Pooh to Pikachu

My youngest son is celebrating his 8th birthday. How quickly my “baby” turned eight! 

I always make my kids’ birthday cakes at home — I love creating whatever characters, designs or themes they envision for their cakes each year. I’m not a wildly skilled cake decorator (my mom took a Wilton class many years ago, and she taught me how to decorate with their method) but I do a pretty good job with them. For my children, watching the cake come together is almost a magical process — they’ll sit across the table as hundreds of little frosting stars take shape to become a character.

This year, when I asked my son what kind of cake he wanted, he said “Pikachu.” The popular Pokemon character is certainly cute, but how to best capture him in cake form? Many of my cakes take shape with a rectangular or round pan, but I do have a few Wilton character pans too. Years ago, when my boys were toddlers, I’d picked up a Winnie the Pooh cake pan on clearance at a craft store — I remember paying around $2 for it! That pan was “recycled” for several cakes, from Pooh bears to teddy bears. 

As I thought about how best to create Pikachu in cake form, I thought of the Pooh pan again. Both my boys exhibited panicked faces when I took out the pan — “MOM — I’m too old for Winnie the Pooh!” exclaimed my birthday boy.

I told him to relax and thought that Pooh’s cake pan just might be workable. The pan’s design included Pooh’s face and the collar of his shirt. A few cuts with a knife removed his shirt collar, and I split the collar pieces in two to form Pikachu’s ears:

The rest just took time and, of course, frosting. Now he’d like me to bake another one for his “kid party” with his friends!