Harajuku / Kawaii Style Cake Slice...and a little Gwen Stephani!

Eeeeek!! You guys...I got to do the FUNNEST thing! I got to make a cake for a photo shoot for Gwen Stephani's new Harajuku Lover's Party Collection!! My sweet friend, Loralee Lewis  designed the adorable collection and you can find the whole collection on Chasing Fireflies Online Shop HERE!! These photos of the photo shoot are AMAZING and they are brought to you by the fabulously talented  Lindsay Salazar at www.lindsaysalazar.com. 

We are going to do a simplified version of this cake that you can do in your very own kitchen, I PROMISE! :) But first, the Gwen Stephani Harajuku Lover's Collection Photos!!!

And there is my cute daughter on the lower right in the polka dots tights. 

 Ok, NOW, the simplified version that we are going to do together! :)

SO, there's a lot of elements to this cake even thought it looks very simple. Don't worry, I will hold your hand through them all. (*wink) At the end of this post, I have a link to the Studio 5 segment so that you can actually see the demonstration because sometimes seeing it demonstrated helps you more than a photo tutorial.

First step: Prepping your cake

You HAVE to have a clean cake for this. It has to be straight and very smooth because fondant does tend to show all your flaws. Buttercream hides flaws, Fondant will show them.

Being a "carved cake", once you have torted and filled your cake, you will need to CHILL, chill, CHILL! At least 30 min in the freezer.

Now that your cake is prepped, the biggest key to this cake is to make templates.

Simply place some Parchment paper up against the side of your cake and crease along the edges of the cake. (Remember, it's super chilled so it should be sturdy enough to do that.)

Now, roll out some bubblegum pink fondant and lay your templates on top. Then cut with a mini pizza cutter.

Then, just place the fondant panels on the cake! It's that easy. Make sure you paint your chilled cake with the LIGHTEST layer of water so that the fondant will stick. :)

If your panels are too high, just trim with a pair of clean kitchen scissors.

Gently pinch together seams.

Smooth seams together with your fingers.

Then smooth them with your fondant paddle.

Next, let's make the "drippy icing"! It's so easy. Just lay your triangle template on top of some white rolled fondant and use a new, very sharp exact-o knife to free-hand the "drips".

Now, pipe on a large, oversized shell border on the top and bottom of the cake with a large star tip like Wilton's 3M tip. You also want a big dollop swirl right on top for your fondant cherry. ;)Also, Those adorable pastel candies at the border of the cake are just sixlets that you can find in the Wilton isle of your local Walmart or craft store like JoAnne's or Michael's. Just tack them on with some royal icing or piping gel! Seriously, they were like,zero effort. ;)

Now...SPRINKLES! Super easy. I used a little cutter that I found in my mini letter set. I think it's an i or an L or something. Maybe it's an exclamation mark?? Anyway, it worked perfectly. You can also use the Wilton 12 tip for the sprinkles too for round sprinkles and they will be perfect.

The cherry on top!

Just roll a piece of red-ish fondant with a into a ball.

Use a skewer or the end of your kitchen paint brush to make a hole in the top of your fondant ball.

Roll a tiny rope of pastel green fondant for your stem.

Use piping gel or royal icing to secure your stem after it's dried out just a little bit so that it holds it's shape. 

The highlight here is SUPER important. It's these little details that MAKE the cake. Harajuku and Kawaii style is dink of defined by these little highlights.

I used a Wilton 12 tip to cut out the highlights on the cherry and the large highlight on the eyes.

Eyes! These eyes are what define Harajuku. Wide set, highlights, with a thin smile in the center of them.

You can use a circular cutter if you have one the right size but I didn't have one so the shape of my Americolor food color was the perfect size so I just used that.

Add your highlights!

Add the little "blushies" under the eyes for a true Kawaii look. You can cut these out free-hand or I just used the same cutter that I used for the sprinkles.

 The smile: The smile is super easy to make, it's just hard to apply and I don't have any tips on how to do it other than be careful and make it more of a "u" shape than you think you will need. I usually get it slightly wet so that it's tacky, then put it on carefully because the black fondant will make anything it touches black so you kind of have one shot. If it's stressing you out, take a black edible marker and just draw it on!

Now...can we just talk about that ridiculously adorable bow that puts the whole cake over the top?

I will probably never use the rest of that blue disco dust that I bought for the bow but it was worth the $5 just for this one use.

I just kind of free-handed this little template so just create the same shape out of an exact-o knife.

Piping gel to secure the ends of the bow in the middle.

Fold over the ends to meet in the middle.

More piping gel to secure the middle strip...

Flip bow over carefully to wrap the strip around the back.

Place some tissue paper rolled up into logs in the bows so that it doesn't flatten as it dries.

I like to stand the bow on it's end as it dried OVERNIGHT so that all sides dry completely.

After your bow has dried overnight, paint it with Piping Gel and sprinkle some disco dust all over the front of it!

Ta-Da!!

Now place that adorable thing on your cake with some royal icing Make sure to hold it there until the icing sets. It's a heavy bow.

And there you have it. You can do it! I want to see all of your variations and creations!

Happy caking everyone!

Here is a link to the Studio 5 segment as promised at the beginning of this tutorial:

http://studio5.ksl.com/index.php?nid=61&sid=37015139