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Classic Cake Recipes with a Modern Twist

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Home » Cakes » Blue Bear Birthday Cake

Blue Bear Birthday Cake

By Olivia, 29 Comments

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This adorable bear cake is perfect for a little one’s birthday! The cake and frosting recipes are simple and the technique is surprisingly easy to do!

Overhead shot of two bear cakes.

This Bear Birthday Cake is a huge departure from my my recent posts, but it’s actually what Liv for Cake was all about when I started the blog 6 years ago. I was heavily into cake decorating for about a year, and if you delve deep into the archives you’ll find some cake decorating relics. Cake decorating of this kind isn’t my thing anymore, but I was offered a pretty sweet deal that I couldn’t pass up!

Angled close up of the bear cake.

My friend Brad is a woodworker, and I was looking to have some backdrops made for my photography. I reached out to him and asked about the cost, and he offered up a trade: some custom backdrops in exchange for a cake to celebrate his son’s 1st birthday. Now, those of you that know me know that I don’t like to do custom orders. I’m a perfectionist, and having to make something for someone that they’re going to PAY me for is a whole ‘nother level of stress that takes all the fun out of baking. But this was an offer that I couldn’t really pass up.

Close up of the frosting technique to make the fur.

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The design of this bear birthday cake is inspired by Coco Cake Land. Let’s be honest here, I pretty much copied her cake except that I made a smash cake too. I’ve been following Lyndsay since way back in my cake decorating days, and I love how unique and adorable her style is. Go check out her site and see for yourself!

Two blue bear cakes on a white background.

You’ll need a large grass tip for this design — I used Wilton #234. After frosting and crumb coating the cake, I started piping the grass in columns around the side of the cake, starting at the base and working my way upwards. The technique took a bit of time to get used to, but was actually really easy. Press the tip onto the cake, apply pressure to pipe some frosting, release pressure and then pull back. It took a couple tries to get the hang of it, and I did a couple practice pipes on some parchment.

This was time-consuming to do, but easy overall. Not gonna lie, my hand was hurting a bit near the end!

Close up of the mini bear cake.

The accent pieces (eyes, muzzle, mouth, and ears) are all made from homemade fondant. I would definitely use gumpaste for these next time, especially for the ears, as it dries harder. My fondant was too soft, so I had to create little cardboard supports for the ears so that they wouldn’t flop down.

All in all, this Bear Birthday Cake was a pretty sweet trade (literally) and I love the backdrops Brad made for me. You can take a look at at some of them here and here and I have a couple others I still need to break in!

And, if you’re looking for some more birthday cake inspiration, check out this epic list on Spaceships and Laser Beams!

Notes & tips for this Blue Bear Birthday Cake:

  • I used Wilton #234 for the fur, but any grass tip should work as long as it’s not too thin.
  • It’s best to make the accents out of gumpaste rather than fondant as it dries harder and is easier to work with.
  • The fur is easy to do, but takes time. The more comfortable you get with it, the faster it will go, but your hand may start to hurt after a while!
Overhead shot of the two bear cakes.
Print Rate
4.75 from 4 votes

Blue Bear Birthday Cake

This super cute bear cake is perfect for a little one's birthday! The cake and frosting recipes are simple and the technique is surprisingly easy to do!
Course Dessert
Cuisine Cake
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 40 minutes
Servings 16
Calories 835kcal
Author Olivia

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 1 box yellow/white cake mix
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 1/3 cup water
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 cup sour cream 250g carton
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream:

  • 9 cups powdered sugar sifted
  • 3 cups unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract or flavoring of your choice
  • 4 tbsp heavy whipping cream
  • Blue color gel
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cake:

  • Preheat oven to 325°F.
  • Butter and flour three 8" cake rounds (I use Homemade Cake Release), line with parchment.
  • Combine all dry ingredients and whisk together.
  • Add wet ingredients and mix until combined. I use my KitchenAid on low for 2 minutes but you can also do this by hand.
  • Divide the batter between the pans and bake for approximately 35-45 minutes.
  • Cool in pans on wire rack for 10mins, then turn cakes out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Buttercream:

  • Prepare a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk butter until creamy.
  • Reduce speed to low and add in icing sugar 1 cup at a time until well blended.
  • Increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes.
  • Add vanilla and 2tbsp cream and continue to beat on medium for 1 minute.
  • Add more cream as needed until desired consistency is reached (I added all 4).

Assembly:

  • Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Top with approximately 1 cup of frosting. Repeat with second layer and crumb coat the cake. Chill for 30mins.
  • Using Wilton tip #234, pipe fur all over the top of the cake and sides. Create eyes and ears our of fondant or gumpaste.

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Notes

NOTE: This cake recipe makes enough for the large cake. For the small cake, I made another batch of the cake recipe and divided it amongst three 6" rounds (which I froze to use later) and one 4"x3" round which I used for the small cake. The frosting recipe makes enough to cover both. Cake design inspired by Coco Cake Land.
Calories: 835kcalCarbohydrates: 113gProtein: 3gFat: 42gSaturated Fat: 26gCholesterol: 138mgSodium: 341mgPotassium: 69mgSugar: 93gVitamin A: 1260IUVitamin C: 0.2mgCalcium: 104mgIron: 1.3mg
The nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this important to you, please verify with your favourite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.

photo collage.

