Biker Bear Cake for 75th Birthday

Completed cake at my parents house. 

My mom called me two weeks ago and asked if I would make my dad's 75th birthday cake. There is only one answer to that question - YES! My parents ride a 2007 HD Road King and my dad collects bears. This cake was a natural for his birthday. #bikerbear

Hand rolled fondant lettering, a first for me. 

Cake Firsts

• Hand rolling fondant into narrow strings for forming letters, eyebrows, mouth
• Making sunglasses or goggles out of fondant
• Making mini-fondant rolled ribbon roses

Fondant leaves.

I loved how well the bear's face turned out. 

Bear's Face

• Sunglass Lens - cut out two circles with the wide end of a 1M tip. Then, the wide end of a cake decorator tip was gently pressed into the center  to make the "frame" detail.
• I used the wide end of a decorater tip to cut the nose  circle and a cookie cutter for the pale circle.
• The "do rag" was 1/3 of a fondant circle that I shaped to the cake pan.(dust your cake pan with confectioners sugar first) Then I put the cake pan  with the shaped fondant "do rag" into the freezer for a couple of minutes to harden the fondant "do rag". Next step was to remove the fondant piece from the cake pan and place it on the cake. 

Three quarter view

I make my own fondant. 

You will find the basic recipe and the chocolate fondant variation here:

Sallee's Butter Cream Fondant

Remember that it is better too much fondant than not enough.

Cake Pans

1 Teddy bear mini-cake             9" tall x 4" head-7" bottom x 1" - 1.25" deep
2  Square cakes                          9" x 2"

The pans were greased with shortening and dusted with flour. 

The Basic Cake

• I used two, extra moist, devil's food chocolate cake mixes, 16.25 oz.box. I followed the box directions EXCEPT for the amount of vegetable oil.
• I like to replace 1/2 of the vegetable oil with unsweetened applesauce. This change will lower the fat content of the cake, plus make a moister cake
• All three cakes were baked at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 38-40 minutes. The three pans fit on the same rack in my oven.

Cake Base

Two, 9"x 2" square cakes. The cakes were leveled and coated with a base coat of butter cream frosting. I did not drape the entire base with fondant, just topped the layers with a fondant square.

The sides were frosted with tinted, butter cream frosting using a 1M tip. Red, orange, and tan were the three colors I chose to use.

The orange was made by blending yellow and red liquid food dye; 20 drops yellow to 4 drops red. 

 

The mini bear cake was placed so that the base formed a diamond.