Totoro and Lulu

My niece Lulu turned one on June 1. 

Our entire family was gathered at our parents' home and when my sister asked if I would make Lulu's birthday cake, of course I could not refuse.  She had a couple of requests:  buttercream.  And Totoro.

Buttercream I could do.  But...

"What," I asked, "is Totoro?"

She looked at me, stricken.  "WHAT'S TOTORO?!"

Okay, so there's an entire back story to my failure with Miyazaki movies.  It's too long to go into now, but suffice it to say, it's an inexcusable reason for not having watched any of Miyazaki's movies.  Totoro is the main character in My Neighbor Totoro, a seriously cute woodland magic creature.

At first, I had it in mind to make an actual 3-D Totoro.  I had some ready-made gumpaste (no time to make my own) and made a little Totoro model. Too bad he looked like a fat, misshapen mouse.  That went into the trash.  The second 3-D Totoro...not any better.  Looked 100 percent like a mouse.  Also trash bound.

So...Totoro in 2D -- success!  He was actually cute.  Lulu's cake was a vanilla cake with  French buttercream.  The cupcakes were piped inside with buttercream - as I described it to my sister, "A high end Hostess cupcake."

The amazingly gifted Lyndsay at Coco Cupcakes made a brilliant set of cupcakes of the woodland sprites that I had to copy -- they provided a sweet little counterpoint to Totoro lounging amidst the flowered cupcakes.

Happy birthday sweet Lulu!

Comments

[Jaspreet]

I wish that I could have attended Lulu's birthday party to have some of those cupcakes :)

[Beth Anne]

SO cute. I am all too familiar with the little kid gengre of characters, but this is one we don't have around here, apparently. Now, start talking Team Umi Zooomi and I can go on and on....

[baby clothes]

Beth Anne, you MUST rent My Neighbor Totoro for your family! Miyazaki movies are just amazing, and the art is all hand painted. They're beautiful animated films.

[Madaline]

Those cupcakes look flawless, glad you got a picture before they were eat'n :-)

[Noobfoodie]

wow, this is so cute and their colors are really great