Bears on the Beach Cake

My little sister turned 17 years old today. I decided to make her a beach themed cake since it's summer and she's all about the beach, beach, beach (and Drivers Ed, eek!). I had made these bears on the beach cupcakes (which I think originally came from Bakerella) a few years ago and I told myself I'd never do it again. It took a ton of work and I wasn't too thrilled with my results back then. Since it was so long ago I decided to give it a shot again. And it was so much more enjoyable this time!


First I drew a sketch of what I wanted to do in my head. Sort of. I have zero artistic skills.


Then I made the water.


And the sand. (You can just smash up a bunch of graham crackers, but I finally got myself a generic little food processor and I find any excuse to use it. I shouldn't get as much joy out of using a food processor as I do.)


These are all the things I used. Teddy Grahams for the bears (obviously), Gummi Lifesavers for the inflatable tubes, Gobstoppers for the beach balls, Extreme Sour Belts for the beach towels, and edible pens to draw faces and bikinis. Also pictured is the Sparkle Gel I ended up not using.


One of the reasons I didn't enjoy it the last time I made this cake was because I had a hell of a time drawing faces and bathing suits on the bears. This time I just used these edible pens and they worked out great!


Some bears getting ready for a dip.


These are just some of the other decorations I had planned to use.


After all the bears were prepped I arranged them in the little clusters I wanted to put them on the cake.


And it's done! The sign might throw it off a bit, but by this time I was walking circles around the house trying to figure out what I was going to use for the sign. Eventually I just grabbed some cardboard and a permanent marker and that's what we've got. I could have used fondant, but I didn't want to deal with the fondant in this humid Hawaii weather.




A bear couple lounging.




These are synchronized swimmers? Or two boys on a race to see who can get to the girl first?


A couple inner tubing.


A cool surfer checking out the waves (next to his gigantic surfboard, lol).


The birthday girl and her cake.