Today is Brielle’s birthday, and we wanted to share with you the special cake that we made for her! I’ve always loved baking, and Ryan has such an artistic eye. We’ve had so much fun baking birthday cakes for the girls over the years, and last year we made an owl cake for Brielle’s Woodland Themed party when she turned 1 as you can see in the picture below! This year, we decided to make Brielle a Totoro cake since she LOVES the movie “My Neighbor Totoro” by Studio Ghibli. Myla and Brie sometimes act out the movie as they watch the two sisters Satsuki and Mei run around on their adventures!
To start off, I baked two cakes using this “Moise, Dense, Heavy Cream Pound Cake” recipe. I used the Wilton 6″ x 3″ cake pan. We knew we would need a very dense and strong cake since we were attempting to make a character who stood up!
Ryan cut the cakes and placed them ontop of one another. He carved the cakes into a Totoro shape, trying to envision how it would look after being iced and covered in fondant.
Ryan did such an amazing job- look at that adorable snout!
He printed off these pictures of Totoro to use as a model!
He placed green fondant on a circular base and some buttercream icing in the middle so that Totoro would stick to the base. He then covered Totoro with icing!
Next, he covered Totoro with grey fondant and added all the details such as the belly, eyes, nose, and ears! We used Wilton Decorator Preferred Fondant (Ryan bought the black and white colours, and mixed them together to make grey. He added gel food coluring to get the rest of the colours such as green, orange, and red). Doesn’t Totoro look so adorable here? He really is being brought to life!
To make the whiskers, Ryan rolled some black fondant and added metal wiring so that they would stick out of Totoro’s cheeks! He also used some green fondant to make a leaf to place atop Totoro’s head!
Here is Brielle’s final Totoro cake!!! Isn’t it stunning? I can’t believe Ryan made this!
Ryan created fondant mushrooms and the little white Totoro. I made the soot sprites, and we added a Mei figurine that we bought a couple of years ago!
The shape of the mushrooms and how they bend is adorable- very animated and whimsical!
Here is a side view!
Here is a view from the back! You can find his tail and more soot sprites!
Here is a video we put together showing the making of Brielle’s Totoro Cake!
When the girls came down the stairs and saw the cake for the first time, they were SO excited! Brie kept saying, “Cute Totoro, cute Totoro”! The girls love the cake and we hope they’ll look back upon their birthday memories and photos with fondness! We love making birthday cakes for the girls, and it’s neat how we can combine my love of baking with Ryan’s amazing artistic ability and decorating skills!
Brielle is such a sweet and bright little girl who loves copying her big sister’s every move! The girls are at such a fun and hilarious stage right now since they are 2 and 4 years old, and I’m trying to enjoy every moment of it. It is so adorable when they giggle hysterically, make up their own games, break out into dance parties, and run off and play dolls. It’s such a blessing watching these two grow up together and develop their own personalities! Thank you for showing our family so much love throughout the years! I know many of you have been following our work since I was pregnant with Myla and Brie (or even before then), and it’s amazing how you can watch them grow too! Happy 2nd birthday, Brielle!
{If you’re interested in baking your own Totoro cake, these are the exact tools we used below through Amazon!}
