I was asked last night to create a cake for a 22 mos. old little girl who has an extremely rare brain cancer. Something like only 20 diagnosed cases nationally and she's the first in our region to have it. They are holding a benefit for the little girl and her family (her father was laid off Monday) on next Saturday. Some friends of the father's asked me if I would do a cake. I of course agreed. It only has to be for about 50 people because there will be another cake there and lots of other desserts. They were thinking something along the lines of a teddy bear hanging from a tree with "Keep hanging in there" on it. I am drawing a total blank on this one. It seems easy enough in my head but I can't get it visualized right. It's been a bad week for me as we lost a close family friend so I'm begging my fellow CCers for help
Any thoughts or ideas are welcome!!

T.I.A.

Chrissy

First of all, let me start by saying how sad it makes me for any child to have to deal with such a difficult disease. My girls are not much older than that, so her story really breaks my heart.

Secondly, I hate the thought of a teddy bear hanging from a tree. It makes me think of suicide or something morbid. Sorry, just had to say that.

I have these saved in my favorites. Would one of them work?

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=539813
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1167101
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=37610

I agree with jammjenks that the teddy from a tree is kinda odd and morbid. But, if you have the bear swinging on a tire swing that would be different. You could also have a monkey hanging upside down from a tree. That's not so odd.

DUH...I think we just took the hanging from a tree thing the wrong way. Sorry.

My DD is just a little older then this little girl and feel for the family that's why I took on the cake at such short notice in the first place.

The tire swing thing was a really cute idea...I see if I can find anything on an image search.

I think the idea they are going for is a teddy bear with it's arms up hanging from a tree branch....or at least that's what I had in my head but I'm not sure how to make that happen. I'm not a good free hand piper and I can't find any images for a fbct that would work either.

Maybe since it's such short notice, you just do something elegant and simple - lots of good ideas on CC! They would certainly understand if they got a tasty cake that was pretty - they're probably happy enough that you even agreed to do it!
Good luck to you, and blessings to the family as they go through this tough time.

Can you take the ideas of the 'clothesline' cakes that have been so popular for baby showers recently and instead of 'oh girl' or 'oh boy' written into the line write in 'hang in there'. Then you could still draw little girls clothing hanging from the 'line' and draw a little teddy bear sitting on the ground.

Hope this makes sense.

Good luck!

Suze

I found this cute clipart when a did a search in google:

When I think..."hang in there"... I think of those pictures of the kittens hanging from a rope or something. Maybe make a stacked cake with a rope draped around it (fondant) with little fondant kittens hanging from the ropes. You could use dummies to make it taller if needed. I did a google search for "hang in there" for images. Most of what I saw were the kittens like I was already thinking. If they really want the teddy bears, you could substitute the bears for the kittens.

HTH
Teresa

Here is another one:

First, I will be praying for this family. We lost my four year old niece to a very rare form of cancer about three years ago now and as you well know, it is a long and horrible road to have to travel with any person...let alone a child. My heart goes out to this family and the little girl.

Next, I have a teddy bear that I did recently for a baby shower. It was the bear that was on the invitation. Their colors were brown and blue, but you could always change it up a bit. I like the idea of a teddy bear because it makes me think of "hugging" and "comfort"- which is what they really need! I'll post it to my pics for you to take a look at. I most liked his puffy belly...and really the design is quite simple (made from a 12 x 1.

-Michelle

Promise last post.

Here is a cute gift with a teddy bear and "hang in there".. would be really cute to do a fondant bear holding a heart.

http://www.recoveryemporium.com/images/Hang%20I7.jpg

http://www.recoveryemporium.com/Shop/Hang%20In%20There%20Bear.htm

I like the little girl swinging on the swing.
You could still make it a bear swinging, too.
Either one would be adorable.
Good luck.
And you're a good person to take this on at the last minute.

here is a picture I found..it is small but I hope it helps

here is a picture I found..it is small but I hope it helps

My first thought was Teddy bear picnic... I googled it and lots of interesting images came up depending on what you have time to do.

