Tag: animals

Well I dont know about you, but ive had an absolute cracker of a week! I went away for a long weekend break to the Southern Highlands and explored all around Bowral, Robertson, Kangaroo Valley etc, then I went further south to Ulladulla to spend some time at my Grandpa’s house. All a bit bitter sweet really.

However, a constant thought on my mind has been my cake toppers for the Ginger Ninja. Ive decided to elaborate on my design and include not only that cute little lion but also a figurine of the Ninja herself, alongside a hippo, elephant, bear and maybe a snake thrown in for good measure. Im pretty damn pleased with the results!

I think this cuddly bear just wants someone to hug!

Nelly the elephant packed her trunk…

(note the much smaller trunk! and apologies for the less than clear picture)

Henry the Hippo

So all was well in the animal kingdom until… I found out that almost twice as many people are coming to dinner than I previously expected! Disaster! So I had a bit of a think and came up with what is hopefully a idea. I have decided to make one cake with the big animals on it and make a series of cupcakes with mini animals on them. I started a batch of minis last night and im pretty damn happy with the results. Who thought mini animals would be even cuter!

Mini bears, mini lions, what more could you want?!

Uh oh… I think that snake is eyeing you off as his dinner…

Oh wait! It doesnt have a mouth! No snakebites today!

Now all I need to do is bake the cake, and decorate it, and get it to the restaurant in one piece… ah!

On a lighter note, I would love to hear about your latest baking/cake decorating conquests!

During a lovely night out with the girls, I found myself volunteering to make the Ginger Ninja a Lion Cake for her African themed birthday. Ive bought so much fondant over the years with every intention of practicing making cute cake toppers and decorations and somehow I never seem to get around to it. So today, I bit the bullet. The deliciously sugary fondant bullet! I decided that rather than make a cake that was a lions face, I would attempt to make a jungle cake and perch a cute little lion on top of it. Today marked attempt #1 at fondant cake toppers.

I used a packet of Orchard White Icing that I had left over from Christmas and coloured it with different food colourings. The only difficulty I had was with the softness of the fondant. I found it quite sticky and very very soft so that it was easy to model but often got quite droopy. See exhibit 1 – the Elephant trunk

Yes, he looks a little bit wonky but still very cute! I think I need to make the trunk smaller and try to get it to point up. Nothing cuter than a trumpeting elephant! Maybe next time i’ll make my elephant pink (think Nelly the Elephant!).

After the elephant, it was on to teddy bears. I am suffering from an extreme lack of brown food colouring so I thought I would just use what I had on hand. Yellow. Be warned, I think this ted had put away most of my easter trifle into that big belly of his. No more sweets for you big ted!

Finally it was time to try a little lion. I had a large amount of yellow fondant still on hand (surprising, considering how fat my teddy bear ended up!) so I decided that this sweet little lion would be yellow with an orange mane. And thus was born Lionel, my little yellow lion! Almost too good to give away….