Lesson 9: All About Bears

When we got the brief for what we were going to do this week, I was a bit hesitant. Bears... it looks a little difficult. We had to pipe bears in all sorts of poses on top of the cake or on the side of the cake. I was not very confident going into class but still looking forward to it as I had something in mind.

We were given some photos of what some other students had done in the past so we had a starting board. I always love being given a brief, it allows me to work off an idea without too many limitations. As most of what techniques we were going to apply have already been taught, we had some time to practice icing a cake and decorating the mock cake. I tried a few different piping techniques and finally settled on a design that used swags/garlands and a bow around the cake. I love love LOVE creating ruffles with leaf tip #67. So I used this to create swags between each 'pillars' which I did with basketweave decorating tip #47.

Ruffles and ribbons - what a sweet combo.

If you don't want to buy a Cake Dividing Set ruler that has indications equal spacing sections that allows you to mark precise spacing for garlands, stringwork etc. then I suggest you start one pillar at 12 o'clock then at 6 o'clock first. This will neatly divide the cake in half. Next pipe a pillar at 3 o'clock then at 9 o'clock. Depending on how wide you want to space the pillars then you pick the centre between each pillar and pipe another pillar etc... I think you get the idea.

Young Hee hard at work putting the finishing touches on her cake

Gyeong Ha's Cake with Twin Bears

Aren't those little paws adorable?

Concentrating hard and trying not to mess up at the last part

The bears I did were ballerina bears and I wanted to use different tips to create different types of ruffles. For the pink tutu, I used #352 and for the yellow tutu I used petal tip #102. Then I piped in the top of the tutu with round tip #3. With these two tips I also chose a slightly different way of drawing the top in. One I use dot piping and the other I just drew it in. The ballet slippers were done with tip #2.

I added some balloons with round tip #12 and then added little love hearts sprinkled around the cake with tip #2. My other classmates had some creative designs too. Min Young, always adds her own unique twist to her designs which are very refreshing. Here's are some pics of her cake.

Min Young's cake with the pretty hearts almost blending together

I like how her bears are darker and they are chilling at the side. Min Young likes to step out of the comfort zone and that's a wonderful attitude to have for any kind of designer.tion