Panda Bear Cake Update

This is much delayed, but this is how the Panda Cake came out. It was a learning experience... especially since I hadn't made a cake in almost a year since I became pregnant! I realized the way I had ended up structuring the legs could not possibly hold up the weight of the cake, hence the sitting position.  I had to really troubleshoot with this one in the last hours. I had not planned out the carving well. However, I rallied and managed to get this cake done in the wee hours and even get some sleep before pick-up time.

Birthday Cake for my Hubby

This is the birthday cake I recently put together for my husband. I have had a long hiatus from cakes since my pregnancy and the birth of our child. I did find that I am a bit rusty. This is the first tiered cake maybe in almost a year!

This cake was another good learning experience with an application I haven't tried before. I actually ventured into Photoshop land where I have only had minimal experience, using photos of my husband as an infant, child, and man. I wanted to get a real modern graphic feel to the images I was using. It wasn't easy, but I managed to get something out it.

The interesting part was transferring the image onto the cake. I know next time, I probably want to try using an non-toxic pencil to trace the images onto the fondant for a project like this, instead the "pin-prick" method.

The cake was my usual delectable chocolate cake (I consider this to be a perfect grown-up chocolate cake), with raspberry filling and rum butter cream. The chocolate cake recipe includes all components I consider important to a good rich chocolate cake--buttermilk, coffee, liqueur, and solid good-quality chocolate. No cocoa! This cake consists of a 6-inch and 4-inch tiers, and a cupcake crowning.

Panda Bear cake

I have just gotten commissioned for an infant's birthday party (for some reason, I find I am very popular with the infants). The baby's mother will be throwing a special Asian-themed birthday party for her child, complete with a Buddha ice sculpture! She just needs a super neat cake for the finishing touch. For the flavors, she selected one of the asian flavor combos on my site. It's the green tea cake, with raspberry filling and ginger butter cream. My client loved the cherry blossom cake I had done for a Mothers' Day Celebration. While it is pretty, I'm a big fan of cute characters for children. So I suggested perhaps a Sanrio character. 'Pretty Asian' I thought. No, apparently, too cliche. I decided to brainstorm.

I actually got the idea from a clothing catalog. I saw this adorable T-shirt with a panda bear on it. I was going to go for it. The idea of was too cute. My client agreed.

Here is the plan: 2 8-inch tiers for the body, a tall 7-inch tier for the head, and cut-out arms and legs, modeling paste ears and tail, covered in fondant. The customer originally wanted a piece of bamboo... I will throw in a pink gum paste blossom behind the ear.

Here is a computer rendering of my sketch. Frankly, my husband did this, and this is his interpretation of my sketch. We'll see how it turns out.