Prep Time: 20 minutes (plus cooling, chilling and decorating)

Teddy Bear Cake

Teddy Bear Cake

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Servings: 12-15

Ingredients:

For The Cake:

  • 225g (8oz) unsalted butter, diced and softened
  • 225g (8oz) caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 275g (10oz) self-raising flour
  • 3tbsp cocoa powder dissolved in 2tbsp hot water and cooled
  • Melted butter, for greasing

For The Buttercream:

  • 200g (7oz) unsalted butter, diced and softened
  • 400g (14oz) icing sugar, sieved
  • 1tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1-2tbsp milk

To Decorate:

  • 800g (1lb 12oz) brown sugarpaste
  • Icing sugar, for rolling out
  • 200g (7oz) beige or light brown sugarpaste
  • Edible glue
  • 1tbsp cocoa powder
  • 50g (2oz) black sugarpaste
  • 50g (2oz) red sugarpaste

Method:

Making The Cake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan 160°C)/350°F/gas 4. Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the flour with each egg to prevent the mixture curdling. Sieve in the rest of the flour and stir in with the dissolved cocoa.
  2. Brush the teddy bear mould with melted butter and spoon the mixture into it, hollowing out the centre a little. Bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes then carefully peel back the edges of the mould. Place a board on top, turn over and carefully lift off the mould to release the cake.
  3. As the teddy bear mould has quite an intricate shape, we recommend greasing it and leaving the cake to cool in the pan to make turning it out easier.

Making the Buttercream:

  1. Beat the butter until creamy. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and cocoa. Stir in enough milk to make a spreadable consistency.
  2. Trim the bottom of the cake level if it has peaked during baking. Turn the cake right way up again and spread a thin layer of buttercream over it, building up the tummy and snout with small mounds of the buttercream. Chill for 1 hour.

Decorating The Cake:

  1. Roll out the brown sugarpaste on a board dusted with icing sugar and lift it over the cake, smoothing it around the features with your fingers. Trim the bottom edge neatly with a sharp knife.
  2. Use a sugarcraft wheel fitted with a stitching disc to mark the tummy and each side of the forehead.
  3. Roll out the beige or light brown sugarpaste and cut out small rounds for the ears, the large and small paw prints and an oval for the snout. Shape the pieces as necessary and press over the mesh of a fine sieve for texture. Fix in place on the cake with edible glue.
  4. Spoon the cocoa onto a small square of muslin, gather the muslin up around the cocoa to make a pouch and gently pat over the teddy to create a velvety effect
  5. Shape the nose, eyes and mouth from black sugarpaste and fix in place with edible glue.
  6. Roll out two strips of red sugarpaste measuring 20.5 x 3cm (8 x 1¼in). Use one to shape the loops of the bow tie and the other for the centre of the bow and tails. Fix the bow in place on the teddy with edible glue. Finally, don't forget to give your teddy a name before he goes on his picnic.

Recipe courtesy of www.the-bake-box.com

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