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January 3, 2016

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Jamie says

    November 15, 2020 at 4:38 PM

    I’m making an Elmo cake next week so am so happy to see this that is so similar! Do you recommend using the icing you listed? I’m nervous about using something other than what you listed in case it doesn’t hold up. Would love to hear your thoughts.

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      November 16, 2020 at 9:36 AM

      Hi Jamie! I would use the icing I listed as it’s nice and stiff to make the fur 🙂

      Reply
  2. Serena says

    August 31, 2019 at 2:24 AM

    4 stars
    I made this cake except did a GF version for my little girls first birthday. Got lots of compliments on how great it looked and I am absolutely not a cake maker. Thanks, from New Zealand.

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      August 31, 2019 at 9:50 AM

      Hi Serena! So happy to hear that, glad you liked it 🙂

      Reply
  3. Mrs Bolarinwa says

    April 3, 2017 at 2:03 AM

    Pls what number of piping mouth dis you used

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      April 3, 2017 at 5:34 PM

      Hi there! I used Wilton #234

      Reply
  4. Susie says

    June 22, 2016 at 3:34 PM

    Cute cake. How did you stick the ears on?

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      June 22, 2016 at 4:12 PM

      Hi Susie! Thanks! I used toothpicks and stuck them into the fondant ears, let them dry, then pushed them into the cake.

      Reply
      • Susie says

        June 23, 2016 at 4:27 PM

        Great idea. Thanks for that Olivia!

        Reply
  5. Tanya from Dans le Lakehouse says

    February 6, 2016 at 12:47 PM

    Love this idea! Your cakes are so pretty – just started following along on Pinterest 🙂 I’m Canadian too!

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      February 6, 2016 at 4:03 PM

      Hi Tanya! Always nice to “meet” a fellow Canadian. Thank you! 😀

      Reply
  6. Sowmiasgalley says

    January 7, 2016 at 6:23 AM

    5 stars
    Wowww so cute bear. Bookmarked it. Gonna try soon.

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 7, 2016 at 9:00 AM

      Thanks!!

      Reply
  7. June @ How to Philosophize with Cake says

    January 5, 2016 at 2:49 AM

    What an adorable cake! It does look like it was fun to make, if a little time consuming with all the careful piping 😛

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 5, 2016 at 9:24 AM

      Thanks June! I think it took me an hour to do all that piping. My hand was hurting (!!). Haha.

      Reply
  8. jacquee | i sugar coat it! says

    January 4, 2016 at 7:29 PM

    I like Lindsay’s cakes and yours is equally ADORABLE!!! What you said about the stress and making it just right is exactly why I don’t sell cakes! I checked out your friend’s link and his wood work is gorgeous. You got yourself a sweet deal…oh, wait…I think he did. 😉

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 4, 2016 at 10:01 PM

      I know right? Win-win. I knew you’d understand the cake-stress!! 😉

      Reply
  9. Erin says

    January 4, 2016 at 5:59 PM

    Wow. This is an amazing cake. My little guy turns 1 this weekend and I am looking for cake ideas! I am not sure that I could pull this off but I pinned it and saved it so I might try! 🙂

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 4, 2016 at 10:03 PM

      DO IT! You can totally pull this off. It’s easier than it looks and it’s supposed to look kinda messy. Let me know if you end up taking this on, I would love to see it!

      Reply
  10. [email protected] Plaid & Paisley Kitchen says

    January 4, 2016 at 3:45 PM

    I am loving your blog! This is the second time today I have been here. this bear is absolutely adorable!

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 4, 2016 at 10:03 PM

      Ahh, thank you so much Chandra!! xo

      Reply
  11. Agnieszka says

    January 4, 2016 at 4:02 AM

    5 stars
    It looks so lovely!

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 4, 2016 at 10:06 PM

      Dziekuje Agnieszka! 😀

      Reply
  12. Brianna Danner says

    January 4, 2016 at 2:42 AM

    5 stars
    So adorable! I want to play around with a grass piping tip now.

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 4, 2016 at 10:06 PM

      It’s SO fun, and so easy to use! Thanks!

      Reply
  13. Sara says

    January 3, 2016 at 10:12 PM

    SO SO SO cute! I think if I attempted this it would look like a psychotic porcupine, envious of your piping skills 🙂

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 4, 2016 at 10:00 PM

      LOL you make me laugh. Your version sounds epic, I wanna see it! haha. Thanks! <3

      Reply
  14. Jessica @ Sweetest Menu says

    January 3, 2016 at 9:58 PM

    You are so incredibly talented Liv! What a spectacular and absolutely gorgeous cake! I have a nephew who would love one of these. I can only imagine the hard work that went into such a beautiful creation – frosting a batch of cupcakes is enough for me! haha Pinned!

    Reply
    • Olivia says

      January 4, 2016 at 9:59 PM

      Haha! I know what you mean. I’ve seen your stuff though, you can totally make this!! 😀 xo

      Reply
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I'm Olivia, a professionally trained pastry chef, recipe developer, and photographer from Vancouver, BC. Creating classic cake recipes with a modern twist.
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