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First I baked three 7" cakes. (I like to use Fat Daddio's pans and bake even strips to make sure the cakes bake up flat and even. ) I stacked 2 layers for the head, and then cut out circles from the third layer for the snout and ears. (I had to test different sizes till I found the one that looked "right" next to the head.) I cut out little arcs from the ears to make them fit flush with the head. Then I iced the main head in chocolate buttercream and then iced the snout and ears in a very light shade of brown buttercream.
I used the little arcs I cut from the ears as the eyebrow ridge. In hindsight I should have cut the arcs in half so they weren't as tall. After I iced the eyebrows, my bear ended up with a Neanderthal ridge. :-)
The eyes and nose I made from black fondant. As a last step I painted the eyes and nose with corn syrup to make them shine and placed a little with ball of fondant on each eye to make them sparkle.
Next came the piping of the "fur". I used a Wilton 233 grass tip, and a very soft chocolate buttercream icing.
It took about 90 minutes to pipe the fur, but I had to stop a couple of times to refrigerate the icing because it was getting too soft. You know it is getting too soft if you get a mushy blob instead of individual points of fur.
I just kept piping and eventually finished the cake. Too cute. Many thanks to the different bear cakes on Pinterest for the inspiration.
Here is a link to a quick YouTube video by Cakes by Kass showing the process. It really is super easy
Happy Decorating,
Carol