Winnie the Pooh and Owl too! Cake and Cookies

Owl Cookies

What a busy little creative weekend I had last week!  One of my projects was a cake and cookies for a sweet little girl’s 2nd birthday party.  It wasnt a themed party, just an adorable Winnie the Pooh cake and Owl cookies that were recognizable and loved by the little girl.  My owls were piped in aqua royal icing with fondant details on a sugar cookie.  For the cake, I duplicated a classic white cake with blue trim that was shown in the little girl’s cherished Winnie the Pooh book.  Then I add a toy Pooh and friends that her mom provided, this is such an easy way to make a simple cake beautiful and custom in just minutes. This cake was a special Strawberry recipe that my daughter requests often for her parties, so pretty pink!  The icing was a very basic 4 ingredient buttercream: confectioners sugar, salted butter, vanilla and milk….so delicious!

If you dont have the time or skills to make a simple cake but would still like to decorate for someone special, consider buying an iced and undecorated cake from you local bakery.  I have decorated store-bought cakes when I was in a pinch for time before. I dont think that a cake has to be elaborate for you to express your creative skills and party theme.  My mermaid cake was a “cake decorating emergency”, we traveled to Tennessee to host Macy a birthday party but our luggage with my party supplies didnt make it with us.  And there have been several times I’ve had a plain bakery cake waiting on me to add fondant to for my sisters events because I could only fly in for the weekend and didnt have time to bake.  No matter how simple you decide to make the cake, its all about execution and presentation.  Practice makes perfect! It took a long time for me to level and stack my cakes perfectly and to make buttercream porcelain smooth.  But most importantly I always use a cake stand or platform, it’s usually the center piece of the table and you want it to stand above other dishes.