I found this cake by the Little Bakehouse on the Cakewrecks blog (not posted as a wreck btw) and I just love it. It really looks like my daughter's teddy which she has dragged around everywhere with her since she was tiny. So I want to use this idea to replicate her teddy for her birthday party, but I am not too sure what cakes to bake to achieve it.

What do you think it is? Ball pan for head, carved 6" for body / Wondermold for body? What would you use for legs and arms? And how do you get the head to stay on? Not sure if the surface area of the neck is large enough for doing regular tier type of support with dowels.

Anybody like to speculate with me??

Could not get the picture to link straight the page but here is the page it is from, just scroll down to the third picture.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/11/sunday-sweets-fondant-free.html?showComment=1226263680000

I'll say ball for the head & wondermold for the body. Feet, cupcakes; legs, cake scraps; arms not sure. You could do rice krispies & cover in buttercream Carve a flat spot on the bottom of the pan & put it on about a 4" board, then you can dowel. He is too cute!

Thanks dandelion. I had not thought of RCT for arms and legs, that might not be a bad idea. How does RCT hold up covered in BC? I don't want to risk it going soft and falling off.

So a 4" board should do it for the head? I wish I had the equipment I need to make proper metal internal structures like Duff does. The closest I have gotten was using plumbing parts, but in this case the pipes will be too fat.

I did my elmo w/ dowels & he held up. I had problems w/ my arms b/c I wanted them "up", but if you want them by his side it'll be ok. I did an egg for elmo's head & trimed the bottom flat. I did wrap the board in saran so it wouldn't get soft from the cake. Just make sure your dowel is really sharp & hammer it through the top of the head. It'll be ok

that is one adorable bear. RC are a good idea, i just suggest making sure you form them a day or two ahead of time and let them "dry" they won't really be dry tasting and dry out, but if you let them firm up (the MM and butter will need to firm up) then they will be able to handle the moisture from the buttercream without a problem and still hold their shape.

Why don't you just email her and ask if she would share details. Most people would, if not its only a no; )

I absolutely love that teddy. If you do decide to write and ask for instructions, Bakinggirl, (as traceyjade) suggested, would you mind sharing them with me? My grandson's birthday is coming up and he also has one of those heavily loved teddies. I would also love to recreate it for hom ([email protected]). Great idea Tracy.

Thank you all for your replies and advice. I have sent off an email to the teddy creator so I will share if I hear back.

Thank you all for your replies and advice. I have sent off an email to the teddy creator so I will share if I hear back.

Here is Sarah's reply to my email about how she made the teddy. Hope it can help others too.

It isn't too difficult to make the bears. I like to use a nice firm cake, like a madiera, or chocolate works quite well, carve the main body shape and the head. ( chill the cake well to make it easier) Then you can either cover with a chocolate ganache, or buttercream and a thin layer of sugarpaste or fondant. Do the head and body separately, then place the head on, making sure it is firmly attached. I like to leave over night to make sure it is well set. The limbs are made from sugarpaste and are stuck directly onto the body with royal icing. Make some little ears and the snout from sugarpaste and stick them on. You are then ready to apply the fur. I tend to use royal icing, but a good firm buttercream would work too. Pipe it on from a bag with a reasonably large tip. (If you have covered the bear with ganache, don't forget to apply some little squares of grey sugarpaste if you want the patches.) The eyes can be balls of sugarpaste or black royal icing. If your cake is going to be quite large, you may want to think about using an internal dowel for additional support.
I hope this is clear to follow!!!! The main issues are really the construction, if you do that bit right, the rest should be a breeze. I like to have an actual teddy sitting near by to work from. It's far easier than working from a picture.

Bakinggirl - just wondering if you've tried out the cake?? I have an order for a bear this weekend, but don't want to do the same old wilton stand up pan....
Thanks!

janebrophy, I did make it. I have not uploaded photos for the longest time so have the bear cake and about another 10 to upload. It went well apart from my kitchen being sweltering while making it so had a hard time getting the icing (cream cheese BC) to stick at one stage. After cranking my AC down and putting the cake in the fridge to harden it all worked out.

I baked 1 wondermold cake for the body, one sports ball cake for the head and then with the rest of the batter I made cupcakes which I threaded together on skewers for the arms and legs. I used 2 each for the arms and 3 each for the legs, plus one for the bear's snout. I carved the wondermold body to shape it quite a lot, I used trimmings for ears. All together I made a double 9" cake recipe, so I guess two box mixes worth of cake.

The wondermold part of the cake I doweled, then put the head on a card board circle. Finally I drove a long dowel through the entire cake for stability. It was rock solid, I drove with it and it did not budge an inch. Let me know if you have any questions. I will see if I can get to uploading the picture a bit later today.

Thanks! I would never have thought to use cupcakes for the arms & legs...I'll have to think about that for a while to get the mental image! LOL! How did you get the "fur" look? Can't wait to see your pic!

I see you spotted the cake already janebrophy, but I figured maybe the other posters may have some use of seeing how it turned out.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-gallery_display_1335831.html

It turned out beautifully! Thanks for the pic, it made the cupcake arms and legs make sense to me! (I'm a little slow )

The cake turned out beautifully