My heart aches for that family, my oldest cousin passed away from a brain tumour when she was just 4.

My first thought was of Winnie the Pooh in the Honey Tree. He uses a blue balloon to float up so he can reach the honey.

Perhaps you could do a bear cake with one arm raised, holding the string of a balloon. You could write "Hang in There" on the balloon.

Pooh would be cute for the baby too. I also think it would be fun for the baby as well.

here is a quick drawing of what you could do
HTH

I really like the idea of the bear holding the balloon! Very cute!

That bear in the swing is sooooo cute. I think that would be great.

The bear in the tire swing sounds awfully cute. What about this (sorry no scanner, so try to follow along while I ramble).

Make your cake the tree. You can stack 6 inch cakes and carve out little niches for bark, your icing wouldnt have to be smooth either, cause really you are making bark, its not smooth to begin with. Now this person who did this tree took modeling chocolate, but you could use fondant or GP, and pinched and pulled until she had branches, and then attached them to the top of her tree. Got a small leaf cookie cuttrer, and cut out fondant leaves and stuck them to the end of each branch. Leafing (get it leafing, leaving? haha I crack myself up) the tree three dimensional, but doing the leaves two dimensional.

Now if you really wanted the tire swing to swing back and forth you will have to apply to Doug for some of his great support skillz (Doug you ROCK!). BUT if you didnt want it to swing, when you got the tree done, braid some fondant together for rope. Use a styrofoam piece with a hole cut out in the middle for the tire, cover it in black fondant, icing, GP, whatever.

Now, go and take a gander at Aine2's tutorial about making teddy bears (she does such awesome things). I tried one once with leftover fondant. Its not as bad as you would think, and she makes it look really easy. Just make a larger version of the mini teddy that she does. Stick him in the swing.

If you are going to rest the tire swing on the cake board, attach your rope to a tree branch, make it look knotted and wrapped several times, thus giving you more support with the rope. Then take your rope let it hang down, and cut and attach to the top of the tire. Which is resting on its side, atop of the cake board. You can use graham crackers, crushed for dirt, and green icing for grass.

Hopefully, you can follow along with my ramblings. If you need clarification on anything, just PM me, I am very happy to help. My heart goes out to this little girl with cancer. I had cancer as a child too, so I know how hard it is. It really does take a village to raise a child, and you should be applauded for your part.

Hi there:
Might be too late for this, and I didn't really read the whole thread, but I agree this story touched my heart and my prayers go out to the young girl and her family.

My suggestion, rather than a bear hanging from a tree, is maybe a bear being held up by a bunch of her bear friends. Just seems more appropriate that a bunch of her bear friends would be "supporting" her in this way, also a much more recognizable and easily visible sentiment.

Of course it could always be done as a FBT, however a small tiered cake with this theme carried out would be spectacular. Imagine possibly an 8, 6, and 4"/mini bear stacked where the 8 and 6 are decorated to look like a tower of supportive teddies (think cheering).

All great ideas! I tried calling the person who asked me to do the cake last night to see how much play I have in the design but I got no answer and no call back yet today. I know he's working with another person and I'm not sure how frequently he talks to that person or sees them so I may have to take it at it's literal interpretation if I can't talk to them before hand.
I too thought of the pooh thing and the balloons because I saw images depicting both of those things and they were really cute.
Hopefully I can get ahold of the person this afternoon or this evening.
Thanks everyone!

OK so I heard back from them and they opted for the teddy bear and balloons with "hang in there"....they lowered the servings to between 25-50 and are looking I think for a sheet cake style
I'd really like to do something a little more special then that but they don't want the fuss of the cutting and stuff since it's planned to be very well attended and quite busy.
So I'm off to check the galleries again.

I'm liking the pooh idea and I also like the bear Daisy from the Suzy's Zoo series.