Kawaii Sun Cake!

I know, I know. The cuteness is ALMOST TOO PAINFUL. This cake has arrived just in time for SPRING SUNSHINE. Keep it up, sky!! A few years ago I made this kawaii sun cake design for Handmade Charlotte and I thought I was SO CLEVER with the Pocky stick sun rays. Then I was like, Pocky…? CALL ME. Can I get dat Pocky money?? Can I get some Pocky sticks in a big old shipped box to just, like, have a 6 month supply of those crispy chocolatey sticks ‘o’ fun!? But no, Pocky chose to ignore my ass (I think I sent them one message years ago, haha). But I still think Pocky sticks are such a cute and simple idea for making a sun cake! (Pocky, you can still call me, lol.)

The wonderful Wilton Cakes brand invited me to be a part of their brand re-launch – pretty darn cool. The only requirement was YELLOW – to go with their cute yellow re-branding – and my good old pal kawaii sun cake came back to my mind. I used a classic 1M piping tip to pipe the entire cake, and fondant for the facial features, though you could totally pipe the face on, or use candies! My cookie stick sun rays idea hit me like a bolt of cake-covered lightning. I wrote it down really fast and then drew a little pic so I’d remember. Chemo brain layered on top of mom brain is not cool, guys. My memory is medium-terrible now, but thank goodness for a sketchbook with an X crossed out on every single page!!! (emoji laugh til cry face)!

The cookie sticks obviously take more time than plunking a chubby Pocky into the side of a cake but I LOOOOOOVE how these sun rays turned out!! Totally not too Sonic Youth 90s sunflower at all, like I was worried about! I used a large teardrop-shaped cookie cutter and made classic sugar cookie dough. I added a teensy bit of gel colouring to make them yellow. You could also totally pipe the cookies with buttercream too – I liked the clean look of the cookie shape itself, and HELL NO I wasn’t going to do royal icing just this time, haha, although that would give it a beautifully clean finish too (and add an hour or so to your cake-making!)

Wilton also wrote up a fun blog post interviewing some of their favourite cake and cookie creators – you can read all about my inspiration and words of cake advice here, along with some other amazing cakers and bakers!! Here’s to more happy and sunny days ahead… xo Lyndsay