I've done the teddy bear cake at least 5 times by now. Tonight is the FIRST time it fell on me in the oven while baking. Not once, but twice!!! The batter fell everywhere in the oven and I cleaned it up the first time and then when it fell the second time, I just threw the bear into the sink in a fit of rage (yes, I am a redhead with a temper-lol). I'm just so pissed off right now. So I'm here trying to cool off on CC while my house smells like burnt cake in the oven. I know I'll be up late tonight cleaning the huge mess.

Thanks for letting me vent!

oh dear, i'm sorry to hear you are having a rough night. i've been there before and it really stinks. here's hoping your next cake cooperates for you
Amy

OMG! Shirley that's too funny, I just spit water out all over my screen!

The 3d winnie-the-pooh cake hated me. The first time I baked it I put in the amount of batter recomended and it didn't completely fill the pan up so it looked like pooh had a labotomy. The 2nd time I filled that sucker up with bater just to have it come out all in my oven. Yep, Pooh had ONE MASSIVE POOH in my oven! The 3rd time I put a sheet tray on the rack below to catch all of the pooh cake drippings which worked great, too bad the heating core shifted and pooh was missing a little bit in the tummy area. At this point it was 3:30 in the morning and I thought "screw it, I'm icing the sucker" The cake was a hit which I was happy for, but I'll NEVER do another one. I was a babe to decorating (still kindof am) and it took me like 4 hours to decorate that wretched bear! I never did get any sleep that night. By the time I almost done my kids woke up and I had to give baths before the birthday party started before luch time. I FEEL YOUR PAIN ON THIS ONE!!!!

Ya'll are TOO funny! I am laughing at loud! I may not be laughing a couple of weeks from now. I am committed to bake a Winnie the Pooh stand up cake, and 40....yes, 40 mini bear cakes (favors) for a baby shower at the end of March. I AM A NOVICE!!! I 'm searching on this site for ideas. I think I have a good one.............FORGET IT! LOL

The 3D bear takes LOTS of practice to get it baked nice and sturdy! I still hold my breath when removing the core and I've done many bears... yikes! I have finally found a combination of baking technique and batter that works good though, and so I don't change that now!

40 mini bears? Ohhhh honey. You are wayyyy nice. haha. I don't envy you one bit!

I had someone who wanted mini bears and I encouraged her to order the flat mini bear cakes instead of the 3D ones...that way I could bake 6 at a time, and only do half the star work. As it was, they still took a long time!

Can't wait to see pix!

OH MY GOSH....ya'll are an encouraging bunch! LOL Don't 39 of you want to come to TX and we could each make one teddy bear, then take turns on the Winnie the Pooh! LOL Now that I have your attention, is it possible to bake and freeze the cakes....then, defrost, decorate with buttercream, and refreeze??? I really do want the cakes to be GOOD, but don't professionals freeze cakes? All kidding aside, any suggestions really will be greatly appreciated...even the suggestion to "Forget it!" LOL

You shouldn't freeze something that's already been frozen and defrosted, I think it has something to do with bacterial growth, but I know my Mum always made sure I didn't freeze things she gave me that had come out of her freezer.

you can freeze and then pull them out to decorate but you can not re-freeze them. My advice is to make up a whole bunch and pop them in the freezer and pull them a few at a time as you decorate.

Thank you for your replies. I really appreciate all of them. I think I could comfortably bake and decorate 5 a day....with my other responsibilites around the house. (That's 5 of the mini bears.) WHAT DO you think about baking and icing (buttercream) 5 a day, then freezing them. Do you think that after having been wrapped well and frozen for a little less than 3 weeks the cakes would still taste fresh and GOOD? I would like to have all of the mini bears done, so I can do the large Winnie the Pooh the day before shower. Any comments are appreciated.

I know you can freeze certain buttercreams and some people do ice and then freeze their cakes but I'm too chicken to risk it. I'd be too afraid that the decorations would get smashed. May be someone else can help here with some insite?

Thank you, mkolmar, for your opinion. I appreciate you taking the time to write. I am scared, too! LOL At this point, I'm leaning toward "living dangerously" and giving it a try! If worse comes to worse, everyone will get a good laugh. I simply don't know anyway else to do it. If ANYONE else has an opinion...I appreciate it.

i always..always bake and freeze my cakes, then i decotate ( saves the extra step of crumb coating ). i have decorated and then frozen buttercream cakes before... the only thing that you need to watch out for is as the cake defrosts, the icing gets little beads of moisture. it will eventually dry up, so mabey decorate the bears...freeze them and then take them out a day before. just a thought...

Ok, my suggestion is to try to bake decorate and freeze then pull out of the freezer and see what happens as a test run with just a few lil' bears so you don't waste too much time on figuring it out.

Thanks Pookster and mkolmar...Its great to know that you always freeze your cakes, Pookster. I am going to start doing that, then I will practice decorating much more. If I have the cake there, when I am in the mood, them I can practice. Mkolmar, you are right. I am going to do a recipe (5) and see how it works. I'm tired of worring about it. I have my stand alone freezer completely cleaned out and ready to fill. I'm not worried about crushing them. I think that I will freeze them unwrapped until the icing is hard...about an hour, then carefully/loosely double wrap them. This will all be over April 1. I will let you know how it turns out. Once again, thanks to everyone for your input.

your most welcome, and good luck. your in for alot of work...if i lived near ya, i would definatly give you a hand.. keep us posted!

keep us posted and good luck!