Little Miss Sunshine Cake Tutorial

The Mr. Men and Little Miss. books have a very special place in our home, they were my childrens first bedtime stories. The type of stories that are "laugh out loud" funny but also have a moral lesson. These books saw my children from giggling toddlers to grown school goers, sounding out the words.

My children grew up with these books always within reach and that transformed them from having the stories read to them, to slowly reading them and eventually reading them fluently to each other.  My daughter takes great pleasure telling us that she has all fifty Mr. Men books read....twice!

This was her birthday cake this year, she may have grown out of her Disney princess cakes, albeit temporarily but you're never too old for a Little Miss Sunshine cake!

Serves 8-10

Ingredients
20cm x 4cm ( 8") Round sponge cake
1 qty of  Simple Vanilla Buttercream Recipe
500g bright yellow sugarpaste
10g of black sugarpaste
Black food gel
2 tbsp boiled and cooled water

Equipment
10' Cake board
Pallet knife (any non serrated knife will do)
Rolling pin
Icing sugar dredger
Cake smoother/polisher
Kitchen towel sheets
Small clean brush
Sharp knife/pizza cutter
30cm red ribbon

Method
Make sure that the cake is completely cooled before decorating, flip the sponge upside down and secure it slightly off centre to the cake board (pictured below). Use a dollop (lovely word dollop) of buttercream to secure the cake to the board.

Using a sharp knife, trim away a small amount of the upper edge of the sponge for a more lifelike rounded edge. Cover the cake with a layer of buttercream, a slightly domed top and straight edges will give the best finish. Dust your work surface liberally with icing sugar, roll out slightly less than half of the yellow sugarpaste into a 30cm circle and drape it centrally over the cake, smooth the top the the cake with the smoother first then ease the sides into place using the heel of your hand (don't drag the sugarpaste down the sides, it will tear) .

Smooth over the whole cake very gently so as to not tear the sugarpaste, straighten the sides and trim away the excess using either a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, add the scraps to your remaining yellow sugarpaste. Wipe the cake board clean with a piece of dry kitchen towel sheet. 

TIP!! A really handy tip when making any creature or figurine is to start with a ball of sugarpaste, a ball can be rolled into a sausage, a teardrop, and oval and even a cube!

Roll out two 10cm sausages, flatten slightly with the smoother and shape into hands, smoothing away imperfection with your index finger, cut small inverted triangles out of the hand to make four fingers, smooth off the edges. Make the round snub nose with a thumbnail piece of yellow sugar paste, the eyes require a similar sized piece of black sugarpaste, halved and shaped into two ovals (remember start with a ball).

TIP!! Use the cake smoother to roll sausages, it gives a smooth (obviously!!) and shiny sausage every time :)

Using the black sugarpaste roll out a long thin sausage for the mouth and secure it in place with a small amount of the boiled and cooled water. Take your time to get the smile just right before securing it with the water. Add the small dimples with tiny cutoffs. Once you are happy with the smile, place the hands over it. Position the eyes and nose closely together in the top centre of the cake, secure with the water. Roll out a 16cm fat sausage for the legs, divide it into two and shape them, smooth out any kinks with your index finger.

Brush the cake board with the water and position the legs centrally, leave to set while you get on with making the hair. You may have noticed that this cake as it is, would make the most superb Mr. Happy Cake! 

Take the remaining yellow sugarpaste and roll it into a large sausage, divide the sausage into 10 equal pieces, roll each piece into a 25cm sausage. Use the cake smoother to roll out each piece of hair to an even width.

Wet the crown of Little Miss Sunshine's head, position the hair in the exact centre and drape the hair towards her ears (!!). Support each strand in your hand over the cake, otherwise it will stretch and/or break. Gently coax each strand into position and push together to remove any gaps. Each side gets five stands. Each subsequent stand has more waste, the leftovers will be trimmed later and use as her hair ties. 

Once the excess hair is trimmed, secure her hair tie with a brush of water, add the red ribbon. I used a pin to secure it into place, however if you are giving this cake as a gift you can omit the ribbon and pin. 

For the final touches, dot five freckles on each side of  her nose with some black food gel. Brush off any icing with a clean brush and stand back and admire your hard work!