Making the Pocoyo Cake!

I made this cake for my daughter's second birthday party.

Here's how:

The first thing I did was find a coloring page of Pocoyo (I did just him because I wanted something very simple).  I pulled an 11x14 piece of glass out of a frame that I was not using, cleaned it up, and taped my coloring page underneath the glass, picture side up.

I then taped a piece of parchment paper to the top of the glass.

Using black decorator icing, I traced the outlines of the picture.

And then filled it in with my colored frosting.

I put it in the fridge overnight so that the frosting could harden.  It probably wouldn't require that much time in the fridge, but I had it.  I suppose you could also put it in the freezer if you are in a crunch, but I would worry about it cracking when applied to the cake (even refrigerated I had a little of that).

Also, be sure to save all of your frosting for touch-ups!

The next day I made my cake and added a thin layer of white frosting to the top of it.  I was not as thorough with the white frosting as I should have been.  I should have covered the entire top of the cake with the white because the balloon was not fully on icing and did not lay flat and pulled cake up as I peeled the paper off.

Anyways, after the top had frosting on it, I held my breath, removed the tape from the parchment paper, and flipped little Pocoyo onto the cake.

I had managed to get it centered on my first try, which was awesome since moving it would have sucked.  I pressed the little guy lightly into the white frosting and then proceeded to pull the paper off of him.  When you do this, go slowly enough so as not to rip him, but quickly enough that your icing does not melt while you are doing it.  I should have done this in two parts and left the balloon in the fridge while I put Pocoyo on because, by the time I got to the balloon, the frosting was already soft and did not want to come off the paper.  With a knife and a lot of patience I managed to get the balloon onto the cake, where it belonged.

And, after a little touching up (remember that saved frosting), he looked great.  I did miss a part of his sleeve, but not bad.