This is a trial run of a cake I'm making for my daughter and a friend's joint birthday party. They will be 3 and 4 in a couple of weeks. Some things that I know I'd like to change are to make the bears a lighter shade of red and purple...these are the girl's favorite colors. The balloon bouquet needs to be bigger. I'm also thinking that the icing should be maybe a pale yellow.

Where I have "have a beary nice day" will say "Happy Birthday", so I'll write considerable bigger and "thanks" and "Matrix" will be the girl's names.

What else can I do to improve the design of this cake? Any and all suggestions are welcome...I'm not so good at coming up with original designs.

I am no help--I am just not a sheet cake kinda person. Yes color would be great addition to your cake. Are there dots on the border?? I try to knock the tips of my dots down so they are rounded. But very nice job!

No, the colors on the border are stars. Thanks for looking!

I not the best at this sort of thing but I think the idea about toneing down the color on the red and purple is a good idea. Instead of yellow of the cake what about a little pink in the yellow? Sort of a peach-ish color?and striping the stars around the bears bottoms with the peach strip it with the purple or red depending on bear? And instead of the green....could you keep with the purple and red for the respective names and alt. the colors for happy birthday (happy=purple birthday=red)?

These are probably horrible ideas but just throwing things out there.

Your cake looks great, you could do the writing in purple and the border in red with white stars in between very other shell.

Piping gel in the balloons icing is supposed to make them look shiny and more realistic.

Just a thought. I think it'll be great.

Use real live bears for the cake. Kids love animals...bears love cake. It'll be a hit.

I like your cake. I think it's cute. plain and simple. There 3 and 4. I am sure they are not expecting a Collette Peter's cake.lol
What I love about cake decorating is your cake is your palette (sp) your icing is your paint brush. You can create anything!! and Like art it's what you see and do that make's it beautiful.

I love the cake.. I think the paler coloured bears would be perfect for two little girls.Soft yellow would be nice for the background colour..but then any soft colour would do I think..Your writing is really nice .. I am sure the girls will love it.. Very nice cake.. Hope we get to see the one you are making for your daughter too..
Liz

What cute bears! I'd suggest spacing the balloons out a little from each other so they look more free-floating rather than standing huddled together. I like the colours you've used - they'll all be fighting over who gets a piece with a balloon on!

You are right about the red and purple being too dark. The bears are too dark, also. Go with pastels. Lose the balloons, they do not tie into the bear theme.

Theresa

GREAT CAKE..... soooo cute ! Your added ideas are good, and the only thing I would add would be to do your stars in colors to match the balloons..... pain in the butt, but it would tie it all together.....

Hi,
you could put in the centre instead of the balloons a honey jar and some bees. That would really fit in the theme. Put 3 bees on the side of the 3 year old girl and 4 bees on the other side. you could tint the cake than pale green for a grass or bushlike feeling. But this cake already looks good.

most important have fun and it wil workout alright.
good luck from Ria

Cute

maybe less balloons but bigger ones and the strings need to come together into a bunch.

can you make the bears hold a balloon ? even a real one ( very small) tied on to a wood skewer. oo a cookie balloon an a skewer.

I agree with many of the suggestions. Pale colored frosting. Maybe 3 larger balloons in the center. The bears a lighter color. Maybe stick with the same 3 colors for the writing, balloons, and stars. I like the idea of the bears holding a balloon. I did that with a cake (though the bear was larger) and it was a really nice addition. It'll be a very cute cake however you decide to do it. The girls will love it. Good luck.

very cute idea, nice job. I would go for much lighter colors for the bears. I like making the cake yellow and if you wanna stick with stars maybe do white starts or a bright yellow on the pale yellow cake. And then but a huge shooting star in the middle instead of the balloons so keep it all together. i think your bears are soo cute though its all butter cream or sculpted cake??

Thanks everyone for some really great suggestions. Now I'm looking forward to making the real cake!

jastaus, to answer your question, the bears are cake...made with the mini 3D pan.

I would suggest the following (as some others have said)
* too much white, make the cake icing in color. A pale color would still allow the writing to show through and just keep the cake from looking so stark.
* Bears need to be lighter so you can see them better.
* You could put princess hats on the bears. Just use an upside down sugar cone (cut down) with ribbons or icing coming out the top
* less balloons, bigger balloons, I have seen some with a little white "comma" accent that makes them look nice. Strings should (probably) come together.
* You could have the bears holding a flower
* for the bottom border, I would do a ruffle. It's more girly than just a shell. Start with a 21 shell, do a 104 ruffle on top of the shell (some shells can peek out), then cover the 104 top line with 18 shells. Looks really nice when done this way. You could even make the 21 shells a different color so that you see them peeking out. I would make the ruffle and 18 shells the same color though.
* I am not a fan of the stars on the shell border. I think it distracts from the cake design. You could do a nice reverse shell border to make it look a little fancier, without detracting from the design. I would do it the same color as the background icing.

The way you did it really is cute, but for little girls, you can go all out and have some more fun!

Good luck!