[Updated 27/11/2023] I wouldn’t say this cake counts towards a simple bare necessity. Looks-wise, it’s one of the simpler cakes. Effort-wise, it was anything but simple. Here's a link to the cake if you want to purchase it. 

Growing up, I LOVED the Jungle Book. It was one of my favourite Disney Classics. It’s also a movie packed with bangers - King of the Swingers was on our wedding playlist. In terms of Disney villains, I’d say Sher Khan is one of the most menacing ever. He still scares me. Kaa, as the villain’s side-kick snake, is also the perfect combo of comic-creepy.

Baloo has got to be one of everyone’s favourite Disney characters. Did you not cry at the end when everyone thought he was dead? Of course you did.

A customer’s bespoke birthday cake enquiry for their cousin has triggered so much nostalgia for me, there was no way I could say no. He was really cool and gave me free reign on how I wanted to create a Jungle Book inspired cake and I ran with Baloo the bear.

Usually, the process of making fondant figures starts with research and checking out what’s already out there on Pinterest etc. Google did not give me much. There aren’t many, if any at all, hand-made Baloo the Bear cake toppers out there to inspire. This made me very nervous. But now that I’ve taken the cash, I’ve gotta deliver!

I used an actual still image of Baloo to model him out of grey fondant. I’m so chuffed to bits over how he’s turned out!

Popping on some hand-modelled bananas was next. The colour livens it up. But there is still something missing…

I wanted to add small coconuts but thought I’d be coconutting through the whole weekend if I was to make them out of tempered chocolate. Ugh.

And in a brilliant Eureka moment…I grabbed some maltesers, scored them and pressed some detailing into them. Very clever and effective, if I may say so myself.

 With the details sorted, I used forest green Swiss meringue buttercream to frost the vanilla sponge layers.

I shaped cake pop fudge mix (it’s literally cake crumbs blixed with buttercream) to add dimension to the cake-scape. I use it quite often, like in our Peter Rabbit cake.

And then, on goes my precious Baloo, snug in between all the delicious details. I love this so much!

The actual customer’s bespoke cake is different though. They wanted one of our “classic” Anges style doughnut-cakes, but Jungle Book-ified. I think I ticked all the boxes there.

So lovely peeps, thanks for popping by and checking this cake out. I didn’t want to post it on the gram ‘cuz it really sucks when people don’t see something I’m mega proud of due to some silly algorithm. It’s barely necessary.

Lots of love,

Reshmi xoxo