not only assist me with making the icing the right colours and decorating the cake properly but also acted as the photographer, my first Care Bear cake turned out alright.

(c) Bkluge Photography. Thanks. :-)

I baked the Care Bear French Vanilla Cake two nights before and wrapped it tight, storing it in the fridge. It was still really fresh two days later. It was really important to intensly butter and flour the Care Bear cake pan, before filling it with the batter, as it's important that the cake does not stick to the pan, when removing it, so the outline is nice and visible.

Since I don't have a pretty cake platter, I created my own by using a piece of card board and wrapping it in aluminium foil.

(c) Bkluge Photography. Thanks. :-)

My sister and I started by mixing the proper colours for the icing. We used Wilton's Rainbow Food Colouring Gels, which my friend from Sweet and Lovely Crafts lent to me. It's great to use colouring gels, as the icing becomes a deeper colour. It took us a good hour to get the 10 different colours of icing the proper colours. Later on, we realized that there is actually a mistake in the amounts the instructions tells you to make - it reversed the amount of the icing that is used for the outline of the care bear with the amount of the filling of the care bear, so we had to think on our feet.

Once the white icing was on the Care Bear and the outlines were piped onto it, it was time for lots of stars. Some of the parts of the Care Bear, such as the Lollies, eyes, dots and hearts had to be smoothed over with the finger, for a "flat" look, which was easier than I thought it would be.

I think the shell bottom suprised me the most, as I really had no idea how to pipe it. I just tried my best and was so tired at 2:30 in the morning, after 5 hours of working on this birthday cake, that I was just happy to be done...well, almost done. I also piped "Happy 3rd Birthday, Olivia" beside Share Bear with a few stars beside it, as by that point, I had become quite the piper!

If anyone has this cake pan and needs the instructions, I can probably scan them for you. I have the instructions for Share Bear (purple), Good Luck Bear (green), Love-A-Lot Bear (pink) & Wish Bear (turquoise), just leave me a comment.

(c) Sweet and Lovely Crafts. Thanks. :-)

Linking up with: Skip to My Lou & What's Cooking Thursday & Paisley Passions & Heck Fridays & Sun Scholars & Local Fun for Kids & Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons