For this cake, I wanted to try my hand at a gravity-defying look. My sons favorite characters are Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger so I definitely wanted to incorporate them somewhere on the cake. Decided to have it look like a honey pot was pouring honey out onto the cake and the “honey” was flowing down the cake. Winnie the Pooh would have jumped into the honey, Eeyore observing Pooh in the honey, Piglet relaxing against the cake, enjoying the day, and Tigger on top holding birthday balloons and a number candle. With the result in mind, I set to work. Here’s how I did it…..
Winnie the Pooh & Piglet:
I started by hand-shaping Winnie the Pooh & Piglet using solid fondant, adding a small black ball of fondant for Pooh’s nose and a small pink fondant ball for Piglets, then placed a piece of straw under their knees until completely dry 
. Piglets ears were formed around small pieces of toothpick and stuck into his head to help keep them in place, and his arms were also formed around pieces of toothpick and stuck into his shoulders to help prop him upright. They both started to lean a bit so I leaned them against a heavy fondant bucket until they had dried completely. Finishing touches: Winnie the Pooh, add red fondant to resemble a shirt, and draw his facial features with an edible black marker. For Piglet, draw stripes around his torso, and add eyes and eyebrows 
.
Tigger:
Since Tigger would be upright, I decided to form him around a wire figure for more stability. I used strong floral wire and made a stick figure 
. Then rolled out a log of orange fondant the length of the wire figure. I cut slits in the orange log, in approximation to where the head, arms, and legs would be 
and placed it over the wire. With a bit of molding, stretching, and smoothing around the wire, I worked with it until I was happy with the Tigger base 
, leaving about 1/2″ of wire for the tail. The small ball end of a fondant tool was used to shape out the mouth. Use a small amount of white, and yellow fondant for the accents; ears, eyes, mouth, stomach, and feet 
, using a small amount of water to adhere the pieces. Stand upright to dry, at least overnight. I used the wire cooling rack the balloons are drying on. Once completely dry, use an edible black marker to draw on his stripes and facial features 
, and his pink fondant nose 
. Allow the nose and marker to dry, then add his tail. The way that worked best for me, was to make four balls of orange fondant, slide each one down the wire, then using a wide straw, slide the straw through the fondant balls until it reaches his torso. This created the accordion look in the tail that I wanted 
. Place Tigger upside down, with something propping up the straw, until his tail has dried completely (likely overnight).
Eeyore:
Eeyore just started out with a wire with a loop at one end. I used blue fondant and wrapped it around the wire, leaving about 1.5″ sticking out the back for his tail 
. His head was formed around the looped end of the wire, some of the fondant was gently stretched and worked, to form his back legs, and more fondant was worked from the back, down over the wire to form his tail (leave about 1/4″ of wire for the hair added later). His ears were formed around a small piece of heavy wire, stuck through his head 
, adhere the top of the ears to his head with a little water. His front legs were shaped around a small curved piece of wire to help support his body and keep him upright 
. Add beige, white, and pink fondant accents to his face and ears 
and allow to dry, at least overnight. After he has dried completely, use the edible black ink marker to add his facial features. To complete his look, use black fondant for his hair and the end of his tail. I used scissors to snip along the pieces to achieve a more “hair” look 
and adhered them to his head and tail with a little water. Add a small pink fondant bow to complete Eeyore 
.
Honeypot:
Inflate a water balloon. Then spray hands with cooking spray, rubbing them together briefly, & lightly coat the balloon. I rolled out a circle of chocolate fondant and draped it over the balloon, trimming around it by pressing gently with the serrated end of a butter knife, approximately 1.5-2″ from the knot, until it looked like a honeypot 
. Place it upside down in in a cup or something that will hold the balloon without touching the fondant, to dry overnight 
(Note: mine dried approximately 24 hrs while I was working on other pieces, before I removed the balloon). When the fondant honeypot feels dry and hardened, cut a small slit in the balloon (near the knot) so that the air will gently come out, allowing the balloon to slowly pull away from the honeypot walls 
. In about 5 seconds, the balloon will have pulled away, simply remove it from the bottom of the honeypot and discard. Write on the honeypot using an edible black marker 
.
Birthday Balloons:
The balloons were formed using floral wire and 1/2″ balls of fondant. I made a loop at one end of each wire, and formed a balloon around it using a 1/2″ ball of colored fondant (red, green, yellow, blue, and purple). I added small candy circles from candy bracelets we had, to smooth out the bottom and create a “knotted” end look 
, then hung the balloons upside down to dry, about 24 hrs, or until hardened solid (a wire cooling rack from Pampered Chef that I had, worked perfectly) 
. Once hardened, gather all the wires through a wide straw, folding the wire ends out over the straw to keep the balloons from shifting 
and, use small pieces of fondant between the balloons, adhering with a little water, to keep them together 
. Allow to dry laying down.
Honey stream:
I was going for a look of honey pouring out of the honeypot, and flowing down the cake, but I didn’t really want to use so much fondant. I decided to try using Royal Icing instead of fondant, and it worked perfectly. I stacked up the cake pans I had baked the cake in, so I would have the correct height, then made one batch of Royal Icing, and spread it all out on wax paper, forming the narrow “stream” along the cake, and a “pool” of honey at the end, using a butter knife and my hands. Be sure to place a balloon stick holder upside down in the icing (PICTURE-cut out zoom in of end)to leave a hole to be able to slide the icing honey onto the balloon stick that is in the cake.
I was going for a look of honey pouring out of the honeypot and flowing down the cake but I didn’t really want to use so much fondant. I decided to try using Royal Icing, and it worked perfectly. I stacked up the cake pans I had baked the cake in, so I would have the correct height, then made one batch of Royal Icing (recipe link), and spread it all out on wax paper, forming the narrow “stream” and “pool” of honey at the end using a butter knife and my hands to achieve a “flowing” look. Be sure to place a balloon stick holder upside down in the icing 
to leave a hole to be able to slide the icing honey onto the balloon stick that is in the cake once dry.
Cake baking to assembled:
My son wanted a chocolate cake so I made the top two square cakes, chocolate. There was an extra box of strawberry cake in the pantry, so I decided to do a small 9×13 bottom layer of strawberry. Bake and cool cakes completely, and make a batch of green buttercream icing. A decorating book that I had received for Christmas from my sister, used a balloon stick with its holder in the cake to create the “gravity defying” look, so that’s what I did. It ended up being too flimsy to my liking, for what I needed, so thankfully, the Royal Icing “honey”, dried hard enough to hold the honeypot in place. Since the strawberry cake was long and thin, I decided to place that layer on the cake board and then gently lifting one end of the cake, slide the balloon stick holder with a 1-1.5″ of balloon stick in it, into and under the cake, instead of trying to slide the entire layer of cake down onto the balloon stick. Add a blob of Buttercream under the balloon stick holder to secure it in place. Ice the top of the strawberry cake then add the next layer of chocolate cake, sliding it onto the balloon stick, add Buttercream Frosting on top of that layer, then add the final layer of chocolate cake 
. Cover the entire cake in Buttercream Frosting 
then pipe buttercream onto the cake (I used Wilton grass tip #233), leaving the approximate area where the “honey stream” will be placed, unpiped 
. Gently remove the completely dried Royal Icing “honey stream” from the wax paper and place it onto the cake, sliding the balloon stick through the hole 
. Bend the end of the balloon stick in two place to make it more curved to place the honey pot on more securely. Pipe Royal Icing up the sides of the balloon stick using a wide round icing tip 
then smooth with a knife to get a “flowing” look 
. Pipe Icing onto the curved end of the balloon stick, and into the honeypot, then place the pot on the balloon stick and hold for a few seconds until hardened and secure 
. You can also have something the same height as the honeypot pressed up against it to hold it upright, until the icing has completely hardened or longer, until you’re ready to bring it to the party. Add Winnie the Pooh in the pool of honey, Piglet leaning against the cake, Eeyore watching Pooh, and Tigger on top of the cake holding the balloons. The #3 candle placed next to Tigger, and “Happy Birthday” piped onto the side of the cake finished it. 
icingit.com 