"Pooh" Cake

One of our friends is expecting a baby soon! In keeping with the tradition of throwing a baby shower for the mom-to-be, we had a get-together recently. A baby shower is incomplete without a cake (and of course, gifts!). So, I was racking my brain on what cake to bake that would be appropriate for the occasion. Since the theme of the baby’s nursery is Winnie the Pooh (a popular favorite in recent times!), I thought it would be fun to bake a “Pooh” cake! But, having never attempted cake-sculpting and detailed icing before, it was a little too ambitious of me to aspire to make an entire replica of Pooh himself. And of course, time is always a constraint. So I toned down by several degrees, and eventually decided to create a teddy-bear-faced cake that looks a little like Pooh :). 

 
I know there are Winnie-the-Pooh cake pans available in the market, and it would have been perfect had I purchased one such a pan. But, I wasn’t sure the pan would find much use in the future. In my view, most such specialty pans serve just a one-time-use,  for which child wants to have the same looking cake every year, or every so often? Their interests and fascinations change every week :). Besides, I really wanted to try my hand at making a simple bear-cake without the help of fancy cake pans that do most of the difficult job.

So, here is my version of a sloppy looking Pooh cake! I used yellow and red colored butter-cream frosting to slather over the cake. The red dye ended up being dark pink, and simply refused to budge to the deep end of the color spectrum no matter how many drops I poured!

The cake
The cake was a simple, yet divinely delicious, egg-less date cake that I found here. Thanks to Shilpa for sharing the awesome recipe! I followed every step as mentioned in the post, and ended up with a fluffy delight! It was a huge hit. I highly recommend the cake. Don’t be deceived by its simplicity! I also have to add that milk and yogurt are excellent egg substitutes as well (in addition to ground flax seed). They make the cake moist and soft. And dates pureed in milk? How can it not be good? Or as Ina says, “How bad can that be?” :)

You might have already guessed the “strategy” I employed to achieve the bear-like face. I filled three small ramekins (2-3 inch ones) with a few spoons of the cake batter. The cake will rise, so fill the ramekins up to half-way (and remember to grease the insides with butter). I baked all three at 350 F for 20 minutes. Then I scooped the remaining batter into a 9-inch round cake pan and baked it for 35 minutes at 350 F. Allow the cake/s to cool completely (give about 45 minutes for the 9-inch cake), before covering them with frosting. 

 

Assembling the cake
To form Pooh’s nose/mouth, place one mini-cake at the center of about 1-1 ½ inches from the bottom of the 9-inch cake. Then shave off about a quarter inch of cake along the diagonal of the other two mini-cakes to form ears that can be placed at the sides of the bigger cake. All the cake needs is some color, eyes, and a smiling mouth!

As for the icing, I put together my own version of a butter-cream-frosting. The consistency wasn’t perfect, but it was manageable. I couldn’t bring myself to add any more sugar to get the frosting to be thicker - my heart was thumping away at every spoon of sugar that went into the frosting! But this measurement left me with a few extra spoons of frosting, so you could probably cut down the butter to 1/2 - 1 stick.

Ingredients for the frosting:

1. 2 sticks of unsalted, room temperature butter
2. 1 ½ cups of confectioners sugar
3. 1 Tablespoon of milk
4. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
5. Food coloring - red and yellow  (Pooh’s colors)
6. Black colored gel-icing (a small store-bought tube)

Preparation:

1. Cream the room temperature butter until it looks whipped (a hand-beater is ideal)
2. Then slowly add the confectioners sugar - ½ cup at a time, and beat it well with the butter till it turns into a smooth, spreadable cream.
3. Add a tablespoon of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Blend well.
4. Separate a couple of spoons of frosting (for Pooh’s ears). Add several drops of the red food coloring and mix it into the frosting (you can use a spoon to do this).
5. Add a few drops of the yellow coloring to the remaining frosting and mix well. Since you’re looking for a lighter shade of yellow, go easy on the dye. Add a few drops, stir, inspect, add a few more drops... repeat the process till you reach a color you’re happy with. Due to bad lighting, the yellow in the picture looks brighter than it was.

Frosting tips:

First, cut some parchment paper (butter paper) into little strips, and insert them all around the bottom of the cake. This will catch all the frosting that is sure to spill over. Remove the paper strips after frosting, and the plate/pan underneath the cake as well as the bottom of the cake will look clean.

Prepare the frosting after the cake is taken out of the oven, for the frosting will get gooey if left sitting out for a while. Also, if the cake is warm, the frosting will melt over the cake, so be sure the cake is cool (place the cake in the fridge for a few minutes if there is a time crunch - like I faced!). Using a flat icing spatula, gently spread the frosting. To even out the uneven strokes of the frosting, run the spatula under warm water and then gently glide it over the imperfect strokes to get a reasonably smooth finish. Despite all this, my frosting technique still needs plenty of practice, so the cake looks nowhere close to a store bought one. And maybe that is the point of homemade cakes - they should look homemade ;)

Slather the yellow frosting all over the 9-inch round cake. Then frost the nose/mouth. Cover the ears with the red (deep pink) frosting and place them on either sides of Pooh’s face. Draw big black eyes, curious-looking eyebrows, a simple nose, and an innocent smile with a store-bought black icing gel.

Viola! A teddy-bear’s face materializes! But then, this one looks more like a cat... an indication that the baby is going to be a Leo?! The nose/mouth should have been bigger... an experiment for another day! This isn't the perfect bear-cake... it has its numerous flaws, but I had a lot of fun making it!

May the baby boy be cuter and cuddlier than Pooh! :)