Monday, July 4, 2011

Totally Totoro Birthday Party!

The daughter of friends of ours just turned two, and she loves the movie My Neighbor Totoro.
My Neighbor Totoro (Two-Disc Special Edition)
So my friends decided to throw a Totoro party! Since I'm such an "expert" on cake balls (ie: I made them once,) she asked my advice. On the plus side, I was able to point her to a new bakery supply company that is fantastic! Great prices (I feel like everyone else is ripping me off now!) and FAST shipping (both times she ordered on Sunday and her stuff arrived by Wednesday!) I searched my cookie cutter stash for a cat head cutter, but the one I have is all stylized, and no good for stretching into a Totoro shape. I ordered one online, but it's STILL back-ordered, a month later. SHEESH! Luckily, she got one on eBay, but it was smaller than expected, so instead of sammies, she cut turkey and cheese, and had crackers and cut-out bread to go with them.
 Cat Head Cookie Cutter (mini)
"Totoro" turkey and cheese. I got there after the vultures...
I mean kids, so there wasn't much left to photograph!
I had scoured the intarwebs, looking for Totoro food ideas. She had planned on making "soot spirit" cake balls (I still call them Dust Bunnies, from the original dubbed version, before it got all Disney-fied) which is how she came to ask my advice in the first place. I told her about using chocolate chips on the balls as "ears" before dipping to make Totoro-shaped balls. So she made both! Crazy!
She got the sugar eyes from Sweet! Baking Supply and I'm super impressed with how well the balls turned out!
White chocolate Totoro cake ball
Soot Spirits chocolate cake balls
Big, yummy, hit!
She also decided to make Totoro's out of fondant, since they looked so stinkin' cute online! Plus Sweet! sells fondant! She roped her husband into making these, and he did an amazing job!
They made 2 dozen of these for the cupcakes, and sat them on "grass" (green shredded coconut.) How adorable is that?!
I've heard that fondant tastes kind of nasty, and the stuff I tried when shopping for wedding cakes was gross, but this fondant was actually okay. It was sweet, almost like a weirdly-textured marshmallow.
Pretty tasty!

5 comments:

  1. I've never heard of Totoro, but I might try to get my toddler to like it just so I can do his next birthday party with this theme! Your friend did a fantastic job!

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  2. I've never heard of Totoro, either, but these treats are adorable!

    My poor child got saddled with a lazy mama who won't bake. ;-)

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  3. I've never heard of Totoro, either, but those look amazing!! I'm not a fan of fondant, either. I just eat around it. :)

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  4. I think we watch Totoro at least once a week. Sydda wants to be Mei for Halloween (too bad we live here where a sundress and sandals would not do in October). I will have to make Totoro cake balls for her! I may cheat and start with donut holes since I burn more than I bake.

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