Originally I had planned on doing a regular sized cake as part of a gift to my boyfriend for our 5 Year Anniversary, but there were so many Valentine’s leftovers I thought I’d just make a little something.

It was at this same point I was trying to work out how to wrap/present his anniversary gift, when I was also trying to decide what to have the teddy holding. That was when I decided – why wrap a gift when you can put it on a cake instead?

The bear is perched on top of a heart-shaped pillow. Most of the details here got covered up, so I snapped a few pictures first.

The cake inside is almond, layered and covered with almond buttercream.

I’m really disappointed with how the bear came out. I had done this cake the day before and it was all but finished. It was sitting on the counter drying before final assembly when my housemate squashed and destroyed it. So I had to quickly remake the whole thing the next day. Half way through I realised I was out of fondant and marshmallows — the only marshmallows in the house ended up producing a totally unworkable fondant. With my microwave also dead making the fondant was a much slower process than usual! The bear was a total rush job in the last moments before he arrived, and turned out ugly and fat. I much preferred the original bear.

Sad. *tear*

Whether to calm my frustration, or through being genuine (or maybe both), my boyfriend said loved it. He was bent over looking at the cake for a moment he noticed the ring, then attempted to play coy (“Aw, you made a ring out of fondant!”). But the cheeky grin gave away his surprise and joy at the gift itself. Yay! To my relief, the ring fit perfectly.

Dissected!