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

DOUBLE GREEN BACKS - Please Mum Earth Day

Please Mum is offering DOUBLE GREEN BACKS in celebration of Earth Day. For more information on Green Backs, please refer to a previous post on Green Backs. GREEN BACKS can be used towards any in-store purchase, including promotions and sales. The Earth Day promotion is from April 21st-April 23rd.

For this promotion, this is what your items are worth:

*Tops=2 Green Backs

*Hoodies, Jackets, Bottoms, Jumpers & Sun Dresses=4 Green Backs

*Spring Outerwear & Fancy Party Dresses=10 Green Backs

P.S.: You can also redeem your KidKa$h now and save $25 on every $50 you spend from April 17th - May 8th 2011.

Linking up with Luxury Living Frugal Style & The Adventures of Curly Tot

P&G Brandsampler + P&G Brandsampler for Men

Just want to let everyone know about this awesome samples! They are by far my favourites. I use them as travel toiletries and once they are done, they make awesome, real looking products in my daughter's even more real looking Melissa & Doug shopping cart (I'll go on about that another day).

You just have to sign up (which won't take longer than 2 minutes, I promise). Make sure you also subscribe to the P&G Brandsampler Newsletter when asked because they don't send it out a lot and when they do, you will be the first to know about their new samples and therefore won't miss out! Go to P&G Brandsampler to order your samples now. You will receive your little box of samples in 4-6 weeks time.

For the first time, I realized that you can also order P&G Brandsampler for Men, which you can use the same login information for as you use to order the P&G Brandsampler. Enjoy!

Linking up with Just Married with Coupons & Feeding Four

Awesome Frosting Recipe

This different coloured icing is from my Care Bear Cake, which turned out great.

My sister-in-law gave me this frosting recipe, when I asked her if she thinks I'd be able to pipe a Care Bear cake for my daughter's 3rd Birthday Party. I told her that I have no prior piping knowledge and that this kind of thing really isn't my forte. Having piped many cakes, she told me that it really all comes down to the frosting recipe and that this one has never failed her, yet.

Makes 3 cups of Frosting

*1/2 cup of solid vegetable shortening (it's easy to use Crisco - 1 stick)
*1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
*1 teaspoon of vanilla
*4 cups sifted icing sugar
*2 tbsp milk

Beat butter and shortening together with a mixer. Ad the vanilla and mix it in. Gradually add the sugar, one cup at a time. Beat well on medium speed after each addition. When all of the sugar has been mixed in, it will look kind of dry - that's a good thing. Mix in the milk and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.

This Frosting can be made ahead of time and put in the fridge - just put a damp piece of paper towel/tea towel over the bowl to prevent the frosting from getting crusty.

Linking up with Making Friends Monday & Skip to My Lou

French Vanilla Hello Kitty Cupcakes

Please be aware that this was pretty much my very first attempt in piping anything onto any sort of baked goods. :-)

Wanting to make a birthday cake for my daughter's 3rd Birthday Party, I came across this French Vanilla Cake Recipe on Misshomemade.com. I wanted to try it out before making the birthday cake, so I used it to make some French Vanilla Hello Kitty cupcakes for her actual birthday. The batter was enough for 18 cupcakes and if there was anything I would change, I might use a little less Vanilla. Other than that, I really liked the taste of the cupcakes, especially the "crusty" tops.

My sister-in-law gave me an awesome Frosting Recipe she swears by and considering this was the first and only frosting recipe I've ever tried to pipe anything, it turned out pretty well.

Decorating the lovely cupcakes with Hello Kitty was a different story - and quite frankly, quite the adventure. I'd like to mention at this point, that I am not very artistically inclined, so considering, a couple of the cupcakes actually did resemble Hello Kitty, while most of them resembled "Hello Piggy". However, the main thing is that my little girl recognized Hello Kitty right away - or so said Daddy. My other excuse for the un-professional looking Hello Kitty cupcakes, other than me not being very artsy, is that I truly did not have any of the proper tools (decorating tips), nor did I have enough piping bags or the correct food colouring. At one point I actually resorted to tooth picks to draw the whiskers and such.

It was harder than I anticipated to find a simple Hello Kitty Design that I could pipe onto the cupcakes, but after some googling I found i heart baking, which is a great blog with professional looking pictures and neat & yummie looking recipes.

Linking up with Funky Polkadot Giraffe & Local Fun for Kids & Skip to My Lou & Sun Scholars