We made this cake for a Surprise 21st Birthday celebration. One of the most fun cakes to make... so far! Our friend of a friend, Michelle, wanted a special cake for her boyfriend, JR, Yogi themed!
We mulled about doing a fondant cake, but settled on buttercream as it could allow us to draw the characters with more detail. Another consideration was drawing with chocolate. We recently read a cake decorating book (can't recall! will post later) with amazing, intricate designs using chocolate. We tested and scrapped that idea (the outlines were not defined enough), but you can see we used chocolate for the birthday "flag" and the trees on the side.
First lesson in buttercream - DO MAKE MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED, so you do not have to go back to the mixer to make additional batches. Remember for a 11 x 9, 2 tier cake there's the filling (2 cups), the crumb coating (1 cup), the decorating layer (3 cups), and room for error. DO ALWAYS CRUMB COAT. Crumb coating provides a base, so the cake does not show through and the outer frosting does not mix with crumbs - hence "crumb coating." We did quite a bit of this layer to get crisper edges. Typically you only need one thin layer, then refrigerate to harden the coat. DO USE A SCRAPER! If you are a perfectionist, the smooth straight edge will save time and frustration. You can use a paint scraper from your local hardware store or a pastry scraper (my preferred choice).
Yogi and Boo-Boo look pretty nifty, huh? As much as I'd love to say we free-handed it, we didn't. We printed out the images and traced them onto wax paper. Then, we piped the outline with black buttercream and pressed the image onto the cake. We colored in the outline with buttercream. It sounds complicated, but was a great technique. We learned it from the book with chocolate designs and adapted it to buttercream! It worked perfectly!
2 Layers
Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Buttercream icing between each layer
Colored Vanilla Buttercream icing for the background and designs
Chocolate "Happy 21st Birthday, JR" sign, Pine trees around the sides, and little flowers
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