For Mila’s last birthday, I attempted to make a Shaun the Sheep cake topper. The result was better than I hoped, so I guess we have a tradition now. Kim made the cake and took care of the icing, as she did last year.

In the last few months, Mila’s gotten very fond of Bluey, a wonderful Australian cartoon, which is extremely relatable to parents watching along as well. She regularly will even re-enact plays from the show. (Veranda Santa, anyone?) It was an easy decision that Bluey would be the star of the cake. Shaun the sheep is already a stop-motion character, making it easier to recreate in fondant. Bluey is not, so I found it a tad more difficult to get started until finding this video.

I did make some changes:

• I used a slightly more expensive icing fondant, which made it easier to manipulate.
• Last year, I used make-shift tools. This time, I found a cheap tool set, and it made it a lot easier, especially to do the smaller details.
• While we previously used the mould only for the rice crispy treat base, I now cut it to shape.
• I bought black fondant. Getting to a darker colour, even with higher quality colouring, was a nightmare, and I wanted to avoid that.
• I used less corn starch. While great to make sure that the fondant didn’t stick to my hands or the table, it also made the fondant too dry and crumbly.
• We remembered to put the candles on before putting the topper on the cake. Last year, that almost was a disaster, as the topper is much more resistant to candles than the cake is strong.
• I covered the cake with fondant as well, which was nerve-wracking, but YouTube helped again.